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50 Photoshop Tutorials For Sky and Space Effects

By Smashing Editorial, August 7th, 2008 in Tutorials | 111 Comments | Forum

By Steven Snell

Humans have always had an infatuation with the air above us and the space around our planet. With Adobe Photoshop we can create new images or enhance existing photos to include the sky and space as a backdrop. There is virtually no limit to what can be done with some Photoshop skills and a bit of creativity.

As you will see from the tutorials featured here, some of the most entertaining and practical Photoshop creations and manipulations deal with the sky and space. Whether you are looking to make adjustments to the sky in the background of a photo or if you want to create an exploding space scene from scratch, Photoshop can meet your needs.

From this collection of tutorials you’ll learn all kinds of tricks that can be applied to your own work. Some of them are ideal for realistic photo manipulation and others are more suited for fun and experimentation. Take some time and explore the possibilities when working with the sky and space.

You may also be interested in some of our other collections of Photoshop Tutorials:

Space and Planets

Really Cool Eclipse Effect in Photoshop
Photoshop master Fabio Sasso shows you how to create this lighting effect.

Space and Planet Tutorial
Create a very cool look with just some simple Photoshop effects.

Make a Real Planet
Here you can learn how to easily create a fairly realistic planet.

Deep Space Nebula
Create a colorful nebula space scene.

Space Lighting Effect in 10 Steps
This tutorial shows a colorful, creative light effect ideal for space and dark backgrounds.

Space Scene Design
Create a scene of planets and lights by starting with a simple background image.

Painting Planets
Using a texture you can create a realistic planet.

Planetary Masses
Using brushes you can create a nice, textured planet.

Planetary Rings
Give a planet an extra touch with some simple rings.

Creating an Awesome Space Effect
This tutorial makes interesting use of some images for the space effect.

The Beauty from the Outside
A combination of images and Photoshop effects create this scene.

Alien Invasion Photoshop Tutorial
What is space without aliens? Learn how to add a UFO to a simple picture of the skyline.

Planet Tutorial
Create a planet pretty easily starting with a texture.

Planet tutorial

Explosions

Creating Fireballs and Explosions
Learn how to turn a typical roadside photo into an apocalyptic battle scene.

Create a Space Explosion from Scratch in Photoshop
Using no photos and a variety of effects in Photoshop, you can create this very realistic looking explosion.

Fiery Explosion
Another way to reate a realistic explosion with no images.

Fiery Photoshop Space Explosion Tutorial
PSDTUTS brings us more fiery goodness, this time starting with a simple downloaded image of a planet.

The “End of the World” Photo Manipulation
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to turn an ordinary picture into a cool apocalyptic image.

Explosion Effect
A gradient map and some simple effects are used to create this explosion.

Exploding Planet
Not a realistic type of explosion, but still useful for some purposes.

The Sky

Super Slick Dusky Lighting Effects in Photoshop
Turn a regular sunset photo into something special with this effect.

Vintage Clouds
An ordinary sky becomes a much more dramatic scene in this tutorial.

Ray of Light
Use rays of light with a silhouette-like photo.

Add a Realistic Rainbow to a Photo
Sometimes you may want to add a rainbow when there simply isn’t one in the photo.

Basic Graduated Neutral Density Filter
A subtle yet powerful effect for skies in photos.

Add Dynamic Lighting to a Flat Photograph
The sky in your photos can be drastically improved with Photoshop to create a more striking image.

The Orange Sky
This tutorial takes an image of the skyline as the starting point and gives it more character.

The Magic Night
This tutorial uses several different images to create this sky and the reflection on the water.

Warm Golden Sunsets with Gradient Maps
Turn an unspectacular sunset picture into something more special.

Clouds from Above
Clouds can be used for a lot of different types of work.

Mysterious Moonlit Landscape
A combination of photos and brushes are used for this tutorial.

Sleeping Sun
This fantasy art tutorial will help you to create an interesting image of a fairy.

Planet Integration Tutorial
This tutorial takes an image of a planet and implements it into a landscape photo.

Create a Starry Sky in Photoshop
Adding some stars to a sky is a practical trick that could easily come in handy.

Adding Fireworks to a Photo
Fireworks can be taken from one photo and dropped right into another.

Realistic Fog and Mist
Create realistic fog in just a few steps.

Quick Sunsets
Take a photo shot during the day and give it a sunset effect.

Create a Stunning 4th of July Collage
Using a few images you can create a festive collage.

