Photoshop Stars: Create A Starry Sky In Photoshop Tutorial

Step 11: Change The Blend Mode Of The Stars Layer To "Screen"

Everything's looking good, except for the problem I just mentioned with the glow from the city lights, or more specifically, the sudden and complete lack of any glow from the city lights. Let's finish off the effect by bringing the glow back, which is very easy to do!

First, select the "Stars" layer once again in the Layers palette. Then go up to the Layer Blend Mode option in the top left corner of the Layers palette (it's the drop-down box with the word "Normal" in it). Click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal", which brings up a list of all the available blend modes for the layer, and select Screen from the list:

With the blend mode for the "Stars" layer set to "Screen", the glow from the city lights now reappears in the image, making it look more realistic:

Step 12: Add A "Hue/Saturation" Adjustment Layer

Let's finish off the effect by adding a bit of color to the stars. This part isn't absolutely necessary, but I find that the stars look nicer with a little color. For that, we'll use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Once again, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key and click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, just as we did a moment ago. This time, when the list of adjustment layers appears, choose Hue/Saturation from the list:

Since we held down the "Alt/Option" key, we'll once again see the New Layer dialog box appear. Select the Use Previous Layer As Clipping Mask option once again so that our Hue/Saturation adjustment layer only affects the "Stars" layer, then click OK:

As soon as you click OK, the Hue/Saturation dialog box appears. Select the Colorize option in the bottom right corner of the dialog box so that we can colorize our stars, then drag the Hue slider to select the color you want to use, keeping an eye on your image to preview the color as you drag. I find the stars look best with a little blue added to them, so I'm going to drag my Hue slider to around 220 or so. I'm also going to increase my Saturation to around 30 just to bring the color out a little more:

Click OK when you're happy with the results to exit out of the dialog box, and you're done!

Here, after adding a little blue to my stars (the color is a little hard to see in the screenshot but you'll be able to see it better in your own image), is my final "Creating A Starry Night Sky" result:

And there we have it!

Want a better way to learn? Download this tutorial as an easy to read, ready to print PDF eBook!