How to Create Northern Lights
Northern Lights are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere. Add this effect to any night photo in a few simple steps.
Painting Northern Lights
The key to painting Northern Lights is to start with a simple shape and then warp it into the final form of the lights. In this case, we create a special brush that scatters brush strokes, giving a more random pattern to the lights.
After scattering brush strokes, a motion blur is applied to make it look like the brush strokes are streaks of light. It can be helpful to re-apply the blur filter to give a more scattered look.
Once you have created a ‘strip’ of Northern Lights, it is time to warp it into place. To warp, press CTRL+T to bring up the transformation dialog. Then right-click on the layer and select ‘warp’.