Some of the most striking images can be produced from simple beginnings and using the tools of your software and a simple picture from your digital camera you can have great fun creating pattern pictures. We shot a few autumn leaves indoors with the camera on a tripod for a good crisp result.

Step 1. Call up the basic leaf shot (goldflake_1) and create a transparency as we have discussed in earlier tutorials. The magic wand tool is good enough for this task and will easily select all the black area.

Tip. When the selection of the black area is made expand the selection just a pixel or two by selecting select-modify-expand. Some cut and paste techniques can leave a few stray pixels attached to your main subject and this little tip takes little away from the image, but helps overcome a potential problem.

Once you have created your transparency you can look at sharpening the image a little and also introducing a little more saturation. The tool for sharpening an image has an unfortunate name in Photoshop, it is called the unsharp mask, which does seem to cause confusion. Ignore the title and think of it as a sharpening tool. It is found via Filter-Sharpen-Unsharp mask. While this picture is already sharp we can improve that by choosing the settings shown below.

Tip. The best way to assess the degree of sharpening you are adding is to toggle the preview on and off while you are looking at the image. Sharpening can be overdone so it is best to err on the under side rather than push the numbers too high.

Call up the hue and saturation command (Ctrl+U) and apply about +25 saturation as shown below.

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Step 2. So far our image is an 8in by 9in 200ppi file and the next stage is to copy the leaf and start to build the pattern. There are two choices that you can make at this stage. You can either reduce the size of the leaf within the current 9in by 8in image size, which will reduce the size in megabytes or you can increase the canvas size and use the leaf at its current size.

If you have a PC with limited power or you do not expect to want to print the image any bigger than 10*8 you can reduce the leaf size. If you think you may want a larger image printed and your PC has a processor power and ram, then increase the canvas size.

We have decided to increase the canvas size, but you could decide to do a little of both, the choice is yours If you are going to increase the canvas size choose Image-Canvas size and increase the canvas big enough to accommodate the growing image. You can always add to the canvas size later if don't allow enough room at the start.

Make a copy of the leaf by dragging the thumbnail from within the layers palette down over the copy icon as shown below.

Photoshop will make a copy for you that will appear in the palette. Choose Edit-Transform-Flip vertical from the menu bar and then Edit-Transform-Flip horizontal and using the move tool place the copy like a mirror image of the original as shown below.

Tip. As you go through the tutorial you may need to move more that one leaf at a time. You can do this and keep them in their relative positions to each other by clicking the little space just to the right of the eye on the layer thumbnail. As you click a small chain appears to tell you that the layer is linked. This will work for as many layers as you care to join.

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Step 3. You can now merge those two visible layers by clicking the little black triangle icon at the top of the layers palette, which opens up a series of other commands. Alternatively you can use the shortcut keys Shift+Ctrl+E, but don't get this Merge Visible command confused with flatten, that will come later when the image is complete.

Copy the merged layer in the same way as the first and then choose Edit-transform-Rotate 90 CW. Move these two leaves into position and you can start to see how the image will continue to be built up as shown below.

It is at this stage where you may have to reduce the sizes of the leaves or increase the canvas still further. If you do have to reduce the size of the leaves make sure you link the layers together so the resize action works on all the leaf layers to the same degree as we demonstrate below.

Repeat the merge visible command and copy the layer again, but this time you need to select Edit-Transform-Rotate and turn the second layer a little to the right. Copy the layer again giving you three layers and rotate the next one a little more to the right to complete the pattern.

Where an image like this goes from here depends on the individual, but you can call up a second leaf (goldleaf_2) and repeat the whole process to provide a centre piece to your picture. There is also nothing to prevent you from building up your pattern one leaf at a time so that every successive leaf overlaps the previous. For this demonstration we have taken a slightly quicker route by doubling up the leaves.

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Step 4. Your pattern picture will require a good strong background and you can and you can create one using Photoshop's gradation command. Create a new blank layer and drag that to the bottom of the layer stack. Choose a royal blue and hit Alt+Delete to flood the layer with colour. Why blue? Because blue is a complimentary colour to yellow and will work particularly well with the yellow leaves. Choose black next as your foreground colour and double click the gradation icon.

Choose the linear gradient option with a setting of foreground to transparent. Photoshop allows you to draw a line anywhere on your image that defines the start and end of the gradation.

Draw a line from the outer edge of the blue background inwards a couple of inches and watch the result. A smooth gradation is created and you can add to that from various angles and build a nice gradation from royal blue to back. Save your image first and try a few practice gradations.

Tip. Create all these gradations on a new blank layers and only merge them together with the blue layer when you are sure you are happy with the background. While they are on separate layers you have the ability to alter the opacity of just one of the gradients or replace it should it not look balanced.

Use the merge visible command and then add 3-5 pixels of monochrome noise to the background to finish the job.

Try the same technique on everyday objects such as cutlery and you can create some very eye catching images. The last procedure is to flatten the image from within the layers menu, but if you have the room on your hard drive always save your pictures in their layered form at least for a few days. It is amazing how many times an improvement can be spotted the next day or a week later and with the image still in layers its easy to affect a change.