Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create a beautiful, dramatic night image filled with infinite
stars abounding a clear night sky that includes a bright full moon and exquisite nebulas all
from a daytime photo.
This is an update of a tutorial I did a few years ago.
This update is more nuanced and effective and is for Photoshop versions CS6 and later.
I provided this photo that you can download of a sandstone tower called "The Organ" that
I shot at Arches national Park in Utah.
Its link is in my video's description below or in my project files.
Feel free to use another photo if you like.
Before we begin, if you're not already a subscriber to my channel, click the small Subscribe button
at the the lower, right corner.
The first step is to make a copy of the layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
In this copy, we'll separate the land from the sky.
To do this, open your quick selection tool and drag it over the sky to select it.
In this particular case, since all of the land has hard edges, there's no reason to
refine the selection's edges.
However, if you're using a different photo that in which the land has some soft edges,
go to Select and click "Select and Mask" or in earlier versions, click "Refine Edge".
I did in-depth tutorials for both of these filters, so if you'd like to watch them,
I provided their respective links in my video's description.
To ensure that the land won't have a light-colored fringe surrounding it, we'll expand the selection
inward by clicking "Expand".
Expand it 1 pixel.
To ensure that the selection covers the entire sky, press "Q" on your keyboard to see it as a Quick Mask.
Then, revert it back into a selection by pressing "Q" again.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection next to the active layer.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Color Lookup".
Open the "Load 3D LUT" fly-out list and click "Moonlight.3DL".
I'll drag down the Layers panel to expand it.
Next, we'll replace the sky with gradient colors.
First, click the New Layer icon to create a new layer.
We'll fill it with black, but first, check your foreground and background colors.
If they're not black and white, respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since black is the foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete.
Double-click an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click, "Gradient Overlay".
Make sure the Style is “Linear”.
Click the gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor.
Click the "Black, White" gradient preset and the lower left Stop.
Click the color box to open the Color Picker.
In the hexadecimal field, type in FFBD0B.
Then, click OK.
Click the lower, right Stop and the color box.
Type in: 000823.
Click below the gradient bar to add another Stop.
For its "Location", I'll type in 25%, however, if you're using a different photo whose horizon
line is higher or lower than this one, feel free to adjust the location of this middle Stop.
Click the color box and type in: 00249A.
Then, click OK on all three windows to close them.
Go to the Layer Mask and press and hold Alt or Option as you drag up a copy of it next the gradient layer.
Rename the layer, "Gradient sky".
To save some space, collapse the effect.
Make a new layer and fill it with black.
Name it, "Stars".
We'll convert it into a Smart Object by clicking the icon at the upper right and clicking “Convert
to Smart Object” in case we want to change the setting amounts of the filters we'll be
using to create the stars.
Go to Filter, Noise and "Add Noise".
The Amount is 100%, Gaussian and Monochromatic.
Go back to Filter, Blur and "Gaussian Blur".
Blur it 0.3 pixels.
Open Levels by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + L. For the Input Shadows, type in 120 and for the
Input Midtones, type in 0.20.
The stars are very subtle now, but they'll brighten up once we add a filter to them later.
Let's collapse the effects to save space.
Change the Blend Mode to "Screen".
To hide the stars that are in front of the land, go to the top layer mask and press and
hold Alt or Option as you drag it next to the Stars layer.
Since stars tend to be less visible the closer they are to the horizon, we'll make those stars less visible.
To do this, make the layer mask active next to the Stars.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
Pick a soft, round brush.
For its size, I'll type in 700 pixels.
It's Hardness is 0% and the opacity is 50%.
Go to one side of the horizon and brush once across to the opposite side.
This makes the stars that we brushed over appear dimmer.
Make a new layer and name it "Nebulas".
Go to Filter, Render and "Clouds".
Next, we'll angle the clouds in perspective, but first, we need to zoom out of our image
to give us more room.
Press Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key on your keyboard a few times.
I zoomed it out to 16.67%.
Go to Edit, Transform and "Perspective".
Go to a top corner and drag it out approximately this much.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Since the clouds extend way past our canvas, we'll crop the extended parts off by pressing
Ctrl or Cmd + A to select the document and go to Image and "Crop".
Then deselect it.
To zoom back in, press Ctrl or Cmd and the plus key a few times or you can press Ctrl
or Cmd +0 to fill the canvas with your image.
Change the Blend Mode to "Color Dodge".
To hide the clouds over the land portions, go the Stars layer mask and as before, press
and hold Alt or Option as you drag a copy of it next to the Nebulas layer.
To make the most of the clouds' perspective, we'll drag the bottom up to just below the horizon line.
First, click off the chain link icon to unlink the layer and the layer mask.
This will allow us to move or resize either of them independently of the other.
Click the clouds to make it active and press Ctrl or Cmd + T open your Transform Tool.
Go the bottom, middle of the bounding box and if you're using a version earlier than
CC 2019, drag it up to just under the horizon, however, if you're using version 2019 or later,
press and hold Shift as you drag up the bounding box.
Then, press Enter or Return.
We'll make a new layer below the active layer by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
Go to the "Gradient Sky" layer mask and drag a copy of it next to the empty layer.
Name it "Nebulas Colors".
Click the foreground color and pick a bright color.
If you want to make your brush smaller, make sure your CapsLock key is off and press the
left bracket key on your keyboard.
Reduce its opacity to 10 to 20%.
Gently brush over areas of the sky, which adds color and brightens to it.
Next, we'll add a full moon.
Click the top layer to make it active and make a layer above it.
Name it, "Moon".
Open your "Elliptical Marquee Tool" and feather it 2 pixels.
Click on your document and don't release your mouse or pen.
Press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag out a circle approximately this size.
Click your foreground color and in the hexadecimal field, type in FFF5BC.
Copy the color by either writing down its hexadecimal code or highlighting it with your
cursor and then pressing Ctrl or Cmd + C to copy it to your clipboard.
To fill the selection with that color, press Alt or Option + Delete.
Then, deselect it.
Double-click the thumbnail of the moon layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Outer Glow" and the color box.
Type or paste in the color you copied into the hexadecimal field and click OK.
The Blend Mode is Normal, the opacity is 65%, the Spread is 0% and the Size is 60 pixels.
We'll convert the moon with its outer glow into a Smart Object because we're going to
add another outer glow to it.
Double-click an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Outer Glow" again and make sure the color is the same as the first one.
Make the opacity: 25%, the Spread: 20% and the Size: 250 pixels.
Lastly, we'll brighten slivers of the land where it catches the moonlight.
Scroll down and click the Color Lookup layer mask.
We're going to brush black in it, so to make your foreground color black, press "D" on your keyboard.
If the colors are inverted, press "x".
To protect the sky from our brush strokes, Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the Layer 1 layer
to make a selection of its shape.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I. Hide the selection by pressing
Ctrl or Cmd + H. The selection is still there; it's just hidden.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
I'll make its size: 20 pixels, but feel free to adjust the amount.
The Hardness is 0% and the Opacity is 100%.
Brush over the areas of the rock formations that are already brighter to reveal their original brightness.
They're a bit too bright for moonlight, so we'll dim them.
First, invert your colors, so white is your foreground color.
Enlarge your brush to approximately this size and decrease the brush's opacity to 50%.
Brush once across the top half of your image and once across the bottom half.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!