In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create a winter night landscape featuring a northern sky. You will learn how to combine different stocks together and blend them correctly to make a cohesive scene. You’ll also learn how to create lighting effect, work with group and more.

Preview of Final Results

Tutorial Resources

• Stars
• Aurora sky
• Foreground
• Trees
• Left mountain
• Right mountain
• Bear

Step 1

Create a new document with size of 1300×800 px and fill it with white (feel free to use your own size and color). Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N to make a new layer. Hit G to active Gradient Tool, choose Radial Gradient with color #022240 and #093b62. Drag a line from the top to bottom to get result below:

Step 2

Open star background pack. I choose “starry 1” and use Move Tool (V) to drag it into our canvas and change the mode to Color Dodge 100%:

Step 3

To change color of some stars I use an adjustment layer with Clipping Mask. On stars layer, go to Layer-New Adjustment Layer-Channel Mixer:

You can see some stars redder:

Step 4

Place aurora image onto the sky and change the mode to Screen 100%:

Click the second button at the bottom of Layer panel to add mask to this layer. Use soft black brush with low opacity (around 20%) to reduce some light on aurora sky. You can see how I did it on the mask and result on picture:

Step 5

Duplicate this layer, flip it horizontally (Edit-Transform-Flip Horizontal) and move to the right.

Use layer mask to remove hard edges and blend it with the rest:

Step 6

To edit all aurora layers together, make all of them selected then press Cmd/Ctrl+G to make a group. Change the mode of this group from Pass Through (default group mode) to Screen 100% (it’s very important to keep the effect the same as before grouping). Make a new Curves layer within this group (above all aurora layers):

Because the mode changed to Screen 100% so this Curves layer only affects the layers inside this group (aurora ones).

Step 7

To enhance sky light I make a new layer and use Rectangular Marquee Tool to make a selection on sky part. Use soft brush with two colors (#f79ead,#acbbc5) to paint on the edges of this selection as shown below:

Convert this layer to Smart Object. Go to Filter-Blur-Motion Blur:

Use Cmd/Ctrl+T to rotate and enlarge this part:

Step 8

Use layer mask to blur some parts on the top of this effect:

Change the mode to Hard Light 100% and name this layer “sky light” or whatever you want:

Step 9

Extract left mountain and place it at the left of our picture (you can use your own photo).

Step 10

I use some adjustment layers (Clipping Mask) to darken and change color of this mountain:

On second Curves layer I use soft black brush to erase the left side as I want it to be darker than the rest:

Step 11

I want the contour of this mountain a bit brighter (near the sky) so I make a new layer (Clipping Mask) and use soft brush with color #acbbc5, opacity and flow about 50-55% to paint along the contour:

Step 12

Cut out the right mountain and position it at the right:

Step 13

I use Curves and Color Balance to change color and darken it:

On the second Curves layer mask use soft brush to reduce lightness on the right side of this mountain:

Step 14

In this step we’ll be brightening the right mountain more. Make a new layer (Clipping Mask), change the mode to Overlay 100% and fill with 50% gray:

Use Dodge Tool with Midtones Range and Exposure about 20% to brighten the edge of the mountain. You can see how I applied this tool with Normal mode and result with Overlay mode:

Step 15

Isolate the trees from its background and place it at the left side of our picture, remember to convert it to Smart Object before resizing:

Step 16

Duplicate this layer and flip it horizontally. Move it to the right side and enlarge it .

Use layer mask to remove some hard edges and blend it with background:

Step 17

Make group for the trees layer as done with aurora ones but change the mode to Normal 100%. I name these layer “1” and “2”. Create some adjustment layers within this group to change color and darken them:

On Curves layer mask I use black brush with opacity about 20% to erase the top of the trees as they should be brighter than the rest:

On Color Balance layer mask I erase the bottom right of the trees:

On Levels layer mask I erase the top of the trees and the bottom right of them:

Step 18

Open foreground image. Use Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) to select the ground :

Drag this selection into our picture, place it at the bottom:

Duplicate this layer, flip it horizontally and use Warp Tool (Edit-Transform-Warp) to bend it:

Step 19

Make group for the foreground layers. I name them “1” and “2”. I use three adjustment layers to darken and alter color of them:

On Curves layer mask I use brush with very low opacity (10-15%) to reveal some parts of the ground. On Levels layer mask I use brush with 100% opacity to erase the front part of the ground (which is nearer the light from the sky ):

Step 20

Extract the bear and place him onto the contour of the left mountain:

Step 21

To make shadow for the bear, I make a new layer under the bear one. Hold Cmd/Ctrl while clicking bear thumbnail layer to load his selection:

Go to Edit-Fill (or press Shift+F5) and fill this selection with black. Choose Edit-Transform-Flip Vertical then convert it to Smart Object. Use Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform this shadow as the screenshot below shows:

Lower opacity to 50% and use layer mask to blur the bottom of this shadow:

Go to Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur and choose radius as 3 px:

Step 22

To correct shadow on the bear I make a new layer with Clipping Mask. I use color #c5bf9f (similar color of the bear) and paint over the dark parts:

Step 23

I use some adjustment layers to change color and darken the bear:

On Curves layer mask I use brush to erase some parts as I don’t want them too dark:

Step 24

Make some adjustment layers on the top to change color and contrast of the whole picture:

On Levels layer mask I use brush to erase the sky part, mountain edges and front part of foreground:

Step 25

To create a stronger focus and contrast I make a new layer on the top. Apply Radial Gradient with default colors (black and white) and change the mode to Soft Light 100%:

Step 26

To make reflected light from the sky to the scene, I add two layers on the top. On the first I use brush with color #f79ead with opacity from 40% to 80% to paint on the sky, the edges of the mountain, on the bear, ground and trees. Set the mode of this layer to Soft Light 100%:

On the second I continue using this brush to paint on parts like on the first layer, remember to vary brush opacity to get more natural result:

Step 27

Create some new adjustment layers on the top to enhance color, saturation and increase the vibrance of the whole picture:

On Color Balance layer mask I use brush to reduce cyan on some parts below:

Step 28

There is a small detail we need to take care of. You may notice that we have a small stick on foreground. I don’t want to remove it with Clone Tool as I want to keep more details for this part. It needs a shadow! To do it I make a new layer within foreground group (above 1 and 2), use Pen Tool to make a line on the ground and stroke it with black brush, 1 px:

Apply Gaussian Blur with 1 px and blur the top of this shadow with layer mask:

Final Results

Download the PSD

Tutorial by Jenny Le