Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create a sun floating in deep space from scratch for versions CS6 and later.
This is an update of a tutorial I did many years ago.
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Create a new document by going to File and New.
Make the Width: 1920 pixels, the Height: 1080 pixels and the Resolution: 72 pixels per inch.
The Color Mode is RGB and 8 bits per Channel.
If the background isn't black, click it and pick black.
On this black background, we'll create a field of stars.
First, check your foreground and background colors.
If they're not black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Go to Filter, Noise and Add Noise.
Make the Amount: 100%, Gaussian and Monochromatic.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Go back to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it: 0.3 pixels.
Open your Levels window by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + L. Make the Input Shadow: 190,
the Input Highlight: 240 and the Output highlight: 100.
The stars will look very faint, but they'll brighten up once we add clouds and color.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
Go to Filter, Render and Clouds.
Change its Blend Mode to "Color Dodge".
We'll make a new layer under the clouds layer by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
We'll adjust the size in a moment.
Its Hardness is 0%, the Opacity is 10% and the Flow is 100%.
Click the foreground color to open the Color Picker.
Pick a bright color other than red or orange.
To make your brush bigger or smaller, make sure your CapsLock key is off
and press the right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Make it approximately this size and gently brush over the stars.
Click your foreground color again and pick another bright color other than red or orange.
Click the foreground color one more time and pick a third, bright color.
Next, we'll create the sun.
Go to File and New.
Make the Width and the Height: 2500 pixels each.
Press "D" to make your foreground and background colors black and white respectively.
Go to Filter, Render and Clouds.
Go back to Filter, Render and Difference Clouds.
Repeat the last filter by pressing Alt + Ctrl + F on Windows or Option + Cmd + F on a Mac.
Go to Filter, Distort and "Spherize".
The Amount is 100%.
Spherize it again by repeating the last filter.
Open your Elliptical Marquee Tool and place your cursor slightly inside the corner.
Press and hold Shift as you drag the tool to a location slightly inside the opposite corner.
Go to Select, Modify and Feather.
Feather it 3 pixels.
To place it sun onto our star background, open your Move Tool by pressing "v" on your
keyboard and drag it onto the tab of your star document.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
Go to the sun layer and drag it to the top of the Layers panel.
Position the sun to a corner.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Color Look-Up".
Click "Load 3D LUT".
LUT is an abbreviation of "Lookup tables".
These preset filters change original colors in your image by remapping them to different,
specific colors to create certain looks.
Click "Edge Amber.3DL".
Go back to the Adjustment Layer icon and we’ll add another Color Lookup adjustment layer.
This time, click "Crisp_Warm.look".
Next, we'll bring back the original colors of our star field, by restricting the Color
Lookup adjustment layers to affect only the sun.
It's important to understand that Adjustment layers affect all the layers below them in
the Layers panel unless they're clipped to the one layer beneath them.
To do this, press Alt + Ctrl + G on Windows or Option + Cmd + G on a Mac to make the active
adjustment layer into a clipping mask.
You can also go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
Make the other adjustment layer active and make it into a clipping mask, as well.
Now, both adjustment layers are affecting just the sun and not our stars.
Next, we'll brighten the midtones and shadows of our sun.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Levels".
Drag it below the bottom Color Lookup layer.
If the bottom of the Levels panel is hidden, just drag it down.
Go to the Output Shadow levels slider and drag it to 78 or just type it in.
Next, we'll add inner and outer glows.
Double-click the sun layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Outer Glow".
Click the color box and in the hexadecimal field, type in FFC930.
The Blend Mode is Color Dodge, the Opacity is 80%, the Spread is 0% and the Size is 250 pixels.
The Contour is Linear and the Range is 50%.
Click "Inner Glow".
Click the color box and type in the same color that you typed in for the Outer Glow.
The Blend Mode is Hard Light, the Opacity is 100% and the Source is "Edge".
The Choke is 0% and the Size is 80 pixels.
The Contour is Linear and the Range is 50%.
Next, we'll add bright flares around the rim of the sun.
Scroll to the bottom of the Layers panel and make Layer 2 active.
This is the layer that we brushed in color over the stars.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
Make the size: 175 pixels.
The Hardness remains 0% and the Opacity remains 10%.
Click the foreground color and type in: FFEA3F.
Brush once over the edge of the sun.
If you want to intensify the sun's flare, scroll to the top of the Layers panel.
Make the top Adjustment Layer active and release the clipping mask by pressing Ctrl + Alt +
G on Windows or Cmd + Option + G on a Mac or go to Layer and "Release Clipping Mask".
Make the other Color Lookup adjustment layer active and release its clipping mask, as well.
With your Brush Tool still active, make sure the Opacity and Flow are 100%.
Make your brush bigger and brush over the stars and make sure you avoid the sun's rim.
We'll replace the empty layer mask at the top with the bottom layer mask.
To do this, go to the bottom layer mask.
Press and hold Alt or Option as you drag the copy over the top layer mask.
If you see this message, just click "Yes".
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!