I am so excited I finally finished this post for you!!! I want to post more fine art editing tutorials, textures, and actions, and this week I figured out a way to add gorgeous sun rays and golden light to images WITHOUT using overlays. I call this Photoshop/PSE action "Golden Sun Rays" and it is so easy to use and I hope you love it as much as I do! I have posted a step-by-step tutorial below.
This action, like most of the actions I created for this blog, can run in Photoshop AND Photoshop Elements. If you don't want to spend the monthly fee for Photoshop yet want to edit like a professional, check out (affiliate link) Photoshop Elements. It is very affordable and you can use pretty much everything on my blog in that program except the Lightroom Presets.
This action, along with hundreds of others including exclusive sets you can't find anywhere else, can be found in my Action Download Pack. If you purchase this pack you can get free updates up to two years after your purchase, so please don't hesitate to visit that page and email me if you want the newest version with all my newest actions, presets, and designs. You can also upgrade to my Mega Download Pack that includes hundreds and hundreds of professional photographer storyboards, textures, frames and digital papers for only $4 more. Read all about it here! Thank you for supporting my site!
CoffeeShop "Golden Sun Rays" Fine Art Photoshop/PSE Action Tutorial:
Open your image and run the CoffeeShop "Golden Sun Rays" action.
When the Gradient Fill 1 prompt comes up, click "OK".
This Gradient Fill pane will pop up that allows you to automatically and easily add the beautiful sun rays.
Click on the sun rays in the image and move them over to an area on the image that you think they look best. In this case I dragged them over to the upper right side.
Then adjust the "Scale" to taste.
Press "OK" to accept your changes. This is what the image looked like after the action finished running.
I clicked to select the top "Sun Rays" layer's mask and used a soft low-opacity black brush to gently paint some of the bright sun off of his face and hair.
You can also open up the "Drama" layer and further adjust the contrast. I was happy with it in this image so I made no changes.
If you want to remove the golden tint, simply turn off the "Golden Tint" layer or reduce the opacity.
I would love to see your own edits using this action! Feel free to post them on my Facebook page. I might even ask you if I can post it over here on my blog so I can show off your amazing work. :-)
Download the CoffeeShop "Golden Sun Rays" Fine Art Photoshop/PSE Action.
Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.
For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.
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Cool action Rita. Thanks so much. I've always appreciated the fact that your actions (and other goodies) can be used in PS Elements. I can't afford the monthly subscription and you're right, PSE is a fab alternative!
ReplyDeleteLisa
Thank you Lisa! I love PSE and I HATE paying a monthly subscription fee to Photoshop. But I have to have that program to write actions. If I wasn't writing actions I wouldn't own it and just have PSE. It is an amazing program!
Deleteyes I love PSE too. However I haven't used it much in the past few years......I have these actions downloaded but can't figure out how to load in PSE 8. Can anyone help? Thanks!!
Deletethank you.
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome Ouida!
DeleteSo thankful I found this! Thank you so much for sharing it!! I appreciate you doing something for PSE users. They are so hard to find!
ReplyDeleteI started out making sure my actions ran in PSE. I love PSE!!!
DeleteI have used this action and love it! Posted a pic on your facebook page.
ReplyDeleteI saw it Meagan, it is stunning! Thank you so much!!!
DeleteLove this action, thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Wendy! I have forgotten about this one, I am going to use it again.
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