The Soft Sea Light
Create a planet on the horizon of the sea.

How to Break Sunlight Through the Clouds
When working with images of the sky, adding a sunlight or ray effect can create a completely different look.

The White Tree
Create a more interesting and dramatic sky in the background of a photo.

Mysterious Lightning
This tutorial uses a few different photos to create the scene and some Photoshop touches for the lightning.

Illustrations

Mysterious Lighting Effect Tutorial for Photoshop
Create a dark, cartoonish sky scene.

Create a City Skyline
A fun, cartoon skyline.

Cartoon Sky
Create a simple cartoon sky that could be used for many purposes.

Creating a Fantastic Fantasy Night Sky in Photoshop
If you’re after the fantasy look as opposed to a photo-realistic look, this tutorial is for you.

Nature’s Sunshine
In this tutorial you’ll create a wallpaper of a fun sunset

Video

Creating Clouds
This video tutorial will show you how to create realistic clouds with brushes.

Space Planet Tutorial
Another helpful video tutorial that will show you how to create a space scene.

Create Stunningly Realistic Planets
This video will show you how to get the realistic look with Photoshop.

Related resources

You may also be interested in some of our other collections of Photoshop Tutorials:

About the author

Steven Snell has been designing websites for several years. He actively maintains a few blogs of his own, including DesignM.ag, which regularly provides articles and resources for web designers.

Published in Tutorials, August 7th, 2008
Tags: photoshop, sky, Tutorials

1.

Helium (August 7th, 2008, 1:58 pm)

Some of these are great, absolutly love the cloud one
2.

Sean (August 7th, 2008, 1:58 pm)

Woot! Space art is teh absolute best! Ie, I fell in love with the top part of the list. Thanks!
3.

Fish (August 7th, 2008, 2:05 pm)

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL… thank you very much…
4.

David Leggett (August 7th, 2008, 2:13 pm)

Thanks for mentioning our Mysterious Lighting Effect among these incredible tutorials Steven. Lots of wonderful finds here!
5.

Daniel (August 7th, 2008, 2:16 pm)

Great Tutorials!

Would like to see some GIMP or Inkscape tutorials once and a while though.

Link [dtsn.co.uk]
6.

Daniel Whyte (August 7th, 2008, 2:19 pm)

nice collection man :D
ill have a closer look at this after
7.

Steven Snell (August 7th, 2008, 2:30 pm)

David,
You’re welcome. Thanks for creating the tutorial!
8.

Jurgt.nl (August 7th, 2008, 3:58 pm)

Some really good tutorials. One of the most useful tutorial posts on Smash.mag. I must admit… gj..
9.

Steve (August 7th, 2008, 4:27 pm)

Breathtaking! What a collection!!!
10.

Kaushik Chemburkar (August 7th, 2008, 5:26 pm)

Smashing magazine, Always the best collection… Awesome.
11.

giackop (August 7th, 2008, 5:28 pm)

wow.. thanx.. my second tutorial on smashingmag that’s awesome.. thanx

cool selection btw..

Link [www.giackop.com]
12.

AeroXF (August 7th, 2008, 5:48 pm)

I really love the planet ones! Thanks.
13.

kaleesh (August 7th, 2008, 5:57 pm)

try gimp-tutorials.net :}
14.

kaleesh (August 7th, 2008, 6:00 pm)

and great collection guys :D! i love the starry sky effect! with the proper constellations, it will look very realistic, esp when you takle skylines of cities with too much light :)!
15.

Vlad Gerasimov (August 7th, 2008, 6:51 pm)

Hey! You might also like my Fantasy Night Sky tutorial too:
Link [www.vladstudio.com]
16.

Max Weir (August 7th, 2008, 7:12 pm)

Wow! Thanks!
just what the doctor ordered!
17.

shashi arya (August 7th, 2008, 9:49 pm)

WOW that’s awesome collection Luv it
18.

satish (August 7th, 2008, 9:55 pm)

The best of the Photoshop Tutorials….hats off.
19.

Ash (August 7th, 2008, 10:25 pm)

I’m making an illustration with clouds for a web banner, this article is coming at the perfect moment ! Thanx a lot !
20.

tomez (August 7th, 2008, 10:46 pm)

Pretty cool!
21.

Jason (August 7th, 2008, 11:01 pm)

Wow, Alot of great skies in there. Great post!

Thanks Again smashing!

Jason
Link [www.mythemefinder.com]
22.

jean-marc (August 7th, 2008, 11:40 pm)

smashing as usual!
thanks for doing that

jean-marc
23.

