Post by Stevewebb on Oct 21, 2012 19:16:22 GMT
Add Rain To Your Image (Without Getting Wet)
Adding rain to an image in photoshop is not as difficult as you might think. Here is a step by step guide on how to do it.
First get your base image and Duplicate the background layer by clicking on Layer > Duplicate Layer.
Next we need to add some space around the image. You may wonder why at this point but it will become clear later on when we use the motion blur filter. Click on Image > Canvas Size.
Just add a couple of centimetres to both vertical and horizontal (It doesn’t need to be precise as we will get rid of this area again later on).
Next we need to add a new blank layer by clicking Layer > New > Layer. When the pop up box appears, make sure that the color is set to “none” and the blend mode as “normal”.
Now fill that new layer with black. The easy way to do this is set you foreground colour to black and with the new layer selected press ALT + BACKSPACE
Now we need to add some noise to this black layer by clicking on Filter > Noise > Add Noise
When the Add Noise box pops up, make sure the “Uniform” and “Monochromatic” boxes are checked. There is no exact amount of noise to add but it needs to be a lot. Here I went for 150%.
Now we need to put a very slight blur on the noise we have added. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 0.5 and press OK.
Now at this point you may well be thinking, eh, how is this going to make rain? But stick with it as this is where the magic starts to happen.
We just added some noise, but its too much and too close together so we need to sort that out with a Levels Adjustment. Click on Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels
When the levels box pops up, make sure that the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” box is checked. This means that the levels layer will only affect the layer immediately below it.
With the levels dialog box open you will see the histogram and the three sliders underneath it. By moving the black slider to the right and the white slider to the left we can turn our noise layer from just looking like a grey mess into what looks more like a starry night sky.
Don’t worry about the grey slider in the middle as this will move automatically when you adjust the black or white sliders.
Here you can see that I have moved the sliders virtually on top of each other. This is not an exact science so you just have to play around with it until you get the look you need.
The next step is to turn our noise into something that more resembles rain by adding a motion blur effect to it.
First we must make sure that we select the noise layer rather than the levels adjustment layer we have just been working on by clicking on it once.
Then click on Filter > Blur > Motion Blur to bring up the Motion Blur dialog box.
Please note here that you should only pay attention to the preview box and not the main image as you will find that the noise disappears on the main image once we apply the motion blur.
A blur amount of between 50 and 100 pixels in normally about right but you may need to increase this for larger images. You can also change the angle of the motion to best suit your particular image.
Now, because the noise has disappeared we need to go back into the levels adjustment layer dialog box to pull the black slide back until it appears again. We can also tweak the white slider to the left to make the noise just right.
You will notice now that the noise or “rain” as it now looks like has gone a bit funky around the edges. That is why we added the extra area around the image in the very early stages. This means we can crop out the extra canvas later and lose the funky bits with no effect on our final image.
Now select the noise layer and change the blend mode to “screen”, and hey presto, the rain appears on the image.
To really make this effect realistic you can repeat the steps again to create a further noise layer but reduce the motion blur amount by half this time and reduce the opacity of the second noise layer to 50%. This gives the rain effect more depth.
Once you are happy with the amount of rain you have added you can go ahead and crop away the spare bit of canvas we created to allow for the bad edges created by the motion blur effect. The easiest way to do this is to right click on the thumbnail of the “layer 1” and choose “select pixels”. This will put a selection around the original image area.
Then simply click on Image > Crop and the extra bit of canvas will be cropped away to leave your final image.
To finish off the effect and make it super realistic we can add a reflection and water splashes but that will be covered in another tutorial.
Adding rain to an image in photoshop is not as difficult as you might think. Here is a step by step guide on how to do it.
First get your base image and Duplicate the background layer by clicking on Layer > Duplicate Layer.
Next we need to add some space around the image. You may wonder why at this point but it will become clear later on when we use the motion blur filter. Click on Image > Canvas Size.
Just add a couple of centimetres to both vertical and horizontal (It doesn’t need to be precise as we will get rid of this area again later on).
Next we need to add a new blank layer by clicking Layer > New > Layer. When the pop up box appears, make sure that the color is set to “none” and the blend mode as “normal”.
Now fill that new layer with black. The easy way to do this is set you foreground colour to black and with the new layer selected press ALT + BACKSPACE
Now we need to add some noise to this black layer by clicking on Filter > Noise > Add Noise
When the Add Noise box pops up, make sure the “Uniform” and “Monochromatic” boxes are checked. There is no exact amount of noise to add but it needs to be a lot. Here I went for 150%.
Now we need to put a very slight blur on the noise we have added. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 0.5 and press OK.
Now at this point you may well be thinking, eh, how is this going to make rain? But stick with it as this is where the magic starts to happen.
We just added some noise, but its too much and too close together so we need to sort that out with a Levels Adjustment. Click on Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels
When the levels box pops up, make sure that the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” box is checked. This means that the levels layer will only affect the layer immediately below it.
With the levels dialog box open you will see the histogram and the three sliders underneath it. By moving the black slider to the right and the white slider to the left we can turn our noise layer from just looking like a grey mess into what looks more like a starry night sky.
Don’t worry about the grey slider in the middle as this will move automatically when you adjust the black or white sliders.
Here you can see that I have moved the sliders virtually on top of each other. This is not an exact science so you just have to play around with it until you get the look you need.
The next step is to turn our noise into something that more resembles rain by adding a motion blur effect to it.
First we must make sure that we select the noise layer rather than the levels adjustment layer we have just been working on by clicking on it once.
Then click on Filter > Blur > Motion Blur to bring up the Motion Blur dialog box.
Please note here that you should only pay attention to the preview box and not the main image as you will find that the noise disappears on the main image once we apply the motion blur.
A blur amount of between 50 and 100 pixels in normally about right but you may need to increase this for larger images. You can also change the angle of the motion to best suit your particular image.
Now, because the noise has disappeared we need to go back into the levels adjustment layer dialog box to pull the black slide back until it appears again. We can also tweak the white slider to the left to make the noise just right.
You will notice now that the noise or “rain” as it now looks like has gone a bit funky around the edges. That is why we added the extra area around the image in the very early stages. This means we can crop out the extra canvas later and lose the funky bits with no effect on our final image.
Now select the noise layer and change the blend mode to “screen”, and hey presto, the rain appears on the image.
To really make this effect realistic you can repeat the steps again to create a further noise layer but reduce the motion blur amount by half this time and reduce the opacity of the second noise layer to 50%. This gives the rain effect more depth.
Once you are happy with the amount of rain you have added you can go ahead and crop away the spare bit of canvas we created to allow for the bad edges created by the motion blur effect. The easiest way to do this is to right click on the thumbnail of the “layer 1” and choose “select pixels”. This will put a selection around the original image area.
Then simply click on Image > Crop and the extra bit of canvas will be cropped away to leave your final image.
To finish off the effect and make it super realistic we can add a reflection and water splashes but that will be covered in another tutorial.