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Catalog > Free Tutorials > How to Create Northern Lights in Photoshop
  • How to Create Northern Lights in Photoshop

  • by Aaron Nace
    April 19, 2016
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BEFORE

AFTER

Tutorial Description

Northern Lights are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere. Add this effect to any night photo in a few simple steps.

Painting Northern Lights

The key to painting Northern Lights is to start with a simple shape and then Warp it into the final form of the lights. In this case, we create a special Brush that scatters brush strokes, giving a more random Pattern to the Lights.

After Scattering brush strokes, a Motion Blur is applied to make it look like the Brush strokes are streaks of Light. It can be helpful to re-apply the Blur Filter to give a more scattered look.

Once you have created a ‘strip’ of Northern Lights, it is time to Warp it into place. To warp, press CTRL+T to bring up the transformation dialog. Then right-click on the layer and select ‘warp’.

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