Photoshop Tutorials: Adding Sunlight Through The Trees
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Written By Steve Patterson
In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to learn how to add beams of sunlight through trees, which is not only a great way to make an image look more interesting, it's also a lot easier to do than you might think, as we'll see.
We'll even finish things off by making the sunbeams appear to be shining on the ground after they pass through the trees, which adds more realism to the final effect.
Here's the image I'll be starting with in this Photoshop tutorial:
And here's what it will look like after we add our sunbeams:
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Let's get started.
Step 1: Find The Color Channel With The Highest Contrast
With our image open in Photoshop, the first thing we need to do is find out which of our three color channels (Red, Green and Blue) contains the highest amount of contrast. To do that, switch over to your Channels palette, which by default is grouped in beside your Layers palette. You'll see the "Red", "Green" and "Blue" channels listed, which combine to create all the colors we see in our image. You'll also see what appears to be a fourth channel, the "RGB" channel at the top, but it's really just the composite of the Red, Green and Blue channels ("RGB" stands for "Red, Green and Blue") and isn't a channel itself:
We're interested in the three color channels, and what you want to do is click on each channel while keeping an eye on your image to see which one of them gives us the highest amount of contrast in the image.
Click on the Red channel first and you'll see your image turn black and white. Remember what it looks like, then click on the Green channel. You'll see a different looking black and white version of the image. Again, remember what it looks like, then click on the Blue channel for a third black and white version of the image. You want to choose the version that offers the highest amount of contrast, and chances are, if the image you're working on looks similar to mine, it will be the Blue channel with the highest contrast. Here's what my Blue channel looks like. The sky in the background is nice and bright while the trees and ground are very dark, exactly what I was looking for:
Step 2: Make A Copy Of The Channel
Now that I know my Blue channel is the one that offers the highest amount of contrast, I need to make a duplicate of it. To copy a channel, simply click on it and drag it down onto the New Channel icon at the bottom of the Channels palette (it's the second icon from the right):
Release your mouse button and you'll see the copy of the channel below all the other channels in the Channels palette. Since I copied my Blue channel, Photoshop named the duplicate "Blue copy":
Step 3: Darken The Dark Areas Further With The Levels Command
We need to increase the contrast even further in our copied channel by making the dark areas completely black, and we can do that easily with Photoshop's Levels command. To access Levels, either go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen, choose Adjustments, and then choose Levels, or for a faster way, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+L (Win) / Command+L (Mac). Either way brings up the Levels dialog box. Directly below the Histogram (the black graph that looks like a mountain range) in the center, you'll see three little sliders - a black one on the left, a white one on the right, and a gray one in the middle. Click on the black one on the left and begin dragging it towards the right. As you drag the slider, you'll see the dark areas in your image becoming even darker. Continue dragging the slider towards the right until all the dark areas in the image appear to be filled with black:
Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. Here's my image after dragging the slider. The dark areas now appear filled in with black while the sky in the background remains nice and bright:
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