Tips about how I made the Full Moon in The Midnight Forest wallpaper (see wallpaper).

Full Moon in The Midnight Forest - making of - Step 1

Here we go! Create new document, fill background layer with dark blue.

Full Moon in The Midnight Forest - making of - Step 2

Open Layer Style -> Blending Options, select Gradient, change gradient blend mode to Overlay, and style to Radial. also scale up to 150%. (I also added black Inner Glow).

Full Moon in The Midnight Forest - making of - Step 3

Create new layer, use selection tool or shape tool to create grey ellipse (this will be our earth). If you used shape, rasterize it.

Full Moon in The Midnight Forest - making of - Step 4
  

Add some noise (menu Filter - Noise - Add Noise).


Full Moon in The Midnight Forest - making of - Step 5

Tricky part now - we are going to simulate macro photo where only part of a photo is focused, and the rest is blurred.
- switch to quick mask mode (Q)
- select gradient tool. make sure that foreground color is black, and background is white
- on top of window, switch gradient type to Reflected
- create gradient similar to show here. Since we are in qucik mask mode, you should see gradient in red.

Full Moon in The Midnight Forest - making of - Step 6

return to normal mode from quick mask mode (hit Q again). Your gradient should become the selection. Apply Gaussian Blur to selected area (Filter - Blur - Gaussian blur), widh raduis about 4-6 pixels. Now, only part of our "earth" is focused, and the rest is blurred.

Full Moon in The Midnight Forest - making of - Step 7

change the layer's blend mode to Overlay. Now the earth is almost ready, but how about some grass growing on it?