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How to Create Realistic Snow Overlays with Photoshop

How to Create Realistic Snow Overlays with Photoshop

Make your winter shots even more wintery

This technique for Photoshop combines snowflakes, bokeh and rain to create a realistic snow overlay which can be used on photographs.

download them here.

Step 1

Open your image in Photoshop. I am using this image from Unsplash which I have resized to 3000 x 2000 pixels to make it easier to work with. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 2

Start by creating two new layers and fill them both with solid black. Layer 1 is simply a background layer used to hide the photo, Layer 2 is where we will start working. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 3

On Layer 2 we are going to create some fine rain, go to Filter > Mezzotint and select the Grainy Dots option then click OK. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 4

Next go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use 95° for the Angle and 25 for the distance. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 5

To filter out some of the rain and make it look more realistic, open the Image > Adjustments > Levels panel and 25, 1.00 and 255 for the Input Levels. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 6

Set the Opacity of the rain layer to 80% and optionally name the layer 'Rain 1'. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 7

Create another new layer called 'Rain 2' and fill it with solid black. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 8

We are going to make some heavier rain now, go to Filter > Mezzotint again and this time use Coarse Dots. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 9

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur again and use 85° for the Angle this time. Having two rain layers going in slightly different directions will give the impression of there being a strong wind in the photo. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 10

Open the Image > Adjustments > Levels panel again and this time use 30, 0.9 and 150 for the Input Levels. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 11

Set the Blending Mode of the 'Rain 2' layer to Screen. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 12

To make the rain look more spread out and less uniform, grab the Eraser tool and with a soft round brush at 50% Opacity and delete some sections of rain. how to create snow in photoshop how to create snow in photoshop

Step 13

Create another new layer called 'Bokeh' and fill it with solid black. On this layer we are going to create some blurry out of focus snow flakes that appear to be too close to the camera lens. Snow is very rarely captured in focus so this will add to the realism. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 14

For the bokeh effect, we need to create a simple scatter brush to use. Select the default soft round brush at 50 pixels and then set the following options in the Brushes panel: how to create snow in photoshop how to create snow in photoshop how to create snow in photoshop

Step 15

Set the foreground color to white, and use the scatter brush to fill the Bokeh layer with random dots. To achieve this effect you will need to click once with the brush then move the cursor slightly and click once again. It can be quite time consuming this way, but the result is much better than holding down the mouse button. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 16

Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur and use the settings shown below to complete the Bokeh effect. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 17

Set the Blending Mode of the Bokeh layer to Screen and Opacity to 50%. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 18

Once again, create a new layer and fill it with solid black. Name this layer 'Flakes'. This final layer will be similar to the Bokeh layer, except in focus. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 19

Use the same scatter brush from step 14 and create some more random white dots. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 20

Go to Filter > Filter Gallery.. and choose Ocean Ripple. Set the Ripple Size to 1 and Magnitude to 5. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 21

Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur again and this time use these settings shown below for a more subtle blur effect: how to create snow in photoshop

Step 22

Set the Blending Mode of the Flakes layer to Screen. how to create snow in photoshop

Step 23

Finally, group all of the layers (excluding the original image) and set the Blending Mode of the group to Screen. how to create snow in photoshop

Result

And here is the final result. The combination of flakes, bokeh and rain in different directions create the illusion of depth which produces a more realistic effect than most snow overlay techniques found on the web. how to create snow in photoshop

Download Snow Overlays for Photographs

snow overlays This pack features 6 high quality overlays for adding snow to your photographs. They vary from intense snow storms to light flurries and can be toned down by using opacity or cranked up even more by layering multiple overlays on the same image. Supplied as both JPG and transparent PNG files. Download

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