1. Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool with around 25 px feather on to create a selection where you want the sunbeams to be.
note: when you complete the selection it appears that the selection has changed (view pic below). It hasn't. It's because of the feather-value you entered before. The feather ability gives a smoother selection with faded edges. The higher value, the smoother and faded edge. You can experiment with this if you like.
2. Create a new layer: Layer/New/Layer... Name it Light and click ok. Make sure your new layer (Light) is selected (by clicking it). Then take the Gradient Tool. Set a new colour you wish your light shall have. I picked a light yellow colour (#FEFFCF) because that's look like sunlight, right?? biggrin
In the options menu of the gradient tool you choose Foreground to Transparent and Linear Gradient. Also make sure that you have the Reverse, Dither and Transparency settings that appears on the picture below.
3. Now the fun begins! Start at where the source of the light comes from and drag with your mouse to continue down in the direction of the light, as the red arrow in the picture below illustrates. Don't make a line all across the picture, just about as far as the arrow goes.
4. It's almost finished, though it looks ready! You can deselect now. To make the light look more natural you change the Light layer's mode to Screen. But you can choose whatever you think it's the best for your picture.
note: Maybe you can't find the layer's option window? Try go to Window/Layers. By Layers a check symbol should be there. If not, just click it.
Here's the result! Pretty neat! 3nodding Remember, if your picture is light from the beginning the sunbeams can hardly be seen.
And another thing for those who can't deal with this layer-things: You can't save the picture in .jpg format if your picture has 2 layers or more. To make it one layer go to: Layer/Flatten Image. Then File/Save As... to save it in .jpg format. (Or any other format!)
Hope that made you wise! If you have any questions or suggestions, please post them and I'll try to answer them! mrgreen
