How to Make a Light Ray Brush in Photoshop

Photoshop Brushes

Photoshop brushes can save you a lot of time when working to edit or enhance a light source. Often however, you may be unable to find the perfect brush. Today I'm going to show you how to easily make your own Light Ray Brushes in Photoshop using only the default tools that can later be used to edit any image.

But before we begin, and if you want to follow this tutorial exactly as described, please download the following free image from Pexels: Download

Step 1

Open Photoshop and make a new file at 4000 x 4000 px.

Step 2

Go to Layer > New > Layer. Name this layer as "Light Ray" and click OK.

Step 3

Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and draw a circle of approximately 1500 px on the center top of the artboard as shown.

Step 4

Go to Select > Modify > Feather. Set a value of 150 px and click OK.

Step 5

Go to Filter > Render > Clouds.

Step 6

Press Ctrl+D on your keyboard to deselect the circle.

Step 7

Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels. Apply the following values and click OK.

Step 8

Go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur.

Step 9

Drag the blur point to the top center, apply the following settings and click OK.

Step 10

Press Ctrl+A on your keyboard to select all and go to Edit > Define Brush Preset. Give your new brush a name and click OK. Now the brush is available on the Brush Preset Picker.

Step 11

To test the recently created brush, open any image you want in Photoshop.

Step 12

Select the Brush Tool (B) and select the new brush from the Presets Picker in the top toolbar.

Step 13

In a new layer, click once using the Light Ray brush with any color you want. In this case, I will use the brush with the color set to #ffffe5.

Step 14

Adjust the size, shape and position of the layer to match the light source of your picture.

Step 15

Lastly, decrease the Opacity of the light ray layer to your liking.