How do you do this?

How do you make these arches in the background? the ones that fade away and overlap etc. the fade is obviously through a mask, but how are the shapes made? 2 examples:

http://www.billshare.org/

http://www.miiingle.com/

I would use the handy dandy pen tool, but there could be an easier way.

Make a huge circle. Then get the circle marquee tool and make it smaller, put it about 10 pixels from the bottom edge, and press delete. Then get the soft brush tool and fade the sides and delete anything else that's unnecessary.

Hmm if know how to use the pen tool use it. It seems the first link uses 2 gradients, a light one for the background, and a darker one for the arcs.

I would use the pen tool along with gradients

Paintbrush with a gradient set to screen or dodge(depends on color type/tone)

Originally Posted by Leo Make a huge circle. Then get the circle marquee tool and make it smaller, put it about 10 pixels from the bottom edge, and press delete. Then get the soft brush tool and fade the sides and delete anything else that's unnecessary.

Yep. That's exactly how I would do it too. Although as others have stated the pen tool is the 'real' way of doing it, this method works just fine. Forget the pen for arches and the masks for fades, use the marquee and the soft brush!

.... don't take advice from anyone who says to do a hard delete rather than using a mask. that's seriously the worst habbit you can ever form.

Pentool and gradients!

i would use the pen tool or shapes, like the circle. make 3 or fore on separate layers, play with the blending modes and/or opacity and use a mask on each to get the fade away look. use the free transform tool to rotate or move them around on top of each other. just play around with it till you like.