Smartphones come with a variety of wallpapers available for use. However, many of them are not very inspiring and do not provide the vibrancy you might be looking for, which is not enough, considering we all spend far too many hours a day staring at our phones. Fortunately, you can create your own phone wallpapers from abstract images. Not only do they look good, they are also fun to use.
Abstract images can provide unique colors and patterns that reflect your taste and add character to your phone screen. Check out how to take exciting abstract images with your smartphone.
What are abstract images, and how do they work as wallpapers?
Abstract photography is any image that captures something other than the natural world. It may start out as something from the natural world, but once it is enlarged, rotated, cropped, and edited, it should make the viewer think twice about what it is. As with all types of photography, it is surprisingly easy to produce abstract images, but it is difficult to produce good abstract images.
You can use interesting objects, lighting patterns, textures, perspectives, and movements to create abstract images. Or you can take a very ordinary object and turn it into an abstract image with some clever editing. As long as the result is an image that has some supernatural quality and makes the viewer see it as a piece of art, that’s important.
Abstract images work very well as phone wallpapers for obvious reasons. They provide an interesting look for your home and lock screen without making either of them look too cluttered. You can also create an abstract image according to your specific needs, making it a color or pattern that matches your personality.
Most phones come with a ton of wallpapers to choose from, many of which will be somewhat abstract. For example, my Pixel phone has a few different types of wallpapers that are considered abstract, including “art,” “texture,” and “floral.” But there’s nothing quite like creating your own abstract wallpapers. The process is fun, and once you have them, you can show them off to your friends. Check out How to Get Started with Abstract Photography: Helpful Tips.
How to Create Abstract Images to Use as Phone Wallpapers
In order to help you produce abstract images to use as phone wallpapers, I will guide you through the entire process from start to finish.
Design
The starting point when creating an abstract image to use as a background is the design stage. You should have an idea in mind before photographing a specific subject, then edit the image to turn it into a background.
I always start by looking at my phone’s home screen, which is usually the most crowded. With 18 app shortcuts, a clock, and a date/weather display, there’s a lot going on. That’s why I tend to keep my abstract wallpapers simple and inspiring. Your goal is for the wallpaper to complement your layout rather than clash with it.
I will then come up with a rough idea of what I want in the image. The main color(s), whether it will be textured or patterned, and how busy it will be. Once I have a rough idea in mind, I will look for a subject that can achieve these goals.
Construction
The creation stage is actually about photographing the subject that will (after being edited) form the abstract background. So grab your phone, open the camera app, and choose a shooting mode. I tend to use the standard shooting mode and manually apply zoom depending on how close I want to get to it. However, feel free to experiment as you see fit, applying flash to saturate the image, or even using portrait mode.
Shoot your chosen subject from a variety of angles, using different light sources, and at different levels of zoom. This will give you multiple shots to choose from and play with, saving you the hassle of reshooting your subject.
Once you have your shots, go through them until you decide which one you will use as the basis for your abstract wallpaper.
Processing
Right now, your chosen shot is unlikely to be ready to use. Unless you broke it while shooting, you’ll need to edit the shot in a variety of ways. This can be as simple as cropping and rotating the image to focus on the specific part of the shot you want to use. But it can also involve some more in-depth editing.
I always start by cropping and rotating the image as needed. When creating a wallpaper for your phone, you want the result to be a portrait, not a landscape. Once you’ve made the basic adjustments, consider applying a filter.
At this point, you can choose to make some larger, more extensive edits. I tend to use Google Photos for this, but I also highly recommend Snapseed (available on Android and iOS). Whichever you choose to use, experiment with different adjustments to the brightness, contrast, shadows, and warmth of your image. Check out our Lightroom vs. Snapseed comparison: Which photo editing app is better?
Usage
Once you’re happy with your wallpaper, it’s time to add it to your home screen. The process for doing this varies from phone to phone, but if you open the image and tap the context menu, you should find an option to use it as wallpaper. Tap that option, and you should be able to make it your wallpaper.
On my Android phone, I can then set the wallpaper as I see fit. So I see how it will look on the home screen (as opposed to the lock screen), and adjust it as needed. As I said before, you want the wallpaper to complement your home screen rather than clash with it.
That’s all there is to it. You should now have a completely original abstract wallpaper adorning your phone. This means that unlike pre-installed wallpapers, you will be the only one using this wallpaper. And if you don’t like it, simply create a new wallpaper from scratch! Check out our guide to using DALL-E to create stunning and original phone wallpapers.
Tips for Creating Abstract Images Worthy of Wallpapers
Although you now know how to create abstract images, and how to create special images to use as phone wallpapers, there are some tips worth following if you want the process to be more fun, and the results to be more satisfying.
- When in doubt, keep things simple. Whether it's when shooting, or when editing. It's very easy to overdo it.
- Keep your phone's home screen in mind when creating an abstract wallpaper. There's no point in creating a great wallpaper if it doesn't look good on your phone.
- Focus on producing fewer, higher-quality backgrounds. While it's tempting to create an endless stream of them, choose quality over quantity.
- Always save the abstract background you've modified as a copy rather than overwriting the original. This means you can revisit the original if needed.
- Try whatever you want. Since these are abstract wallpapers, there is no right or wrong, so let your creativity run free.
It’s important to remember that not all abstract images you create will be suitable for use as wallpaper, even some that you create with that use in mind. So be prepared to experiment a lot, and learn what shots and adjustments produce the best results. But above all, have fun! You can check out the best AI-powered tools to create an artistic image from your writing for free now.
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