How to Create a Starry Night Sky in Photoshop

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a starry night sky in Photoshop, which means adding stars to an empty night sky.
starry night sky
You will need:
  • Adobe Photoshop CS6 or CC
  • City at night picture
Step 1
Let’s start with opening the picture.
 starry night sky original
Now, make a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
 starry night sky new layer
Go to Edit > Fill and use the settings shown below.
 starry night sky fill
 starry night sky fill result
Step 2
Select the new layer, click on the small menu icon in the top-right of the Layers palette and choose Convert to Smart Object.
 starry night sky menu icon
Now, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the settings shown below.
 starry night sky noise
 starry night sky noise result
We will now blur the noise by going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and using the values shown below. Set the Radius value to somewhere between 2 and 6, 2 for smaller images and 6 for larger ones.
 starry night sky blur
Step 3
Let’s darken the darkest areas of our noise layer and brighten the brightest areas. Firstly, press and hold Option (for Mac) / Alt (for Windows), click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and select Levels.
 starry night sky new adjustment layer
On the New Layer dialog box, make sure that you have checked the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option and press OK.
 starry night sky levels
In the Properties panel, drag the white point slider to where the right side of the histogram begins.
 starry night sky white slider
 starry night sky white slider result
Now, drag the black slider close to the white slider to achieve the best effect.
 starry night sky black slider
 starry night sky black slider result
Step 4
We will now create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer to add a little bit of color to the stars. Press and hold Option (for Mac) / Alt (for Windows), click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and select Hue/Saturation. On the New Layer dialog box, make sure that you have checked the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option and press OK.
 starry night sky hue saturation
Now, select the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, go to the Properties panel and make the following changes.
 starry night sky hue saturation options
 starry night sky hue saturation result
Step 5
The stars are now blocking the original picture, so let’s solve this problem. We will group all the layers except for the background layer. Select the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, press and hold Shift and select Layer 1 (the noise layer).
 starry night sky select layers
Now, click on the small menu icon on the top-right of the Layers palette, select “New Group from Layers” and name the group “Stars”.
 starry night sky group
Hide the Stars group by clicking on the layer visibility icon (the eye) in the Layers palette.
starry night sky hide group
starry night sky original
Using the Lasso Tool, select the part of the image where you don’t want the stars to appear.
 starry night sky lasso tool
I also want to add the moon. To do this, select the Elliptical Marquee Tool and choose the Add to Selection option.
 starry night sky add to selection
Click on the center of the moon and drag outwards while holding down Shift+Option (for Mac) / Shift+Alt (for Windows).
 starry night sky elliptical marquee tool
Make the Stars group visible again.
 starry night sky show group
Now, press and hold Option (for Mac) / Alt (for Windows) and click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
 starry night sky add layer mask
 starry night sky add layer mask result
Finally, change the layer blending mode of the Stars group to Screen.
 starry night sky screen
And we’re done!
 starry night sky

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