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What We´re Making

Before we get started let us take a look at the final piece.

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Material

These two photos were taken by Vincent Klaiber, you may use them in any project you have however you want!

• Landscape photo
• Clouds

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Step 1

Create a document in Photoshop, I used a bigger resolution because I might want to use it as a wallpaper in the future. You do not really need to set it that high but it will look better.

Download this photo “Landscape“, select the Move Tool (V) and drag it in our project. Press Command + T to resize, it should fit our size. Name it “Ground Layer”.

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Step 2

Next up adding some stars using basic filters and adjustments setting. Create a new layer, select the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and fill the layer with black/#000000. Add the noise by clicking Filter > Noise > Add Noise, use Uniform with Monochromatic and a amount of 30%.

Now it looks just like a ant-war, we want to bring out some stars and let other be in the shade. Go Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Levels, set it to 36, 1.00, 62.

Group these two layers Command + G and name it “Noise-Stars”, set the Blend Mode to Overlay and opacity to 10%.

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Step 3

We also want to add some bigger stars. Select the Brush Tool (B), use a regular round brush with 100% hardness and a size of about 7 pixels. Add these features to the brush.

Create a new layer and name it “Brush Stars”. Set the foreground to white/#FFFFFF. Star painting the stars both in the sky and in the water. Use different strengths of opacity to make it more “real”.

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Step 4

Let´s add the clouds. Head over to sxc.hu and download this picture. Open it up in photoshop, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and make a selection over the clouds. Use the Move Tool (V) to drag it in our project. Press Command + T and resize it like we have done. Name the layer “Top Clouds”.

The clouds should blend in more with the edges of the city. Set the layers Blend Mode to Overlay. Add a vector mask on “Top Clouds”. Select the Brush Tool (B) and use a brush with the size 150px and set hardness to 0%. Set foreground to black and star painting on the vector mask.

Now maybe you notice that the clouds blend in more on the left side of our picture.

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Download this cloudy photo and repeat what we did in the last clouds image. This time place it on the water and name it “Bottom Clouds”. If you want to flip it vertical press Command + T and go Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.

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Step 5

Now we are going to use a filter that is hated out there, if you use it right i can be good. Create a new layer and name it “Sun”. Fill it with black/#000000. Go Filter > Render > Lens Flare, try to place it as much in the middle as you can.

Create a vector mask, select the Gradient Tool (G) and use a gradient from black to white. Drag from the middle and out to one of the edges.

Press Command + T to resize it. Place it like we have done below. Use the Brush Tool (B) to erase the part of the flare that are over the city. We want to make it look as if the sun goes down.

Last but not least, set the Blend Mode to “Screen”. This will only display the lighter areas of the layer.

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Final Touches

Create a vector mask on the “Noise-Stars” group. And use a brush to erase the stars that are over the clouds. Then press on the link icon between the group and the mask. This makes the vector mask custom-able without it happening anything to the group.
Then go Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur use a radius of about 40px. Then press on the “link” agian.

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Everything is in different colors and lights. Let us add a Gradient Map. Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Gradient Map. Use a gradient from #290A59 to #ff7C00.

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Conclusion

We are finished. Please if you followed this tutorial I would love to see what you came up with! Share it in the comments below or in our flickr group. Thanks! – Click on the picture below to see it in a bigger size.