Make Rays of Light~Photo Editing

First let me start off with the original photo as taken:
As you can see the original has a ray of light in it...but I wanted more.

Camera	Olympus E-420
Exposure	0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture	f/6.3
Focal Length	42 mm
ISO Speed	100
Exposure Bias	-0.7 EV

Then edit slightly in Photoshop 7.0 to bring out some color and jazz it up a bit:

Next use 'Control J' to make a copy of this layer.
Go to Image--->Adjust--->Levels---->and drag the slider to the right.
Take the Levels layer and go to--->Filters--->Blur--->Radial Blur--->
Amount: 100
Blur Method: Zoom
Quality: Best
Hit 'Control F', it will process. Get the 'blur' you want, you can 'Control F' more than once for a smoother 'blur'.

This is what I choose:
Arrange this layer in the middle and take the opacity of the top layer down a bit to your taste.
You can go wild with it, or be subtle.
I chose to be subtle about 46%.

The final edited shot is almost believable.


Made for Press the Shutter.