The Sun in the Universe

Our Universe is almost complete, with its stars and cosmic clouds. All that is missing is the sun, a much brighter star than the others. Once again, we are going to use one of Photoshop's rendering filters:

1. Create a new layer and fill it with black.
   
   
The clouds and stars are masked for an instant.


2. Set the overlay mode to Exclusion.
   
   
By setting this mode to Exclusion, you have told Photoshop to ignore the black pixels in the layer. The clouds and stars can now be seen again.


3. Select Filter > Render > Lens Flare. The Lens flare creation dialog box appears.
   
   
This command lets you create lighting effects and is very good for simulating suns and very close stars.



Figure 5: The Lens Flare command is all you need to create a sun.


4. Choose a 105 mm lens type and reduce the brightness by half.
   
   
An excessively high brightness value risks fading the image as a whole.


5. Once you have rendered the lens flare, move the layer to the spot where you want your star to appear in your sky.
   
   

And there you have it, your sky is ready! Even more beautiful than you can see with the most accurate of telescopes.



Figure 6: The Universe is there, right before your eyes!