I need a starry sky background

[theGuest]

Sorry, your explanation is a little vague. Can we see an example of your final product? And are you doing this is Photoshop?

[kraal]

um did you flatten image????

[kraal]

did you flatten image????

[jeroentje]

The best way for a realistic starry night sky is extremely simple.
Make a black canvas.
Create a new layer.
Pick the pencil from your toolbox.
Tip in very small, but very white dots.
Done.
You may copy the star layer and give it a tiny bit of gaussian blur but the above is basically it.

It may sound stupid, but when you look at the sky on a starry night, that's all you see.
A black sky with white pinholes in it.

[Skjoldbroder]

here's what you do

1. create a new image
2. filters/noise/add noise (add loads of it)
3. filters/blur/blur more (once or twice)
4. image/adjustments/levels
5. play with the levels sliders
6. done

you should get something like this:
http://www.skjoldbroder.dk/fisse/quickstars.jpg

- obviously, the distribution of stars here is very uniform, so add a masking layer and take out bits of it to make it more varied and less dense everywhere. alternatively, you can add some coloured patches as well for a gas cloud effect.

[TheNeverman]

You can use/modify an action I uploaded to Adobe Studio Exchange...
n8's Starfield (http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAssetDetailSubmit.asp?aID=9368&back=http%3A//share.studio.adobe.com/axQuickSearchSubmit.asp?r=0&pgsel1=2) (loosely based off the Greg Martin tutorial)

n8

[ub52]

Try this tutorial on for size.

http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_star_field.html

-ub52

[protoype]

Thanks for all of your replies! The effect plaf posted is the one I was shooting for. I will bookmark the other links. I appreciate everyone taking the time to offer their expertise.

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