Light Rays My Way

[vmlopes]

As so many have asked how to create light rays like these


Rest Your Weary Head by vmlopes, on Flickr

.....I thought it only fair to right up a little tutorial...;)



So we start off with our base image.......(note this is an 0EV shot of a sequence that has not been tonemapped), after tonemapping and any other PP that you do.



I use PS CS5 so the commands I am using are for this.....probably the same for the earlier versions of PS also.

1. Open your image and duplicate the layer (CTRL/CMD & J)

2. Open the levels tool (CTRL/CMD & L) and drag the input levels up until only the highlights are left.

3. Next go to Filter, Blur and choose Radial Blur then chose Amount 100, Blur Method - Zoom and Quality - Draft. Adjust the 'Blur Centre' to match the intended beams with the natural direction of the sun through the window. The reason for choosing 'Draft' quality is because its quick and allows you to set the direction of the rays which may take multiple attempts. Keep trying this until you get the rough position sorted.

4. Go back to the Radial Blur tool and ensure that its all set - all good? Undo and now change Quality to 'Best'. Repeat this 3-4 times - each time you will see the rays become more refined.

5. Great, now change the layer mode to 'screen'.

6. Now open the levels tool and adjust the levels until the beams become proper visible.

7. You can now see that the light beams over stretched over the window frame a little - we need to get rid of this. Create a layer mask and using the brush tool, mask out the overlap.


Et voila, merge and flatten layers - the finished picture! (this one has been HDR'd with the rays added in at the end)


I See Light by vmlopes, on Flickr

[n8]

Got it! I've read how to do this before, but that was very helpful...particularly the repeating step.

[jetrim]

Nice, and not nearly as messy as a can of hairspray or Pam

[GB1]

VM,

Great writeup. Thanks for sharing the info!

I have been meaning to read all your posts and just got the time to examine them closely. I suspected that you were doing something 'ghastly' with the light beams, but I honestly thought it was possible that they were real - light beams are like that sometimes.

I just tried it on an HDR I have of Antelope Canyon. Not as good source photo as yours and I haven't gotten the layer mask editing part down yet, but you can see the beams: I post it here.

Did you come up with this technique yourself by playing around in PS?

G

[vmlopes]

Yeah me and a couple of guys came up with this, there are simlar tutorials around I am sure.....do you mind if I have a play with that shot??

Very nice by the way !!

[GB1]

Sure, feel free to edit that shot. As noted, I had problems with controlling the light spillage. Using the brush tool to clean off the sides made very obvious PP streaks. I need to play with it some more!

[armando_m]

i tried this with GIMP and it worked just fine !!

Thanks for the tutorial