1. Open a new document, 1500px by 1000px, and fill the background with black.
Duplicate the black layer and label it “Small Stars.” Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise, selecting Monochomatic, Gaussian, and 10%. Under Image>Adjustments, Brightness and Contrast, reduce the Brightness to -30, and increase the contrast to +75.
Duplicate this layer and label it “Large Stars.” Under Image>Adjustments, Brightness and Contrast, reduce the Brightness to -100, and increase the contrast to +67 and click OK. Under Image>Adjustments>Levels, enter 235, 1.00, and 250 into the “Input Level boxes, and click OK.
With the Erase Tool, select a non-round brush, reduce the opacity to 85%, and under Brushes Palette Presets, check the “Scattering, Texture, Dual Brush, and Noise” boxes. Randomly erase a large portion of the layer. Be brutal (see image example). Change the blending mode to “Screen.
Go to the “Small Stars” layer beneath, and repeat the erasing, but not as brutally. Then using the Clone Stamp Tool, with the Aligned and Sample all Layers boxes checked, clone in areas of your starfield. Change brushes and sizes to taste, and vary between Normal and Screen cloning modes. When satisfied, merge all layers down (Ctrl+Shift+’E’) and label the layer “Stars.” Save your work

2. Create a New Layer above the “Stars” layer. Fill this layer with a Radial Gradient, Black to White, “Reverse” box checked, from the center outward. Change the mode to Linear Dodge, so that the “Stars” layer shines through. Under Image>Adjustments>Brightness and Contrast, increase the contrast by 5%.

3. Create a New Layer titled “Clouds,” and with Black as the foreground color, and 50% Gray (RGB 128,128,128 OR #808080) as the background color, go to Filter>Render>Clouds. You may need to repeat this a few times (Ctrl+’F’), until you get a cloud render that you like. You want the center of the clouds render to have more dark to black areas. Double click the clouds render layer in the Layers Palette to bring up the Layer Style box, and check the “Color Overlay” box. Click on the Color Overlay title to bring up options, click the color and change it to RGB 100,130,180, reduce the opacity to 30%, and click OK.

4. With the Layer Style box still active, check the “Gradient Overlay” box. Click the “Gradient Overlay,” to bring up the options, change the Mode to “Overlay,” and reduce the scale to 70%. Click the gradient to bring up the Gradient Editor, and double click the small white square on the bottom RH side. Change the color to an orange (RGB 255.165.110), and click OK. Click next to the box beneath the gradient bar, and another small box will appear. Slide the box until it is positioned at 50%, and double click on it, changing it’s color to a pink (RGB 200,100,215), and click OK. Double click the small black box at the 0% position, and change the color to a marine blue (RGB 55,100,120), and click OK. Click OK to exit the Gradient Editor, and Click OK to then apply the layer style to the Clouds render.

5. Change the Layer Mode to “Linear Dodge” and reduce the opacity to 50%. Save your work.

6. Open “Water Person Young” image, and extract figure from background. Copy and Paste onto Stars image, and name the layer “Starman.” Resize with Free Transform.

7. Create a New Layer beneath the “Starman” layer,and with the Gradient Tool, foreground 50% Gray, background black. Select “Radial Gradient,” and click the gradient to bring up the Gradient Editor. Choose “Gray to Black” preset, click the small black box on the bottom of the gradient bar and enter 40% into the Location Box, and click OK. Position your cursor in the center of the palm of one hand, and holding down the Shift key, drag the cursor to the bottom of the image. Change the Layer Mode to “Screen,” and repeat this step on the other hand.

8. Create a New Layer, and label it “Hand Glow.” Change the Layer Mode to ”Screen.”
Select the Gradient Tool, and click on the gradient to go to the Gradient Editor. Change the Type to “Noise,” Roughness 100%, Color Mode to HSB, and check the “Add Transparency” box.
Click the “Randomize” button until you get a fairly balanced gradient of light and dark hues. Then check the “Restrict Colors” box and click OK.

9. Select the “Angle Gradient” type (the middle icon) and make sure the “Transparency” box is checked. Starting the gradient in the middle of the palm, drag it a very short distance and release. You may need to click Ctrl+’Z’ to undo, and repeat this step a few times at different angles to get a pleasing balance of light rays.

10. Hit Ctrl+Shift+’U’ to desaturate the gradient, and then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, Radius 4.0 pixels, and click OK.
Hit Ctrl+’L’ to adjust the Levels, and drag the end sliders towards the center to brighten the light rays.

11. With the Elliptical Marquee, set the Feather to 50px, and hold down the Alt and Shift keys as you drag out a circle from the center of the palm just large enough to cover the hand. Hit Ctrl+Shift+’I’ to invert the selection, and hit the Backspace key. Reduce the opacity to 50%.

12. Repeat Steps 8-11 on the other hand.

13. Create a New Layer on top of all the other layers, and set the Blending Mode to “Screen.” With the Paintbrush Tool, choose a soft edged brush, diameter 50px, and with white, click inside each palm 4 times to create two nice, glowing “stars.” Save your work.

14. Create a New Layer above the “Starman” layer, and fill it with black. Go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask. Select the Eraser Tool, choose a round brush, and set the hardness to 0% and the size to 100px. Reduce the Brush Opacity to 20%, and erase portions of the mask to bring out portions of the starman’s features.

15. Create a New Layer beneath the “Starman” layer and label it “Rim Glow”. Hold the Ctrl key down and click on the “Starman” layer thumbnail in the image palette to select the starman shape. Go to the “Rim Glow” layer, and fill the selection with white. Deselect. Go to Image>Blur>Gaussian Blur, Radius 15px. and click OK.

16. Create a New Layer above the Clipping Mask layer, and label it “Star Brush.”
Select the Brush Tool, and open the Brushes Palette. Select a hard-edged round brush (I used 9px), and check the “Smoothing” box.
Click on the “Brush Tip Shape” label and change the Spacing to 1000% (Maximum).
Check the “Shape Dynamics” box, and click the label, increasing Size Jitter to 100%, and setting Minimum Diameter to 5%.
Check the “Scattering” box, click the label, increase the Scatter to 1000% (Maximum), and check the “Both Axes” box.
Click the “Other Dynamics” box, click the label, and change the Opacity Jitter to 50%, and set the “Flow Jitter” to 10%, and the control to “Pen Pressure.”

17. With the “Star Brush” layer active, hold the Ctrl key and click on the Starman thumbnail to create a shape selection, and with white, make random strokes inside the selection, changing the brush size from 2px to 25px, or to taste.