Beginner Level
In this small tutorial I’ll show you how to make polar light scene.




Create new document in PhotoShop, with, let’s say: 400 x 700 px.
Make gradient on background with colors: #001d60 (top) and black (bottom).

Duplicate background layer, set it’s mode to Darken and opacity to 75%. Use Filter > Render > Clouds.




Insert new layer.

Append Special Effects brushes, available with Photoshop and use Drippy Watercolor. Increase diameter to 50 and make small shape with white color.


Make two more passes to create loose shape with different intensities.




Use Filter > Blur > Radial Blur filter on layer with white shape.
Make settings as shown on image


Result:




Now we will create stars in background. Insert two new layers in back of Aurora’s layer. Use Pencil tool with 1px diameter and white color to spread some stars on first of this new layers. Open blending options and set Outer glow:


On second layer do same with following blending settings:

Final Result

Reduce opacity of first star layer to 35% and second to 25%.
Final result:


This was a simple tutorial to make an Aurora Scene.