This tutorial was created by digital expert Gavin Hoey and you can watch the video version of this tutorial, plus many more by him, on ePHOTOzine.tv.

Software used: Photoshop CS4 Time taken: 15-20 minutes

Step 1: Duplicate your layer

Duplicate your layer so you have the original image to go back to and rename the new layer.

The sky's OK in this image but we want to make it look like it's a little more full with rain. To do this click on the black & white circle at the bottom of the layers panel and select levels. Move the white slider from the right more into the centre and then move the grey slider towards the white one to give your sky that stormy feel.

Step 3: Bring some of the original image back

The sky now looks great but you'll see that this process has changed the whole image. To bring some of the original detail back in the ground you simply need to get the Paintbrush Tool make sure the foreground and background colour's are set black on white then paint over the areas you want to remove the level changes from.
 

After the level adjustment

What the image looked like after using the Paintbrush tool on the ground.

Step 4: New layer

We are now going to create our rain and to do this you need a new layer so click on the new layer icon found at the bottom of the layer panel or go to Layer>New Layer and rename the layer 'fill'. 

We want to make this layer black so go to Edit>Fill. Make sure the colour that's selected is back then click OK.

Step 5: Add Noise

We're making rain from speckles of noise so go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Make sure Monochromatic is ticked, that Gaussian is selected and that the amount is set to 100%. Click OK.

Step 6: Make the rain streaky

Noisy dots don't look much like rain so we need to streak them. Go to Filters>Blur>Motion Blur. As rain falls down, change the angle to 90 and the distance to 100 then click OK.

Step 7: Adjust the colour

The colours looking a little grey so to darken it we're going to adjust the Levels once again to make the rain stand out. So go to Image>Adjustment>Levels and move the white slider until it reaches the edge of the curve of the histogram then drag the black slider in until the black, grey and white markers are touching. You'll need to drag this in further than you think because the Photoshop fairies will make their own adjustments and you'll end up with more raindrops than you first imagined.

Step 8: Change blend mode

The fill layer is hiding our photo so we need to change the layer blend mode from normal to screen. Now you should be able to see your image as well as the rain we've created.

Step 9: Transform

If you look at the top and bottom of the image you'll see there's two thick lines of 'rain' this doesn't look right so we need to remove it from the image. The easiest way to do this is by going to Edit>Free Transform and dragging the corner anchors while holding down the shift key until the lines vanish. Once you're happy click the enter. If you want to adjust the angle the rain's falling from go to Edit>Transform>Perspective and adjust the anchor points accordingly. We tilted the rain into the photograph slightly but how you adjust it or if you do at all will depend on the image you're working on.

Step 10: Blur the rain

The rain looks OK but it's a little too defined so we're going to blur it slightly. Go to Filter>Blur<Gaussian Blur. Adjust the radius until you're happy then click OK.

Step 11: Use the Paintbrush tool

Make the rain pattern more uneven.

You've read the article, now go take some fantastic images. You can then upload the pictures, plus any advice and suggestions you have into the dedicated Photo Month forum for everyone at ePHOTOzine to enjoy.