Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I’m going to show you how to create magnificent Northern Lights over a vast, starry night sky.
I provided a Photoshop template, so you can follow along.
Its link is in the description below the video or in my project files.
It includes to layers – a cut-out silhouette of trees and a dark, blue background.
Before we begin, hit that “Subscribe” button to let you know as soon as I upload
new Photoshop tutorials.
First, we’ll create a vast star field.
We’ll place it below the trees.
To do this, Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the New Layer icon.
We’ll fill the empty layer with black, but before we do, check your foreground and background colors.
If they aren’t black and white, respectively, press “D” on your keyboard.
Since black is our foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete.
We’ll convert the black layer into a Smart Object, in case we want to adjust the amount
and brightness of the stars at any point.
Click the icon at the upper, right and click “Convert to Smart Object”.
Go to Filter, Noise and “Add Noise”.
Make the amount: 35%, Gaussian and Monochromatic.
Go back to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Make the Radius: 0.3 pixels.
Open Levels by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + L. Make the Input black level: 130 and the Input white level: 175.
Change the Blend Mode to Screen.
Let’s save some space in the Layers panel by collapsing the Smart Filters.
Make a new a layer below the active layer.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
Pick a soft, round brush.
Make the size 700 pixels, the Hardness: 0% and the Opacity and Flow: 100%.
Click the foreground color to open the Color Picker.
In the hexadecimal field, type in: B91BBF.
Place your cursor approximately here and brush across to the other side.
Reduce its opacity to 40%.
Make the stars layer active and make a new layer above it.
We'll place it into a folder by dragging it to the folder icon.
Make the layer active.
Click the foreground color and type in 63FF72.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Open the Brush Picker and make its size 300 pixels.
Brush across a stroke similar to mine.
Change its Blend Mode to "Color Dodge".
Make a new layer
and press “D” on your keyboard to revert your foreground and background colors to black and white, respectively.
Go to Filter, Render and "Fibers".
Make the Variance: 35 and the Strength: 64.
Let's convert this layer into a Smart Object, so we'll have the ability to adjust any of
the filters settings for it.
Go to Filter, Blur and Motion Blur.
Make the Angle: 90 degrees and the Distance: 500 pixels.
Go back to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Make the Radius: 8 pixels.
Let's collapse the Smart Filters to save space.
We want the Fibers layer to show only through the green brush stroke under it.
To do this, we'll make it into a clipping mask by pressing Alt + Ctrl + G on Windows
or Option + Cmd + G on a Mac.
You can also go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
Make the green stroke active and open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
We'll need more room, so let's zoom out by pressing Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key on our keyboard.
Go to the top, middle anchor point and press and hold Alt or Option as we drag it up approximately this much.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to the green brush stroke.
Reduce the size of your brush by pressing Ctrl or Cmd and the left bracket key on your keyboard.
I made the brush size 125 pixels.
Brush over the middle of the stroke.
Press “x” on our keyboard to invert the foreground and background colors.
Then, brush over the ends to taper them.
If you want to slide it up or down, press "v" to open your Move Tool and press and hold
the Shift key as you drag it down or up.
Pressing Shift keeps it vertical.
We'll make a copy of these two layers by Shift-clicking the fibers layer to make it active, as well,
and pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Click the top fibers layer and change its Blend Mode to Linear Burn.
Go to Layer 3 and click off the chain-link icon, which un-links the layer and the layer mask.
This allows us to adjust either of them independently of the other.
Click the layer to make it active and zoom out.
Go to Edit, Transform and Perspective.
Go to the top, right anchor point and drag it up approximately this much
and go to the top, left anchor point and drag it down approximately this much.
Press Enter or Return and then zoom back in.
Next, we'll feather out both sides.
Make the folder layer active and click the layer mask icon to make a layer mask next to it.
Press "B" to open back your Brush Tool and increase its size to 400 pixels.
Go to a top corner and drag your brush straight down past the bottom of your image.
Repeat this on the other side.
Collapse the folder and make a copy of it.
Open the folder copy and make the top green brush stroke active.
Change the Blend Mode to "Overlay".
Shift-click the layer mask to hide it and hide the layer mask under it, as well.
Make the layer next to it active.
Open your Transform Tool.
To see the Transform's entire bounding box, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Go to the top, middle anchor point and press and hold Alt or Option as you drag it down
approximately this much.
Drag it up and feel free to stretch it some more and rotate it if you like.
When you're happy with it, press Enter or Return.
Zoom back in.
If you want to finesse its location, open your Move Tool and drag it.
Next, we'll feather the sides a bit more.
Close the folder copy and make its layer mask active.
Open back your Brush Tool and go above the top, right corner go a bit to the left .
Drag it straight down and repeat it on the other side.
Click off the eyeball icon next to the trees layer to temporarily hide it.
We'll make a composite snapshot of our visible image by pressing Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E on
Windows or Option + Cmd + Shift + E on a Mac.
Make the trees layer visible again and go to Edit, Transform and Perspective.
Go to a bottom corner and drag it out approximately this much.
Then, press Enter or Return.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!