Photoshop Tutorials: Add A Realistic Rainbow To A Photo
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Written By Steve Patterson
In this Photoshop photo effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to easily add a rainbow, even a double rainbow, to a photo. Of course, as with most photo effects, it helps if you start with the right type of image.
In this case, a photo taken outdoors is a good place to start. If it happens to be a landscape photo taken after a rain storm, even better.
Here's the photo I'll be starting with:
And here's the same image with a double rainbow added, which is the effect we're after:
Let's get started.
Step 1: Add A New Layer Above The Background Layer
With the image open in Photoshop, if we look over in the Layers palette, we can see that we currently have one layer, the Background layer, which contains our image:
The first thing we need to do is add a new blank layer above the Background layer. To do that, click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:
Photoshop will add a new blank layer above the Background layer and will name it "Layer 1". Double-click directly on the name of the layer and rename it to "Rainbow", since we'll be using this layer to add our rainbow:
Step 2: Select The Rainbow Gradient
You may not know it, but Photoshop comes with a ready-made rainbow for us to use, but it's not available by default. We need to load it manually. To do that, first grab your Gradient tool from the Tools palette, or press G on your keyboard to quickly select it:
Then, with the Gradient tool selected, click on the Gradient Picker in the Options Bar at the top of the screen:
This brings up Photoshop's Gradient Editor. We're going to select the rainbow gradient, or at least, we will once we've loaded it. By default, the rainbow gradient isn't in the list, but no worries. Loading it is easy. Simply click on the right-pointing arrow in the top right of the Gradient Editor:
Then click on the Special Effects gradients near the bottom of the list that appears to load them:
Photoshop will ask you if you want to replace the original gradients with the Special Effects gradients or simply append them to the bottom of the list. Click Append so you'll still have the original gradients available, and the new Special Effects ones will be added below them:
With the new Special Effects gradients added, the one we want - Russell's Rainbow - is the last one at the bottom. If you have your Tool Tips enabled in Photoshop's Preferences, you'll see the name "Russell's Rainbow" appear if you hover your mouse over the gradient for a second or two. Click on it to select it:
In case you're wondering, "Russell" is Russell Brown, the Senior Creative Director at Adobe and all around crazy guy.
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