Summary: Let Photoshop make their special night even more magical and send the wedding couple dancing in the stars with this step by step photo effects tutorial.

Written by Steve Patterson
Exclusively for Photoshop Essentials.com.

Part of our complete collection of Photo Effects tutorials.

Every month, we receive email from photographers asking for more creative ideas for displaying a client's wedding or engagement photos, similar to our popular Blend Photos Like A Hollywood Movie Poster and Wedding Couple In A Wine Glass tutorials. The other night, I was sitting outside staring up into space, hoping for a glimpse of the annual Perseid meteor shower, when the thought hit me - what if the wedding couple was up there dancing in the stars? Well, so much for the meteor shower (there's always next year, right?) as I raced back inside to play around in Photoshop and see where the idea would take me. Not surprisingly, creating this "dancing in the stars" effect (no relation to a certain tv show with a similar name) is very simple. In fact, a few of the steps are borrowed from our previous Create A Starry Night Sky tutorial, so if you've worked through that one, some of this will already be familiar to you.

To create this effect, you'll need a photo of two people dancing close together, preferably a bride and groom but it doesn't necessarily have to be. I'll be using Photoshop CS5 throughout the tutorial but any recent version will do. Here's the final result we'll be working towards:

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Let's get started!

Step 1: Create A New Document

To begin, create a new document for the effect by going up to the File menu in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen and choosing New, or press Ctrl+N (Win) / Command+N (Mac) to access the command with the keyboard shortcut:

This opens Photoshop's New Document dialog box. I'll enter a standard photo frame size of 8 inches for the Width and 10 inches for the Height (the size you need may be different), and since I'll want to print the final result, I'll enter a Resolution value of 240 pixels/inch. At the top of the dialog box is an option for giving the new document a name. Normally, I don't bother naming documents until I go to save them later, but to make things easier for this tutorial, name your document "Dancing In The Stars" (or something similar). Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. Your new document will appear on the screen:

Step 2: Fill The New Document With Black

Press the letter D on your keyboard to quickly reset Photoshop's Foreground and Background colors to their defaults, if necessary, which sets your Foreground color to black. Then press Alt+Backspace (Win) / Option+Delete (Mac) to fill the new document with the current Foreground color (black):

Step 3: Add Noise

Let's create some stars. Go up to the Filter menu, choose Noise, then choose Add Noise:

When the Add Noise dialog box appears, increase the Amount to around 120% or so by dragging the slider towards the right. Make sure the Gaussian and Monochromatic options are selected at the bottom of the dialog box:

Click OK when you're done to exit out of it. Your document should now be filled with lots of noise:

Step 4: Apply The Gaussian Blur Filter

Go back up to the Filter menu and this time choose Blur, then choose Gaussian Blur:

When the Gaussian Blur dialog box appears, enter a Radius value of about 0.3 pixels, just enough to clump some of the noise together. Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box:

Step 5: Apply A Levels Image Adjustment

Go up to the Image menu, choose Adjustments, and then choose Levels, or press Ctrl+L (Win) / Command+L (Mac) to access Levels with the keyboard shortcut:

Directly below the histogram (the area that looks like a black mountain) in the Levels dialog box are three small sliders - a black one on the far left, a white one on the far right and a gray one in the middle. Click on the black slider and drag it towards the right. As you drag the slider, you'll see more and more of the white noise disappearing in the document. The remaining white specks become our stars. Drag the black slider as far to the right as needed until you're happy with the number of stars in the image:

To brighten the stars, click on the white slider and drag it a short distance towards the left. You may need to go back and forth between the black and white sliders to fine-tune the results:

Click OK when you're done to close out of the Levels dialog box. The stars in your document should now look something like this:

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