How to make a rain effect in Photoshop.

Want to add a little moodiness to your photos? Learn how to make a rain effect in Photoshop by blurring a noise layer.

Nobody likes standing in the drizzling rain. But if you want to take a cool photo of someone in the rain without actually being in it, creating a rain effect in Adobe Photoshop is a great alternative.

How to create a rain effect in Photoshop

It’s easy to add a rain effect in Photoshop. Just follow these steps:

Add a blank layer — Click the Add New Layer icon to insert a blank layer above the background.
Fill with black — Highlight the new layer, click Edit, then Fill in the top toolbar. Change the Contents drop-down to Black and click OK.
Add Noise — Find the Filter tab in the top toolbar and choose Noise > Add Noise. Set the amount to about 25%, choose Gaussian, and check the Monochromatic box.
Scale the Noise — To make the Noise bigger, follow Edit > Transform > Scale. Change both the height (H) and the width (W) to 400% and click the check mark to accept.
Crop the rain layer — Click Select in the top toolbar and follow All > Crop > Deselect. This will remove all the noise outside of the canvas space.
Make a smart object — Select the rain layer, find the menu icon in the top right section of the layer panel, and click Convert to Smart Object.
Blend the layer — Change your layer’s blend mode from Normal to Screen.
Apply Motion Blur — Highlight your effect layer and click Filter on the top toolbar then Blur and Motion Blur. Choose the settings to fit your creative vision. A 65-degree angle and a 75 distance is a good start.

Adjust the levels to perfection.

Now that it’s raining in your photo (and you didn’t even need an umbrella), you can adjust the levels on your image to make it exactly how you dreamed.

Want more photography tips? Discover what more you can do with Photoshop to create stunning effects in your photos.

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