Add A Realistic Rainbow To A Photo In Photoshop
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Step 16: Drag Out Another Rainbow Gradient
With the colors in the gradient now reversed, we're ready to create our second rainbow. First, I'm going to hide my original rainbow from view temporarily by clicking on the layer group's visibility icon (the eyeball) in the Layers panel:
Then I'll drag out a rainbow gradient just as I did back in Step 4: First, I need to re-select the Radial Gradient option in the Options Bar so the gradient will appear as an arc:
Then I'll click and drag out my second rainbow in the same location as the first one:
When I release my mouse button, Photoshop draws the gradient, looking very much like the first one except that this time, the order of the colors is reversed:
Step 17: Change The Blend Mode To Screen
Just as we did with the first rainbow, change the blend mode of the new rainbow from Normal to Screen:
The colors of the rainbow now blend in better with the image:
Step 18: Apply The Gaussian Blur Filter
Since the Gaussian Blur filter was the last filter we applied, we can quickly re-apply it with the same settings by pressing Ctrl+F (Win) / Command+F (Mac). Just as before, the color transitions now appear softer and more natural:
Step 19: Copy The Layer Mask Onto The Second Rainbow Layer
We need to add a layer mask at this point and draw a black to white linear gradient on the mask to hide the the rainbow below the point where it should be touching the ground and have it appear to increase in brightness as it reaches further into the sky, just as we did back in Steps 7-10 with the original rainbow. But why go through all that hassle again when we can just copy one of the layer masks we've already created onto the second rainbow's layer! To do that, I'll first need to open my layer group by clicking on the small triangle to the left of the group's name:
With the layer group open and the two layers that make up the original rainbow now visible, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key, click on the layer mask thumbnail for the "Rainbow copy" layer and drag it up to the second rainbow's layer:
When you see a highlight bar appear around the second rainbow's layer (shown in the previous thumbnail), release your mouse button. Photoshop copies the layer mask onto the second rainbow's layer:
If we look at the image in the document window, we see that the bottom of the rainbow now fades out just above the trees, just like the original rainbow:
Step 20: Move The Second Rainbow Into Position
All that's left to do now is to move the second rainbow into position. Select Photoshop's Move Tool from the Tools panel, or press the letter V on your keyboard to quickly select it with the shortcut:
Before I move anything, I'll turn the original rainbow back on in the document by clicking once again on the layer group's visibility icon in the Layers panel:
Then, with the Move Tool selected and both rainbows now visible in the document, click inside the document window and, with your mouse button still held down, drag the second rainbow into place. I'm going to drag mine up and to the left so only a small part of it appears in the top left corner of the photo:
Step 21: Lower The Opacity Of The Second Rainbow
Finally, since I don't want my second rainbow to appear as bright as the original, I'll lower its opacity down to around 70% at the top of the Layers panel:
And with that, we're done! Here, after lowering the opacity, is my final Photoshop double rainbow effect:
And there we have it!
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