Let there be light! Creating light rays in Photoshop

A post about creating sun rays in Photoshop. There are many different ways to do this, but this is my favourite method: 

Yep, it starts with opening an image:

1. Add a new empty layer
2. Choose brush and sample a color from the sun (using the Alt key)
3. Change the brush (Windows-brush),
   
   
   spacing: around 120 % shape dynamics: size jitter 100%
   minimal diameter: 0%
   
   
   scattering: put on Both axes
   scatter around 1000%
   
4. Paint dots on your screen and make them smaller and bigger, mostly round and close to the sun
   
5. Now add a Radial blur: zoom and choose center point (where the sun is on your image) see what works best for your picture:
   
6. Change the blend mode to soft light or color dodge
   
7. Change the opacity of the layer, to make the rays more or less visible.

With Free transform (Cmd T) you can change the position and size of the light rays.

And voila: the end result:

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picture from pixabay