Weather Effects

[T Paul]

Mother nature can really make for some dramatic photographs! Share your techniques on how to create rain, snow, lightning, day, night and so on. So pick up your mouse or pen and see what dramatic weather you can create. Post your image and don't forget to share your tricks of the trade!

~T

[T Paul]

Okay, I'll start this one...

Instant Rain…Just Add Noise

1. Open the photo you want to add rain to.

2. Select the sky and remove it.

3. I replaced the blue sky with some storm clouds I had on file. If you don’t have a sky to replace your sunny one with, you can create storm clouds by using the cloud filter (Filter>Render>Clouds) in PS. You will need to experiment with a soft brush, scale and perhaps a little blurring to make the clouds more believable. Create a new layer and select two storm cloud colors such as greys for your forground and background colors and then run the clouds filter. This layer will need to be below your main image so that the clouds fill in the space where you removed the sky earlier.

4. Switch to your main image. Now we will adjust the hue and saturation to turn the sunny light to more of an overcast light (Adjustments>Hue/Saturation). Lower the Saturation and Lightness settings until your image looks like an overcast rainy day.

5. Now to create the rain. Create a new file above the other layers and name it RAIN. Fill this layer with black.

6. Now add some noise (Filter>Noise>Add Noise). Set the Distribution option to Gaussian and select the Monochrome option. You will need to experiment with the percentage setting. Try 20% to begin with.

7. Apply a bit (start with a radius of 1) of Gaussian Blur to soften the noise (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur). Again this is an area that you will need to experiment with to see what various setting will produce.

8. Now to reduce the amount of noise with a Threshold Adjustment (Image>Adjustments>Threshold). Adjust the sliders reducing the amount of white dots to generate the level of downpour you want to create.

9. Ok, now I have a black screen and some dots. Change your Rain layer’s mode to Screen and behold you can see your image again. Still round white dots look more like snow than rain. We'll add a motion blur to your Rain layer to change the dots to look like falling rain (Filter>Blur>Motion Blur). Remember to set the angle in the direction you want the rain to fall. Set the distance just enough to make it look like falling rain.

[Flora]

This is just amazing ....

Great tip .... Thank you!!!

[Legacy~Art]

T Paul your rain tutorial is very good thank you.

I do my rain alittle differently, i add a layer than i add a fill-in i made of rainfall, then i change the opacity to something i like usually 50% but depends on the picture, then i sharpen if needed.

~Legacy~

[T Paul]

Nicely done and such a wonderful image!

~T