How to Create a Rain Photo Effect Action in Adobe Photoshop

Final product image — What You’ll Be Creating

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create an amazing rain photo effect in Adobe Photoshop. I will explain everything in so much detail that anyone can create it, even those who have just opened Photoshop for the first time.

The effect shown above is the one I will show you how to create in this tutorial. If you would like to create the even more advanced rain effect shown below, using just a single click and in only a few minutes, then check out my Dark Knight Photoshop Action.

What You’ll Need

To recreate the design above, you will need the following resources:

Stock Image

1. How to Start Creating an Action

First, open the photo that you want to work with. To open your photo, go to File > Open, choose your photo, and click Open. Now, before we get started, just check a couple of things:

Your photo should be in RGB Color mode, 8 Bits/Channel. To check this, go to Image > Mode.
For best results, your photo size should be 2000–4000 px wide/high. To check this, go to Image > Image Size.
Your photo should be the Background layer. If it is not, go to Layer > New > Background from Layer.

2. How to Create the Rain

Step 1

In this section, we are going to create the rain. Go to Layer > New > Layer to create a new layer and name it Temp_1.

Step 2

Now press D on your keyboard to reset the swatches. Then, go to Edit > Fill and set Contents to Foreground Color, Mode to Normal, and Opacity to 100%.

Step 3

Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Set the Amount to 20% and Distribution to Uniform, and check the Monochromatic option.

Step 4

Now go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Artistic > Paint Daubs and set the Brush Size to 5, Sharpness to 0, and Brush Type to Wide Blurry.

Step 5

Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Texture > Grain and set the Intensity to 45, Contrast to 85, and Grain Type to Soft.

Step 6

Now go to Image > Auto Tone. Then, go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold and set the Threshold Level to 128.

Step 7

Go to Select > Color Range and set Select to Highlights, Fuzziness to 20%, and Range to 190.

Step 8

Now go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection to add a layer mask that reveals the selected area of the layer.

Step 9

Right-click on the layer mask and choose Apply Layer Mask. Then, press Control-T on your keyboard and set the Width and Height of the layer to 103% as shown below:

Step 10

Now go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and set the Angle to 45° and Distance to 20 px.

Step 11

Press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer. Then, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 0.5 px.

Step 12

Now Control-click on the Temp_1 layer to select both layers at the same time and press Control-E on your keyboard to merge them into one layer. Then, name this layer Rain_1.

Step 13

Press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer. Then, press Control-T and set the Width and Height of the layer to 135% and the Angle to -1° as shown below:

Step 14

Now press Control-J on your keyboard twice to duplicate this layer twice. Then, Shift-click on the Rain_1 copy layer to select all layers in between, and press Control-E to merge them into one layer.

Step 15

Control-click on this layer thumbnail to make a selection of this layer. Then, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection to add a layer mask that reveals the selected area of the layer.

Step 16

Now press Control-J on your keyboard twice to duplicate this layer twice. After that, Shift-click on the Rain_1 copy 3 layer to select all layers in between, and press Control-E to merge them into one layer.

Step 17

Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 1 px.

Step 18

Press Control-T on your keyboard and set the Angle to -3° as shown below:

Step 19

Now press Control-J on your keyboard five times to duplicate this layer five times. Then, Shift-click on the Rain_1 copy 5 layer to select all layers in between, and press Control-E to merge them into one layer.

Step 20

Control-click on this layer thumbnail to make a selection of this layer. Then, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection to add a layer mask that reveals the selected area of the layer.

Step 21

Now Right-click on the layer mask and choose Apply Layer Mask. Then, Control-click on this layer thumbnail to make a selection of this layer again. After that, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection to add a layer mask that reveals the selected area of the layer.

Step 22

In the Properties panel, set the Density of the layer mask to 80%.

Step 23

Now Right-click on the layer mask and choose Apply Layer Mask. Then, change the Opacity of this layer to 80%, name it Rain_2, and drag it just below the Rain_1 layer in the Layers panel.

Step 24

Press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer. Then, drag this layer to the top of the layers in the Layers panel. After that, go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal and then to Edit > Transform Flip Vertical to flip this layer both horizontally and vertically.

Step 25

Now press Control-T on your keyboard and set the Width and Height of the layer to 150% as shown below:

Step 26

Press Control-A on your keyboard to make a selection of the whole canvas. Then, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection to add a layer mask that reveals the selected area of the layer.

Step 27

Now Right-click on the layer mask and choose Apply Layer Mask. Then, press Control-T and set the Width and Height of the layer to 180% and the Angle to -2° as shown below:

Step 28

Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 5 px.

Step 29

Name this layer Rain_3 and drag it just below the Rain_2 layer in the Layers panel.

Step 30

Now select the Rain_1 layer and go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All to add a layer mask that reveals the whole layer. Then, press D on your keyboard to reset the swatches and go to Filter > Render > Clouds.

Step 31

Now repeat the previous step for the Rain_2 and Rain_3 layers.