Photoshop Snow Planet

For the background of this piece I chose to use a landscape picture of a snowy scene. First, I added in the large planet. To do this I pasted a stock picture of a planet i found on the internet into my scene. I then set this layer to "overlay." Next I duplicated the planet layer and this layer from "overlay" to "normal" with an opacity of 13%. I also added a "gaussian blur" to this layer to give it a more natural look. After applying layer masks to both layers, I used the "gradient tool" to create a fading effect on the planet. I then partially erased the parts of the planet that are covered by clouds from the background layer. Using the "blur tool" I then blurred around the edge of the planet to give a smooth transition into the sky and make it seem as if to have an atmosphere. After using the dodge tool to add contrast to the lit side of the planet, I added in the smaller moon using the same method. With so much empty space in the top left of my picture I decided to add some comets. To do this, I started with a small dot using the "brush tool" on a new layer. I then applied applied a stylized filter of "wind" to this layer and repeated this three times. After applying a "gaussian blur" to the comets, I applied a distort filter of "shear"to curve the light streams. Finally, after adding some contrast and saturation it was complete.

Resources:

Background

Planet

Moon