Replacing a background of an image can be a challenge. The trick is to find the right background that has similar colors, tones, lighting and looks like it belongs with the main image. Here’s how to use Luminar’s Image Layer to add a night sky to an image.

Start with a Killer Image

Open your image inside Luminar. Make your usual adjustments

Add an Image Layer

From the Layers toolbar, click the + icon and select Add New Image Layer. Browse for your image and click Open. The background image will hide the main image. We can add a Layer brush and spend hours trying to paint back our main image or we can use the magic of Layer Blend Modes.

Revealing the Background Image

Change the Layer blend mode to Lighten and adjust the layer opacity to blend the two images together. That simple blend mode cuts our editing time down to minutes. To selectively erase the background, select the Layers brush with opacity set to 100% and choose Erase. Paint ove the areas you don’t want the stars to appear. Use the left and right bracket keys [ ] to change the size of the brush.

Finishing the Look

Apply filters or presets to complete the image.