Post-Processing Tip: How to Create REALISTIC Sun Rays in Your Photos
Image Credit: Max Rive
All you landscape photographers out there know that capturing beautiful sun rays just isn't possible all the time.
The timing has to be just right. The atmospheric conditions have to be just right. Your positioning relative to the sunset needs to be spot on to get the maximum impact as well.
But what if I told you that you can add realistic sun rays to your landscape photos by using Luminar 2018?
In the video above, Mads Peter Iversen, explains precisely how to use this neat little trick to enhance your images.
Using his step-by-step process, you can take your "okay" landscape photos and turn them into something that truly stands out, and in not all that much time, either!
Here's the process, one step at a time...
Step 1: Add Sun Rays Using the Luminar Filter Feature
YouTube Screenshot/Mads Peter Iversen
After opening Luminar 2018, on the right side of the screen you'll see an "Add Filters" button.
Clicking that button opens a huge list of filters, but in this case you want to scroll towards the bottom of the list and click on "Sun Rays."
Next, you'll need to place the sun rays in the desired location in the photo.
As Mads explains in the video, Luminar uses AI to determine how the sun rays should interact with the scenery in the shot. You can see how they change based on where Mads places them in the screenshots above (in which some of the sun rays are blocked by the cliff) and below (in which they appear to emanate from the clouds).
YouTube Screenshot/Mads Peter Iversen
Obviously, the goal here is to place the rays in a position that looks natural for the scene. As a result, Mads places them over the sun between the rock formations, as seen below.
YouTube Screenshot/Mads Peter Iversen
What makes Luminar so fun to use is the ease with which you can place sun rays in the image.
In a matter of seconds, Mads was able to drag and drop the sun rays and place them in the desired location. It doesn't get any easier than that!
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Step 2: Fine-Tune the Look of the Sun Rays
YouTube Screenshot/Mads Peter Iversen
As with any editing program, it's usually good practice not to max out the position of the sliders as you fine-tune the effects you've implemented into the photo.
As Mads shows in the video, less is more when it comes to the sun rays effect in this particular image.
As you can see in the screenshot above, just one of the sliders is skewed all that far from center, which results in a much more pleasing (and realistic) look.
The "Amount" and "Look" sliders are responsible for how strong the sun ray effect is in the image. Immediately below that, the "Number" changes how many rays of light there are and "Length" manipulates how long the rays are.
You can also make adjustments for the warmth of the ray's color, the glow of the sun center, how much the rays appear to penetrate objects in the shot, and the appearance of how the rays shine through in the photo.
Once you've created the rays as you want them, simply click "Apply" in the upper right-hand corner of the editing window and the image will either be saved (if working in Luminar as a standalone program) or exported to Photoshop.
Step 3: Mask Out the Unwanted Sun Rays in Photoshop
YouTube Screenshot/Mads Peter Iversen
In Mads' case, he wanted to eliminate some of the sun rays in his photo so that the final result showed only the rays shining through the archway of the rock formation.
To do that, he created a mask, inverted it, and used the Brush Tool with a white brush to brush in the rays he wanted to keep.
As you can see above, the subtle rays beaming through the arch gives this shot a gorgeous and realistic look.
And that's it! Using this simple three-step process, you can add natural-looking sun rays to your landscapes.
Mads offers two other examples of how to utilize this sun rays feature in his video. Be sure to check that out starting at about the 5-minute mark for more inspiration for using this awesome feature.
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My Experience With Skylum
Interesting Fact: Way back in 1998, I picked up Adobe’s Photoshop 5.0: Classroom in a Book, and started to teach myself Photoshop. I subsequently spent nearly five years of my life, all the way up to CS 8.0, picking up every Classroom in a Book that Adobe released on Photoshop.
Still to this day, I’m a Photoshop user and always learning what I can as the program grows and evolves. Typing this, I’m realizing it’s been a 20-year journey. Crazy!
Back in 2012, I started playing around with Lightroom. However, it wasn’t until 2014 and version 5.0 that I got serious with Lightroom with the help of watching a TON of YouTube videos. Roll forward four years and I’m still grinding away at it.
The point I’m making here is that I’ve heavily invested myself into a very long journey with Adobe. They have done a great job, and I’ve created some decent photos along the way using their software, if I do say so myself.
Keeping that in mind, a few years ago, a company called MacPhun came on board as a supporting vendor of PhotographyTalk. They had a good product with a growing following of loyal users. But, if I’m completely honest, it didn’t have that WOW factor that I felt could pull users away from Adobe.
Earlier this year, Macphun changed their name to Skylum and released Luminar 2018. Three months ago, they sent me a copy to play around with. Again, if I’m being honest, I didn’t touch it for a couple weeks, and thinking back on it, it might have actually been three weeks.
When I opened it - no joke - it was within minutes that I converted a blah photo into a wow photo (I know that sounds corny!). The software is crazy intuitive with a number of presets that makes editing photos extremely efficient with remarkable results.
And the best part…there’s manual development tools for those days when I don’t want to use presets and want to adjust my photos myself. All the tools I need to do that are easily found on the right side of the screen as I’m working in Luminar 2018.
Folks, I’ve not closed this program out since I opened it over 2 months ago! It’s that good. Skylum has really made post-processing fun again, fast, and freakin’ awesome! In short, they have hit an out-of-the-park home run!
If I can make one recommendation to you, it’s to go download the free trial now. Don’t wait to open it like I did…download it and you’ll see why so many professional photographers (myself included!) are so excited about this software. You’ve got nothing to lose - see Luminar 2018 for yourself!