Chris (August 7th, 2008, 11:59 pm)

Love your work Smashing, but that 4th of July collage is far from stunning…
24.

Nathan Beck (August 8th, 2008, 12:05 am)

Absolutely fantastic list, there’s hours of stuff to pore over here. Looks like I won’t be getting out much this weekend!

Thanks once again Smashing Magazine :)

Nathan Beck
Link [www.redswish.co.uk]
25.

Pedro (August 8th, 2008, 12:34 am)

nice tuts;
another great article to point from my site…
( Link [www.unmatchlist.com] )
26.

Deif (August 8th, 2008, 1:27 am)

wow. that’s what i was looking for. thanx. great stuff
27.

baael (August 8th, 2008, 1:56 am)

realistic clouds rulez here ! nice article
28.

Cameron (August 8th, 2008, 2:48 am)

Good work Smashing, a few low points but overall great tutorials and we are all very lucky to have you guys putting together resources like this for us :-)
29.

cameronqueen.com (August 8th, 2008, 2:49 am)

Also, love the ND tut for skies - can we have a full-on photo-filtering / advanced image correction tutorial collection sometime please? That would be cool.
30.

acms (August 8th, 2008, 3:57 am)

Beautiful collection, Thanks
31.

NicoTx (August 8th, 2008, 5:13 am)

Hi, I’m french (bad english ^^). I create a image like this. She’s on my deviant art. Thank you for this article!
Link [neji46.deviantart.com]
32.

thameem (August 8th, 2008, 5:22 am)

realy nice
33.

mcavatar21 (August 8th, 2008, 8:01 am)

Nice good find
34.

Pallian (August 8th, 2008, 8:46 am)

Sweetness! Thanks for this amazing post!
Link [www.pallian.com]
35.

Cosmi (August 8th, 2008, 11:58 am)

Amazing!
36.

Steven Snell (August 8th, 2008, 5:38 pm)

cameronqueen,
Thanks for the suggestion. That might be possible.
37.

KB (August 8th, 2008, 6:31 pm)

Fantastic Tutorials! Thanks.
38.

shankar (August 8th, 2008, 9:54 pm)

There is no sky level for you guys…

Great collection. It Rocks
39.

Rols Rice (August 9th, 2008, 2:51 pm)

Nice tutorials! Thanks!!!!!!
40.

cartuli (August 11th, 2008, 1:01 pm)

Absolutamente efectista … Lo siento, pero no me interesa. No todo iban a ser artículos interesantes.

Saludos
41.

gr8pixel (August 11th, 2008, 8:05 pm)

Good work. Would like to see some tutorials about After Effect…
Cheers!
42.

john (August 13th, 2008, 12:48 am)

Absolutely stunner, Awesome tuts, amazing compilation as well.
43.

projectgrafix (August 15th, 2008, 3:26 am)

Alien invasion pic looks so good, stunning!!
44.

RabiD (August 16th, 2008, 6:19 pm)

wow! thanks very much for this entry ! :)
45.

lala (August 17th, 2008, 5:32 pm)

good goog study, day day up!

very much!
46.

web design company (August 19th, 2008, 7:34 am)

A must-see resource list for designers.
47.

Omonisha (August 20th, 2008, 5:54 am)

Whooa! Excellence of execution.
48.

abc (August 26th, 2008, 9:46 pm)

HI
49.

Brian (August 29th, 2008, 1:32 am)

hello, its nice
50.

Lawrence77 (September 14th, 2008, 11:48 pm)

nice collection…
51.

Lawrence77 (September 14th, 2008, 11:49 pm)

in 50 photoshop Tutorials for sky and space effects..
I’m the 50th one to comment……
52.

creatifools (October 15th, 2008, 4:51 pm)

wow its so nice…thanks for the tutorial…
53.

Maupioga, Michael (December 11th, 2008, 6:29 am)

wonderful! My first time of vising this site. These are really marvelous tutorials.
54.

khiem (December 25th, 2008, 10:13 pm)

great. thanks
55.

el_hombre (January 5th, 2009, 7:45 pm)

great great great the toturial
56.

faith fabian (March 19th, 2009, 6:23 pm)

it’s so helpful…wonderfull…amazing !!!
thank’z braderz…for the tutorial’s…good work anyway…
57.

Amal (May 5th, 2009, 11:37 pm)

i can not say soething to express how i want to thank you about this great effort . Thaks alot .