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How to add light rays through the clouds in Photoshop

Apr 8, 2016 by GB Leave a Comment

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Cloudy days are great for shooting wide open shots with a naturally soft light. But, sometimes the scene can appear a bit dull due to the lack of contrast.

One way of spicing up an image is to include light rays coming down from the clouds. In an ideal world, these would appear in-camera, but the reality is we don’t get to choose when they do and don’t appear.

For those times when they don’t, thankfully it’s possible to add the effect in post production. To show us how to do that, Aaron Nace of Phlearn has created an in-depth tutorial.

Throughout the eleven minute tutorial, Nace shows the best practices for adding realistic-looking light rays that appear to be coming through the clouds.

One of the most vital components is to choose the proper location as the center area for your light rays. Specifically, he says to use where you believe the sun to be as the center. This will create a more natural aesthetic when you use the brush and radial blur filter to further finish the process.

Once you get the hang of it, the process is fairly simple. In fact, you could further speed up the process by creating a custom brush, which you could tweak with each new image for a more natural aesthetic. An alternative option would be to pick up our Light Ray texture pack.

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Related posts:

How to enhance and create gorgeous light rays in your landscapes in Photoshop How to create light rays in Photoshop How to project the bat signal onto clouds with a 100,000 Lumen light and a DIY projector Is It Ever Okay To Add A Lens Flare In Photoshop? Yes, And Here’s How To Do It

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: Aaron Nace, Adobe Photoshop, light rays, post processing

About GB

« The new Hasselblad H6D boasts 4K video, 100MP sensor and a touch screen
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Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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