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Start by opening a new image 16.7 million colors and background set to black. I now make 2 duplicates of this background layer and turn the visibility off on the top most layer. We will come back to this a little later. Now I select the middle layer and add Image | Noise with it set to 5 and Random. I then use the magic wand with Tolerance set to 10 and select on a black area only. You should see the marquee that looks some thing like Fig. 1. Now I just Edit | Clear and then Selections | Select None. This will remove all the black from this layer and un select it. I then go to Colors | Brightness/Contrast and set Brightness to 12, Contrast to 0. This layer will be the stars that are furthest away.
Fig. 1 I now turn the visibility on the top most layer and I like to use the UnPlugged Effects:Snow plug in that is free. I set the amount to 1 and apply it. I then use the wand as I did with the noise layer and clear the black. I do not however brighten this layer. Now I just turn off the selection by going to Selections | Select None and you have your stars completed. You can adjust the opacity of these 2 layers to get the amount of density you prefer. To add dust I like to use one of the cloud filters I have. If you don't have one of these filters you can use the Cloud Paper texture that comes with PSP and air brush a light layer with low opacity settings on the brush. I then suggest you use one of the blurs to thin it more and finally turn down the opacity on the cloud layer to your preferences. At this point you can add lens flare, star tubes, cutouts images of planets or spheres of your own design. The finished product should resemble Fig. 2 below. I used Axion's Lens Flare with this one.
Fig. 2 Star Field From this point on you should be able to create images of the heavens with very little effort. If you would like to have more tutorials like this please email me and I'll try to do them.
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