What do you value in a wallpaper?

There are a ton of wallpapers here that I never believed people were actually using as such. Yet I am constantly surprised to learn people actually do put those on their desktop, including a lot of NSFW wallpapers (I guess it helps being single).

Some people if they like a picture and it's large enough they'll put it on their desktop. This also includes everybody who uses holiday snapshots or pictures of their kids as their wallpapers. Nothing wrong with that! It makes life a lot easier. Unless you just so happen to be a professional photographer or designer your own pictures probably won't match what you can find on the internet, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't love your own creations.

Others may be a lot pickier, me included. Those I ask: What qualities do you expect a wallpaper to have before you consider it a candidate for your desktop?

───

Personally, I prefer wallpapers that don't have too many small details. I don't have any Icons on my desktop but in my mind it is still a background and should behave like one. If you can't grasp the entire picture at a single glance, that's not a background. Though that doesn't mean it shouldn't be interesting. Here are a few examples:

Since I'm a fan of macro photography I like wallpapers with lots of depth of field (“blurry background”) like the following:

2560 x 1440307

2560 x 1600147

1920 x 1080151

1920 x 1080100

I also like minimalistic wallpapers with a little something in the center, preferably white on a blue-ish gradient:

1920 x 108060

1920 x 108023PNG

1920 x 1080245

1920 x 1080130

As a counter example, the following pictures are awesome but I'd never use them as a desktop background because there's just way too much going on for my taste:

1920 x 108019

1600 x 120032

5260 x 353328

You may notice I'm not terribly picky about motivs. I like stuff that is nerdy or has some nature in it but it's not that important, as long as it's something I can agree with. I care more about what the whole picture looks like, about technique, composition and all those fancy words.

So what about you?

When I select a wallpaper to be on my desktop, this wallpaper (SFW/Sketchy/NSFW) always have a charm and a depth. The wallpaper has to make me dream, or make me think about something. Anyways, I agree with Gandalf, the wallpaper has to not be made by too much details.

That's why these wallpapers are perfect for me (SFW) :

1920 x 120023

1920 x 108019

1920 x 108048

1920 x 108017

1920 x 1080276

2560 x 160080

For Sketchy and NSFW, I always pick sensual wallpapers but nothing (according to me) in the excess :

2048 x 1308157

1920 x 128066

1920 x 108069

1920 x 1080155

What about you too ? ;)

I also like minimalism. I like smooth wallpapers (a bit blurry background makes it even better) like theese:

1920 x 120024

2560 x 160010

2560 x 160015

Also I prefer SFW wallpapers as desktop background like theese:

1920 x 120032

1920 x 120021

1920 x 12004

This is my favourite city-landscape wallpaper, everything is just perfect, I just love thoose lighting effects: [4v3335]

I keep my desktop clean, the only thing I have on it is Recycle Bin, as you can see in Desktop thread

Simple background, either a gradient or a solid color with some simple artwork. +1 if its a vector

5120 x 288052PNG

5333 x 300094PNG

2560 x 160023

and from time to time something busy and colorful. I don't have anything on my desktop except for a dock at the top, so losing files in the background is not an issue.

2560 x 160014

Gandalf said:

Personally, I prefer wallpapers that don't have too many small details. I don't have any Icons on my desktop but in my mind it is still a background and should behave like one. If you can't grasp the entire picture at a single glance, that's not a background. Though that doesn't mean it shouldn't be interesting. Since I'm a fan of macro photography I like wallpapers with lots of depth of field (“blurry background”). I also like minimalistic wallpapers with a little something in the center. You may notice I'm not terribly picky about motivs. I like stuff that is nerdy or has some nature in it but it's not that important, as long as it's something I can agree with. I care more about what the whole picture looks like, about technique, composition and all those fancy words.

Never have I seen my own taste in wallpapers so perfectly summarized by someone else! :D The only exception is, that I do have desktop items (which only display on hover). :D

I prefer images with cars, urban landscapes or all together.

1920 x 12008

2048 x 136522

1920 x 120014

We have similar taste Gandalf, even though I would put a NSFW image as my background I simply can't with family around . Also the wallpaper has to be extremely high quality for me to use, switching from a small desktop to a full HD 60" monitor you can really see the details.

Gandalf

I've pretty much the same taste than you :)

The first one (the macro picture with the moss) was my first wallpaper that I used constantly for about 2 years as it came with a windows 7 Theme I used. I also like pictures with alot of blurring going on. It lets me focus on my icons and stuff, but also brings alot of life into my desktops :)

I love the color #00ffff and thats why I use it in nearly all of my logos and designs ^^ I use it in my own Wallpapers alot. Mostly abstract and minimalistic ones :)

At the moment I also like fully blurred backgrounds such as this one:

1920 x 10808

With alot of gradients going on :) But not too much color variation :)

I hope I can somewhat participate here on the forum.. I never used is since wallbase is gone.. I was very active back in those days :/

i think gandalf pretty much summed up what i like, though i sometimes like a little more added on the simplistic ones just to make it a little more interesting, but i mostly go for the darker toned wallpapers.