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Written by Denny Tang   
Thursday, 28 June 2007

Rain Photoshop Tutorial
Rain Photoshop Tutorial

Add drama to your photos with this photo-realistic rain effect. In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to combine several Photoshop filters to add rain to your photo.

Before and After Star Rain Photoshop Effect

Original Image

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Rain Photoshop Tutorial

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The Process with Photoshop

First, a new layer is created for the rain texture. To create the rain texture, we use the Noise filter to add random noise to the image. Then, the noise is blurred with a motion blur. If the photo is a high resolution image, the rain is thickened and blurred to make it look natural. Finally, the rain texture is tweaked for it's density and visibility.

Image

Rain Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1 Open a photo into Photoshop. This is the image that will be used for this tutorial:

Image

Step 2 To begin, create a new layer (Layer> New> Layer) and change blending mode of the new layer to Screen. This new layer is where we will create the rain texture.

Image

Step 3 With the new layer selected, press Ctrl+F5 to open the Fill tool or open the Edit menu and select Fill. In the Fill tool, select 50% Gray from the drop down menu and click OK.

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Step 4 Open the Filter> Noise menu and select Add Noise. In the Add Noise tool, leave the default settings, check the Monochromatic option, and click OK.

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Step 5 Press Shift+Ctrl+L to apply an Auto Levels or open the Image> Adjustments menu and select Auto Levels. This will make the speckles more visible to aid us in the next steps.

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Step 6 Open the Filter> Blur menu and select Motion Blur. In the Motion Blur tool, adjust the angle and distance to your preference. The angle will adjust the angle of the falling rain and the distance will affect the length of the rain.

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Step 7 Now we're going to adjust the density of the rain. To do this, open the Levels tool (Ctrl+L or Image> Adjustments> Levels). In the Levels tool, drag the left and right sliders towards the center. Then, while looking at the image behind the Levels tool, drag the black input slider to adjust the density of the rain until you get the density you prefer.

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Step 8 If you're working on a high resolution image, the rain may look too thin and sharp. To thicken the rain, we'll be using teh Maximum filter. If you don't want to thicken the rain, you may skip this step. Open the Filter> Other menu and select Maximum. Increase the radius slightly until you get the thickness you desire.

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Step 9 The rain may look slightly pixelated so we'll blur it using the Gaussian Blur filter. Open the Filter> Blur menu and select Gaussian Blur. In the Gaussian Blur tool, adjust the radius slightly until the pixelation disappears.

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Step 10 If you look at the edges of the image, you may find a white glow. To remove this, simply use the Transform Scale tool by pressing Ctrl+T or opening the Edit> Transform menu and selecting scale. Drag the corners of the scale box outwards until the white glow is hidden.

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Step 11 To finalize the effect, reduce the opacity of the layer.

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Final Results of Star Filter Photoshop Tutorial

Original Image

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Star Filter Photoshop Tutorial

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Comments (23) >> feed
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written by Sandip Patel, July 09, 2008

As per your Tutorial i have done this effect...........

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written by suresh, July 08, 2008

its nice

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written by nah, June 14, 2008

o meu fica super diferente.

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written by j.w.87, May 29, 2008

everytime i try to do it, my rain looks like a rainbow.....any suggestions to change that??

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written by Natsuki, May 18, 2008

bei mir sind die sprenkel schwarz..
wieso?

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written by Anthony, April 04, 2008

Ah thank you very much for this tutorial. I always wanted to learn how to make a rain effect. I must say for a simple picture that i used (ryuk from deathnote, anime) it turned out great! It looks as if he is standing during a storm, but the sun is setting at the same time (the light showing) :D
thank you again, Definitely something i would relate back to.

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written by tlotzer, April 02, 2008

The links for pp 2-4 are set to page 5. Can't get to pp 2-4. Please repair links on:
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/rain/rain-photoshop-tutorial.html



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written by tom, April 02, 2008

Pages 2-4 are linked to page five only. We can't see pp 2-4. Please repair links. I couldn't find your contact info.

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written by ben robenson, January 09, 2008

i dont like your work. but it was very easy to go through and i enjoyed doing it. but i still hate your work

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written by Chandu Ramse, October 25, 2007

Vov that effect n beauty that u used are very nice.

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written by Abe, October 18, 2007

Hey excellent job Denny Tang, i learned something new today, great job, step by step, i could do in my first try thank you!

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written by Ahmed Elmasry, October 11, 2007

thanks , I really appreciate it

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written by Neha, September 02, 2007

Easy to understand step by step process, i could easily make it, but it could have been more good if the rain was moving.... but at last gr8 job done. :-)

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written by Arocr, August 22, 2007

very easy to understand and comes out gr8. learned somethin new 2day :)

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written by Andy, July 31, 2007

This is pretty straight forward, decent, nice job. Roughly the same way i learned how to achieve brushed aluminum. I think you should've added a bit of a splash you see on top of exposed surfaces. So it'd be like a faded white glow above the umbrella. :)

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written by Bryan, July 17, 2007

If you want the cloths to have a wet effect try darkening them, that's all the changes when your cloths become wet.

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written by rayna, July 13, 2007

that looks really cool!

and it just inhanced the already
raining picture i used.
awesome!

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written by asrasfa, July 06, 2007

Manuel she's under and umbrella

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written by destruction, July 05, 2007

good.................................

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written by manuel, July 02, 2007

Not a good work...The clothes are dry... it's not real

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written by tenpa, July 01, 2007

this rain gains my brain

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written by Sukhoi, June 30, 2007

Bravo!!!
Good Work!

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written by sonofa, June 29, 2007

The only thing i think i would do differently is to put the transform right after motion blur.

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 April 2008 )
 

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