Create A Dramatic Rain Scene

In this tutorial i will show you how to Create A Dramatic Rain Scene in photoshop. This tutorial can be used on almost all pictures. First we will create some rain on top of the pictures using some different filters, then we will create a gradient layer on top of the rain layer for the dramatic effect. I used Photoshop CS4 to create this tutorial.

 

Lets take a look to what we will make in this tutorial.

dramatic-rain-scene-small-1 dramatic-rain-scene-small-2

or

dramatic-rain-scene-small-1-Lightning dramatic-rain-scene-small-2-Lightning

 

STEP 1

Lets start of by opening the image you would like to edit.
drama rain scene

 

We dont have to do anything with the picture itself, we just go ahead and create a new layer (CTRL+SHIFT+N) on top of the picture and call it the “rain layer”.
drama rain scene 1

 

STEP 2

Now we need to fill the rain layer. Go to Edit -> Fill or use “SHIFT+F5”.
drama rain scene 2

And use the settings below.
drama rain scene 3

 

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STEP 3

Now we have a gray layer, we need to render a view more filters to create the rain.
So go to Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise.
drama rain scene 4

And use the settings as shown below.
drama rain scene 5

 

Now set the Rain Layer style to “Screen”. You see some noise now, but it doesn’t look like rain yet.
drama rain scene 6

 

So to make it look more like rain we need to do some more things. First Press “SHIFT+CTRL+B” to use Auto Color.
drama rain scene 7

You will notice that the noise will pop out more.
drama rain scene 8

 

To make it more real, it needs to look like the rain is falling down. For that we will use “Motion Blur”. Go to Filter -> Blur – > Motion Blur.
drama rain scene 9

And use the settings as shown below. Make sure the rain is falling to the left because the hair of the girl is also blowing to the left.
drama rain scene 10

 

Step 4

Now go to Image -> Adjustments – > Levels, or press “CTRL+L”. This will add a more dramatic look.
drama rain scene 11

I used the settings below (117, 1, 223), but you can play with it till you are happy.
drama rain scene 12

 

When you are happy with the resolt we need to do one more thing to make the rain less sharp and more realistic.
Go to Filter -> Other – > Maximum.
drama rain scene 13

And set the Radius to 1 pixel.
drama rain scene 14

 

STEP 5

Now we are done with the rain we need to do one last thing to create the dramatic effect.
Create a New Adjustment Layer for the gradient we need. So go to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Gradient Map.
drama rain scene 15

Give the gradient layer a name, i just used the default name.
drama rain scene 16

And set the Layer Mode to Multiply.
drama rain scene 16-2

Click on the Color panel to open the Gradient Editor.
drama rain scene 16-1

And set the gradient shown as below. You can use different settings if you like, but these settings worked fine for me. I used the locations (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).
drama rain scene 17

This is the final result:
drama rain scene 18

 

Final Result

dramatic-rain-scene-small-1 dramatic-rain-scene-small-2

It also works fine on colored images: I used the same settings for this image.
dramatic-rain-scene-small-1-Lightning dramatic-rain-scene-small-2-Lightning

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial and hopefully you learned some new things.
Ofcourse you can make it more real by letting the rain bouncing on the ground or shoe.

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    Comments

    Posted by Eva on October 26, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    very cool! I liked it
    thanx

    Posted by tutorial blog on October 26, 2009 at 5:10 pm

    Good tutorial. Thank for share

    Posted by nabin awal on November 4, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    The tutorials is very good, but your photo is very sexy.!!!!!

    Posted by Designium on October 26, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    Very cool effect πŸ˜€

    Posted by chris on October 26, 2009 at 8:07 pm

    Thank you, hopefully it is useful for you guys.

    Posted by CSSJockey on October 26, 2009 at 10:45 pm

    Nice Tutorial, I like it. Thanks for sharing.

    Posted by Jon on October 27, 2009 at 6:36 am

    One extra step you could add to make this even more realistic (especially in long distance pictures like the second example) is to use the brush and eraser tool with a splotchy brush on the rain layer to create “rain pockets.” Without it, the rain seems a bit too uniform and consistent.

    Posted by jackie on October 29, 2009 at 3:52 am

    every step is well explained !! thanks !

    Posted by yarden on October 30, 2009 at 11:07 am

    wow tnx πŸ˜€

    Posted by Pavel Chmelar CZ; on October 31, 2009 at 1:00 pm

    Wow, very nice and simple. Thank you.

    Posted by chris on October 31, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    Thank you all for your compliments.

    #JON: That’s indeed a good extra step, thanks.

    Posted by Jon on November 13, 2009 at 11:54 am

    No problem. Thanks for the great Photoshop tutorial!

    Posted by joyoge bookmark on November 2, 2009 at 8:20 pm

    nice tutorial, thanks..

    Posted by taufik Gunawan on November 3, 2009 at 12:14 pm

    nice tuts..

    Posted by david on November 5, 2009 at 4:27 am

    Thanks this was very helpful and easy to follow! The results came out good

    Posted by UbaId on November 8, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    Awesome Tut…
    Carry On ..

    Posted by Talita on November 11, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Wow im very impressed – Great work Im learning so much from you.

    Posted by Dennis on November 18, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    Thanks for sharing!

    Posted by forex robot on November 19, 2009 at 6:50 pm

    Amazing as always πŸ™‚

    Posted by we on November 26, 2009 at 5:45 am

    nice man… thanks

    Posted by Lisa on November 30, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    Very cool!

    Posted by brin on December 12, 2009 at 5:55 pm

    the first tutorial i actually got right and finished! lol=]
    thanks

    Posted by Tatjana Dimitrijevic on December 19, 2009 at 7:52 pm

    Great!
    Thank you…

    Posted by kodi on December 24, 2009 at 7:20 am

    this was a sick tutorial, my project looks great now! thanks!

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    Posted by Bjorgvin on January 14, 2010 at 1:15 am

    Nice tutorial. You should really give credit for the photos you used, or at least link to them so people can use them as well…

    Posted by chris on January 14, 2010 at 10:08 pm

    Thanks, I dont know a link or credits, because i bought a cd with stock photos on it and used this one from it.

    Posted by Ylod Sean on February 15, 2010 at 11:30 pm

    It is amazing what you can do with imagination and Photoshop. Too bad my imagination..is completely missing πŸ™‚

    Posted by Beauchamp Web design on June 14, 2010 at 10:56 am

    Cool tutorial, will definitely have to give this a tryy

    Posted by Adidicted Photoshop on September 1, 2010 at 1:26 am

    Wow soooooooooooooo coooooooooooooool

    Posted by Lisa Evancho on September 21, 2010 at 10:50 am

    Wow, that is very cool effect. I use photoshop often but didn’t use this effect.

    Posted by Abuelo on March 30, 2011 at 11:56 pm

    Great instructions even though I have only Photoshop Elements 8 it worked good. I had to manuver some what but I did find all the instructions easy to follow except ( for those of us amateur) the one about the gradient percentages and the numbers for the colors, but I figured it out. Watch out if the comment paper is wet from the rain!! Thank you again and may God Bless you.

    Posted by imran javed on March 21, 2012 at 11:32 am

    Awsome work dude!

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