Rainbow effect in Photoshop

Today our lesson is dedicated to a serious operation that can be quite difficult for beginners. We will understand how to create a rainbow effect in Photoshop, which can be a necessary operation when working with different landscapes. The most interesting thing is that even the standard version of the program Photoshop, already contains special gradients to create a rainbow on the image. So, for this example, we will work with a beautiful fall landscape, in which we will add a double rainbow. So, let’s begin our very complex and painstaking operation (with this phrase we begin to feel like surgeons of the world of photography).

We start by opening our beautiful photo, and we have one background layer. Our first step is to create a second layer (empty layer) that will appear above our main layer. To do this, just click on the special icon “New Layer”, which is located in the Layers menu (bottom of the panel).

For ease of working with the new layer, double-click on it, and change its name to “Rainbow”, so you will not be mistaken with your manipulations. Next, select the Gradient Tool section in the toolbar, and click on “Select Gradient” at the top of the screen (toolbar).

We get the available samples of standard gradients offered for our selection. Most likely, the rainbow gradient is not among the options presented, and to load it, you need to use the triangular arrow located in the upper right corner of the gradient selection window. Then, select the Special Effects section, and choose the gradient we want (Russell’s Rainbow), called “Russell’s Rainbow”. Click OK, and exit the gradient selection menu. In the upper panel, select our newly added radial gradient.

Our target will be the bottom point of the rainbow, located in front of the tree in the lower left corner, and creating a rainbow rising high above the trees. To select a starting position, we will click the mouse button on the area at the bottom right of the photo, and guide it to the left side, where the bottom of our rainbow should be. Once the mouse button is released, the gradient will automatically draw the rainbow. However, it will be far from perfect, and we still have a lot of work to do.

In the upper corner of the Layers panel, select the blending mode Screen, and we get a more natural look of the rainbow on the photo.

Next, we need to add blur, for which we go to the menu Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur (Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur). In the opened window “Gaussian Blur”, you need to adjust the slider at the bottom of the necessary degree of blur, the most suitable for your image (in our case, the value is an area of 50 pixels). Click OK, and we get an updated photo.

At the bottom of the Layers control panel, click on Layer Mask, and make it active. Then, choose a black and white gradient from the gradient collection, then choose Linear Gradient.

All this is done to create a realistic rainbow, which usually become brighter above the sky, and we need to perform this effect in our image. To do this, we hold down the mouse button at the bottom of the rainbow, and guide it in a smooth vertical line to the very top of the image. When we release the mouse button, we see the rainbow become brighter at the top, and its bottom edge is located behind the trees.

This is how we get the image after duplicating the rainbow:

Now, our task is to group the two rainbow layers together. Holding Shift, select the top rainbow layer and, without releasing the key, select the original layer. Then, in the Layers menu, select the Group Layers section. We get the result in the form of the Group 1 layer group in the Layers palette. So, the first rainbow is created.

Add a new layer where we will create a double rainbow effect on our image, and the almighty Photoshop will help us in this. Change the new layer that appears above the previously created layer group, renaming it to “Second Rainbow” (Second Rainbow).

Open the Gradient Selector again, choosing Rainbow. But, now we have to do some more manipulations, because in nature, the colors of the second rainbow are always arranged in reverse order. To create this effect, we need to completely reverse the order of the colors in our gradient. Drag the blue, green and yellow markers to the left, and leave the red marker in place. After that, select the red marker (click it), and change the Location value to 82%. Do the same operation with the yellow marker, setting the value to 85%, and with the green marker – 88%. Select the light gray marker (located at the top), and set the Opacity value to 0%, which will allow us to set the opacity of our rainbow. Click OK.

Having completely reversed the colors in the Rainbow Gradient, you can now proceed directly to creating the rainbow itself. We create the rainbow identically as in the first case, exactly up to the Layer Mask operation. We will copy the mask from the first rainbow, for what we open the Layer Group, and with the Alt key pressed, click on the layer mask of the first rainbow. Drag it to the place of the mask of the second rainbow layer.

As a result, you should get this result of the arrangement of layers:

Now, we only have the finishing touches left. Choose Photoshop Move Tool (function Move), and drag the second rainbow to the necessary place with the mouse. As a result, in our example, it appears in the upper left corner of the image.

Next, set the brightness of the second rainbow by reducing the opacity of the second rainbow layer to 70% (Opacity 70%), and get our final result.