Step 9: Apply The "Sprayed Stokes" Filter

Let's add just a bit more texture to the background by once again going back up to the Filter menu, again choosing Brush Strokes, and this time choosing Sprayed Strokes. When the dialog box appears, enter 12 for the Stroke Length, 7 for the Spray Radius and Right Diagonal for the Stroke Direction option, then click OK to apply the filter:

This adds even more to the "painted" look of the background, although it's a little hard to see in the screenshot below but it should be easier to see in your own document:

Step 10: Fade The Filter Effect's Opacity To 50%

Once again, let's fade the opacity of our filter effect by going up to the Edit menu and choosing Fade Sprayed Strokes. When the dialog box appears, lower the opacity value to 50% just as we did with the Spatter brush filter a moment ago, then click OK:

Step 11: Increase The Image Resolution To 300 Pixels/Inch

Now that we've finished with the Clouds filter, we can increase the resolution to what it should be if we want professional print quality. Of course, increasing the resolution of an image in Photoshop is usually something we want to avoid as much as possible since all you're doing is making the image larger without adding any more detail to it (as powerful as Photoshop is, it still has no way of knowing what the image would have looked like in higher resolution), and you end up with an image that went from crisp and sharp to soft and dull. However, since all we're doing here is creating a background, and backgrounds are often blurred out anyway to bring more attention to the main subject in the foreground, we can get away with it.

To increase the resolution, go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen and choose Image Size. When the Image Size dialog box appears, enter a value of 300 pixels per inch (which is the standard for professional quality printing) for the Resolution option. Also, make sure the Resample Image option is checked at the bottom of the dialog box, and if you're using Photoshop CS2 or higher, set the Interpolation Method (it's the drop-down list to the right of where it says "Resample Image") to Bicubic Smoother, which is generally what we use when making images larger. If you're using an older version of Photoshop, set it to Bicubic:

The only difference you'll notice after increasing the resolution is that the image will now appear much larger on your screen if you zoom in to 100%.

Step 12: Add A "Hue/Saturation" Adjustment Layer

At this point, our background is pretty much complete, but let's give ourselves a bit more control over it by adding a "Hue/Saturation" adjustment layer, which is going to give us the ability to not only lighten the background if we think it's looking a little too dark but also change its color. To do that, simply click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (it's the icon that looks like a circle split diagonally between black and white):

Then choose Hue/Saturation from the list of adjustment layers that appears:

When the Hue/Saturation dialog box appears, if you think your background looks a little too dark, simply drag the Lightness slider to the right to lighten the background. If you want to add some color to your background, first select the Colorize option in the bottom right corner of the dialog box, then drag the Hue slider left or right to select a color. You can adjust the intensity of the color by dragging the Saturation slider in the middle of the dialog box. Here I've used the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to add blue to the background, just as an example:

If you don't need or want to lighten or add any color to your background at this point, simply click OK to exit out of the dialog box, and if you look in your Layers palette, you'll see the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer sitting there above the Background layer. At any point down the road, if you decide to lighten the background or change its color, all you need to do is double-click directly on the adjustment layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette, which will bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box and you can make your changes: