Before we begin, let's take a look at the image we're creating
You can download the original image here or use the image below (it has a copyright mark at the bottom)
Now let's start!
Step 1
Open this image and resize it if you want. First of all, we will enhance the color of our image by using an old trick but still valuable.
Change your image's mode to Lab Color by going to Image > Mode > Lab Color. If you switch to Channels tab, you can see there are four channels (they are named Lab, Lightness, a and b). We can use "a" channel to enhance our image.
Create a new layer and set the blending mode to Soft Light, as you see below:
Go to Image > Apply Image and use these settings:
It is simple, isn't it? But now you can realize your image has been changed, click on the Eye icon near the Layer 1 several times to feel the change if you don't believe!
Press Ctrl-E to merge the 2 layers and change your image to RGB mode by going to Image > Mode > RGB Color.
Step 2
Create a new layer and fill it with black. Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare and choose 105mm Prime. Remember to place your lens flare in the center of our image.
Step 3
Change the Blending Mode of this layer to Screen. If you don't see your Len flare in the center of our galaxy then go back and correct your lens flare location at step 2.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (or press Ctrl-U). For this image I used 18 for Hue, 57 for Saturation and 0 for Lightness but these values depend on the image you use
Step 4
Create a new layer and change the Blending Mode to Overlay so that it interacts with the dark and bright colors of our image. Reset your foreground to white and background to black (press D and X). Use the Gradient Tool (G) with Foreground to Background and Reflected Gradient options
draw it from the center and you will achieve the result as shown below
Select the Eraser Tool (E) and set the eraser's opacity to 100% to wipe everything EXCEPT the light we created in the previous step. This step will make our image brighter
Step 5
Press Ctrl-J to duplicate your current layer. Go to Edit > Transform > Scale and rotate it a bit. Press Enter to leave this mode
Repeat this step several times until you get the following result:
Step 6
Create a new layer and select the Gradient Tool (G). Keep the previous settings and draw a line as we did previously, but notice that we DO NOT use Overlay mode
Step 7
Change is blending mode to Screen. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and use these settings
Step 8
Select the Burn Tool and drag along our light to make it thinner. The more you trace, the thinner it becomes. Here is my image after this step:
Step 9
Now we will add some glowing lights in the center with the Pen Tool. But first, we need to make some adjustments with the Brush Tool.
Select the Brush Tool and look on the right toolbar until you find an icon named "Brush" (you can see it in the next image). Click on it, tick on the Shape Dynamics checkbox and choose a soft brush size
Use the Pen Tool (P) and draw a nice curve. If you don't do it right, press Delete and try again. When you finished right, right click and choose Stroke Path.
Delete the path you just created by pressing Delete twice
Double click on the current layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog, choose Outer Glow and use these settings:
Step 10
Press Ctrl-J to duplicate this layer, go to Edit > Transform > Scale to scale and rotate it
Step 11
This step is very simple, just use the Rough Round Bristle brush to decorate our light, I leave this step for you.
And the final result is shown below... what will you say ^_^ ?
Two things I think are really cool in this tutorial are to apply the Overlay blending mode and the Burn Tool to make our lights more appealing