Tutorial 1 : Dramatic Rain Effect

Well, before we get started, I would like to tell you that this is the beginning of a Photoshop tutorials blog that would first deal with the simple effects that a beginner would be fascinated to!
The standards and complexity would gradually be increased in the upcoming tutorials.In the earlier tutorials I would be dealing with Adobe Photoshop CS3, so that the beginners wouldn't get confused with the advanced features of the later versions released.I hope, you would love to follow the tutorials.

When I was a noob,I always wanted to apply some cool rain effects to a city or a landscape!
So, lets get started!
(Note: I do not hold any ownership or copyright of the Image that is used to carry out the tutorial. I simply found it from Google! )
For you to follow this tutorial, I have provided the image and the brushes used in this tutorial in the following dropbox links so that you can just follow the procedure by actually doing it.
 ( Image : Test Image
    Brush : Lightning  )

So in this tutorial, we would be dealing with this picture :

Step 1:
Open the image in Adobe Photoshop CS3. Make sure the background is unlocked. It is always better to create a copy of the original layer. So for windows press CTRL + J or  COMMAND + J for a mac to make a copy of the layer.

Step 2:
Now, on the bottom of the layers window, you can see a circle, one half with black and other and the other half - white! Well, that is the adjustment layer icon, click on it.

select Hue/Saturation and the following window will open :

Check the COLORIZE and set Hue to 255 and  Saturation 50 and Lightness to 0. Press OK.

Set the Opacity of the adjustment layer to 50%

Now your Photoshop Window will look as Follows:

 Now make Press Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E ( Option +Command + Shift +E on a Mac) to get the image as you're seeing  it as a new layer. 

Step 3:

Make a new layer using Ctrl + Shift + N (Command +Shift + N on a Mac) and fill it with Black. ( If you foreground and background colors are set to default then you can simply press Alt + Del  or Option + Del )

Now, go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise :

The following window would open:

Keep the Monochromatic checked and set it to Gaussian. I've set the amount to 94.14%. Its your choice!

Press Ok.

Now go to Filter>blur>motion blur :

Set the Angle to 45 deg and distance about 12 pixels. Press OK.

Now change the blend mode of layer to OVERLAY :

Now You should get it as shown below :

Yea, now we got some rain !!! All we have to do now is to add some Drama!!

Step 4:

Now, make a new layer, take the brush tool (press B) and select a suitable lightning brush. If you do not have one, you can download it from millions of websites. For this tutorial, I've provided you some lighting brushes in the dropbox link.

Now place the brush where it would be suitable. Here, I've placed it behind the Taipei 101 (the tall one in the image) :

Step 5:

 Again select the Adjustment layer icon, As mentioned in Step 2 and select 'Gradient' this time

the following window opens :

Click on the Indicated area and the gradient editor opens:

Select : "Foreground to Background" and press OK.

Now change the bend mode of the gradient layer to OVERLAY

And now the Drama is unleashed :

To add more color contrast, you can just adjust the opacity of the Hue/Saturation layer created in step 2 .

Here, I made the layer 1 invisible and changed the opacity of Hue/Saturation layer to 29%.

Step 6:

Now the rain in the image, should have some perspective, this is not necessary in this case, but it can be used in other images to make them more realistic.

So all you need is to  select the Layer 2 , go to Edit>Transform>Perspective.

Drag the bottom left corner as shown: 

 Yes!! Its finally Done!!! Now just save the image and it is always better to save your work in Psd format also, as you can edit the layers whenever you want. So, after everything is done, your image would tentatively look like this: 

I hope you might have enjoyed this tutorial. I'll be back with more exciting  and cool tutorials!!!
For any suggestions, requests and queries you can contact me at vivek.srinivas@ymail.com.

Thank You