How to Add a Rainbow to your Photograph in Photoshop

In this article let us discuss how to Add a Rainbow to your Photograph in Photoshop

Open the picture

how to add a rainbow to a photo using photoshop

Photo by Muffet

Either click File > Open or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl + O.

Add a New Layer

Either click on the Create New Layer icon or use shortcut Shift + Ctrl + N to create a new layer. The layer will be named Layer 1. Set the blending properties of the layer to Screen by either selecting it from the drop down box located in the layers palette or by right clicking and selecting blending options on Layer 1. It is on this layer that we are going to paint our rainbow.

Select Gradient

Either click on the icon or press G to select Gradient Tool. Select the Transparent Rainbow gradient.

Set the Gradient type to linear gradient and adjust the properties of the transparent rainbow gradient as shown in the picture.

Drawing the Gradient

The width of the rainbow depends on the composition of your picture. So make a mental note as to how wide your rainbow will be. Hold down the Shift key and draw your rainbow by clicking and dragging your left mouse button. How much you drag determines the width of your rainbow.

Holding down the shift key while dragging makes sure that the rainbow you draw is in a perfect straight line.

Making the Rainbow

Click Filter > Distort > Polar Co ordinates. Select the option Rectangular to Polar and click ok.

Now you have your circular rainbow.

If you observe closely you will note that when we first drew the gradient in a straight line; the colors of the rainbow VIBGYOR was starting with violet on top. But when we applied the polar co ordinates, distort effect it reversed the order, making red on top; exactly as found in nature.

Transforming the Rainbow

Press Ctrl + T to select the Free Transform tool and adjust the rainbow so as to fit neatly on to your image.

Making the Rainbow Realistic

Click Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur to add realistic effect to your rainbow. The amount of blur you require varies from picture to picture so try experimenting with different settings. For our example picture we selected a blur radius of 5.

Adjust the opacity of the rainbow layer, in this case layer 1 to suit the mood of the picture. We set it to opacity of 80%.

Add a layer mask to layer 1 by clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon located at the bottom of the layers palette.. Press B to select the Paint Brush tool. Press D to set the foreground color to black and background color to white. Select a suitable brush size and softness and paint over those areas of rainbow which we need to delete. In this case the portion of rainbow from the ground to the canopy.

In case you need any correction press X to invert the foreground and background colors. So that now the foreground color is white; and paint over areas you wish to undo. You can thus switch back and forth and achieve the desired result.

Adding a Feel of Depth

Add a new layer; Either click on the Create New Layer icon or use shortcut Shift + Ctrl + N to create a new layer. The layer will be named Layer 2.

We should now be using a paint brush tool with white as our foreground color. If not press B to select paint brush, press D and then press X to set the foreground color to white.

Now paint the sky inside of the rainbow, the area below the rainbow and above the canopy. Make sure you do not spill over to the trees or on to the rainbow.

You can use the eraser tool to erase away any spill over’s.

Fine Tuning the Effect

Click on layer 2 to make it the active layer. Set the blending mode to Soft light and then play with the opacity slider until you find a value that suits your image. For our example picture a value of 25 % seems okay.