Tutorials

Create Rain

10/23/2001

The effect of rainfall can easily be achieved by the use of a few filters.

1. Start off with the image to which you want to add the rainfall. It's easiest to use an image with sky in it if you're new to Photoshop.

2. Separate the scene in the foreground from the background (if your image has the sky in it, the sky is your background). To separate the two, select the background or foreground. Then you want to put your selection into its own layer. This is done by clicking on the Layer menu and selecting New Layer Via Copy.

3. You now have two layers in the image, a foreground layer and a background layer. Create a new layer in between these two layers. This is done by going to the Layer menu and selecting New Layer. Then move the layer in between the two layers in the Layers palette.

4. Choose black or dark gray for the foreground color and a gloomy blue for the background color. Click on the Filter menu, point your cursor to Render, and select the Clouds filter.

5. If the image is a scene on a bright sunny day, the first thing is to make it gloomy. Select the layer with the foreground images. Using the Hue/Saturation controls, bring down the saturation and lightness to a point where the image looks gloomy.

6. In the Layers palette, create a new layer that rests above the others.

7. Choose Black for your foreground color. Fill the new layer with black by clicking on the Edit menu and selecting Fill.

8. Apply the Add Noise filter. Make the mode Monochromatic and give it an amount of about 22 with the distribution set to Gaussian.

9. Apply the Blur More filter to the layer.

10. Using the Levels command, nudge the dark tones (black triangle) and highlight (white triangle) sliders to lessen the amount of noise.

11. Apply a Motion Blur filter at an angle to simulate the directional falling of rain. Give it a small distance, just enough to get streaks.

12. Using the Levels command again, nudge the dark tones (black triangle) and highlight (white triangle) sliders to enhance the look of the falling rain.

13. Finally, put the layer with the rain into screen mode by going into the Layers palette and selecting Mode. This lets the white show through and the black of the layer disappear.