Galaxy and Night Sky Backgrounds

What is in this collection

Star fields range from a natural deep navy sky and crisp silver stars on black to a deep field of distant galaxies and a dense field crossed by dark dust lanes. Galaxy and nebula backgrounds come in magenta and violet, teal and blue, red and orange, royal blue with silver star clusters, pastel mint and lavender, and gold cosmic dust on black. Night skies include the Milky Way across a purple-blue sky, a meteor shower over navy, circular star trails, moonlit wispy clouds, a twilight gradient with the first stars and a starry sky seen through falling snow. Aurora skies, in green ribbons and in pink and purple curtains, complete the set.

Stars background ideas by event

For a space or science birthday, the teal and blue nebula, deep field of galaxies and Milky Way look the most like real astronomy. Prom and winter formals suit the royal blue galaxy with silver clusters, black and gold birthdays and New Year's Eve suit the gold cosmic dust, and black and silver templates suit crisp silver stars on black. The meteor shower fits wish-themed birthdays and graduations, and the starry night background with falling snow works for Christmas cards. For younger themes, the pastel galaxy and pink and purple aurora are light and dreamy. Daytime and sunset skies are in sky and cloud backgrounds, and twinkling lights in bokeh backgrounds.

Tips for using these backgrounds

• Grade the subject to the sky. There is no single light source in these backgrounds, so colour matters more than direction. Cool your subject slightly for navy and teal skies, warm it for the gold dust and the red and orange nebula, and add a soft coloured rim light, green for the aurora or magenta for the nebula, to tie them together.
• Use bright lettering. White, silver and gold read clearly on almost every background here. The pastel mint and lavender galaxy is the exception, where dark lettering works too.
• Crop with the shapes in mind. Most star fields crop to anything, including 2 x 6 strips. The Milky Way runs corner to corner, so place subjects to either side of the band, and the centre of the circular star trails sits just off-centre.

For a prom or space party with a floor to stand on, see prom digital backdrops.