Photoshop Rain Effect - Adding Rain To A Photo

Step 3: Add A New Blank Layer

We need to add a new blank layer to our document at this point, so with the top layer selected in the Layers palette (you can tell which layer is selected by which one is highlighted in blue), click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop adds a new blank layer for us above our other two layers. Again, nothing appears to have happened to the image itself, and that's because our new layer is currently blank, but we can see the new layer at the top of the Layers palette. Photoshop names it "Layer 2":

Step 4: Fill The New Layer With Black

We're going to fill the new layer with black. Since black is currently our Foreground color, we can use the easy keyboard shortcut Alt+Backspace (Win) / Option+Delete (Mac), which tells Photoshop to fill the layer with our Foreground color.

The image will now appear filled with solid black, temporarily hiding our photo from view.

Step 5: Add Noise To The Layer

Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Noise, and then choose Add Noise. This brings up Photoshop's "Add Noise" filter dialog box. Drag the Amount slider to the right to add a lot of noise to your image. There's no exact value to enter, just add a lot. I'm going to drag my amount to around 150%. Also, make sure the Monochromatic option at the bottom is checked:

Click OK when you're done to apply the noise to the image and exit out of the dialog box.

Step 6: Apply The Gaussian Blur Filter To The Noise

We need to add a small amount of blurring to the noise, so go back up to the Filter menu and this time choose Blur and then Gaussian Blur. This brings up the "Gaussian Blur" filter dialog box. All we need is a slight amount of blurring, so enter a value of about 0.5 for the Radius value, then click OK to exit out of the dialog box:

Step 7: Add A Levels Adjustment Layer

Remember how I just finished telling you to add a lot of noise to the image? Well, now we have way too much, but we're going to fix that using Levels. We're going to use an adjustment layer though so that we can go back and change the settings in Levels any time we want. We also want to make sure that our Levels adjustment layer is only affecting the noise layer and has no effect on any other layers, so to do that, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option key and click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Then drag your mouse up and select Levels from the list of adjustment layers:

Since we held down our Alt/Option key, Photoshop will pop up the New Layer dialog box before adding the adjustment layer. This is where we tell Photoshop that we only want this Levels adjustment layer to affect the layer below it, which will be the noise layer. To do that, click inside the checkbox to the left of where it says Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask:

Click OK in the top right corner to exit out of the dialog box, and Photoshop adds the Levels adjustment layer for us. It also brings up the Levels dialog box, which we'll look at next.