Photoshop masterclass

Starburst brushes: Boost the atmosphere in low-light and night scenes by creating your own brush in Photoshop

If you want some of your starbursts to be more blurred than others – for example if you’ve used a shallow depth of field with a narrow band of sharpness in your image – then follow the technique as written so you have your image on one layer and all your starburst effects sitting above it on another. In the Layers panel, make sure the starburst layer is highlighted, then select the Lasso tool. Draw around the starbursts you want to change, leaving a generous margin to make sure you take in all the feathered edges.

Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and increase the Amount slider until you get the desired effect. Click OK when you’re happy and press Ctrl/Cmd+D to get rid of the ‘marching ants’.