Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you can effectively create the dramatic lighting of sunrays through windows from ordinary photos.
This effect can be applied to almost any room from any angle.
Before we begin, click that Subscribe" button to let you know as soon I upload new Photoshop tutorials.
I upload a new one every week.
Open an interior photo of a room with at least one window.
For your convenience, I provided this one that I'll being throughout this video.
Its link is in my video's description or project files.
First, we'll isolate the window or windows for our sunrays to appear through.
Open your Magic Wand Tool and make its radius approximately 7 pixels.
Make sure Contiguous is not checked.
I ll explain why in a second.
Click inside any of the window openings.
Notice that all the window openings are selected including other white areas outside the windows.
If we did check Contiguous, only the one white shape we clicked on would have a selection around it.
Open your Lasso Tool and click the "Intersect With" icon.
Once we draw a selection around the window openings, it gets rid of all the other selections.
Go to Select and "Save Selection".
This saves the selection in our Channels panel.
Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
We'll fill it with black, but before we do, check your foreground and background colors.
If they aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since black is our foreground color, press Alt to Option + Delete.
Open your Channels panel.
If you don't see it, go to Window and Channels.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the Alpha 1 thumbnail to make a selection of its shape.
We'll fill the selection with white and since our background color is white, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
Then, deselect it.
We'll convert our visible image into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, click the icon at the upper, right and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Go to Filter, Blur and Radial Blur.
Drag the Blur Center to a point along the top edge from where you want the source of light to originate.
For this image, let s make it the top, middle.
The Amount its 100, the Blur Method is Zoom and the Quality is Best.
Repeat the filter by pressing Alt + Ctrl + F on Windows or Cmd + Ctrl + F on a Mac.
Repeat this two more times.
We'll convert this into a Smart Object, as well.
Change its Blend Mode to "Linear Dodge".
Next, we'll darken the room which makes our sunrays more visible and makes our room more dramatic.
Temporarily, hide the sunrays and make the room active.
Convert it into a Smart Object, as well.
Go to Filter and "Camera Raw Filter".
Open the "Basic" panel.
In earlier versions, to open Basic, click this icon.
By dragging the Exposure slider to the left or right, it'll basically darkens or brightens our overall image.
Let's type in minus 2 point 3.
For the Contrast, type in 60 and for the Whites, type in 100.
Feel free to adjust any of these setting if you're using a different photo.
Make the sunrays visible and active.
We'll create a folder in which all of our sunrays will be placed.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + G.
We'll create a layer mask next to the folder, which we'll use to create the look of filtered
light and later, to mask out the sunrays that appear above our windows.
To do this, click the Layer mask icon to make a layer mask next to the folder.
Go to Filter, Render and "Clouds".
Right now, the sunrays are dim, but we'll increase its intensity in a moment.
Make the sunrays active and make 3 copies of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J three times.
Next, we'll mask out the sunrays that extend above the windows.
Open the Channels panel and Ctrl or Cmd-click the Alpha 1 thumbnail to make a selection of its shape.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I.
We'll hide it, so we can see our image better.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + H.
Open back the Layers panel and make the clouds layer mask active.
Open the Brush Tool and Brush picker.
Pick a soft, round brush.
For now, make its size 150 pixels per inch.
Make the Hardness 0% and the Opacity and Flow 100%.
Brush over the top of the window and adjust its size to mask out tighter areas.
Deselect the hidden selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D.
Next, we'll feather out the bottom of the sunrays.
Open your Gradient Tool and Gradient Picker.
Click the black to transparent icon and make sure the linear gradient icon is active.
Place your cursor just below your document and press and hold the Shift key as you drag
the tool up to approximately here.
Pressing Shift kept your tool perfectly vertical.
If you want to make your sunrays less bright, just hide one of the sunrays.
You can also reduce the opacity of another one.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!