How to make rays of light in Photoshop using filters

Before

After

Step 1 – New layer

Set the Foreground colour to black and the Background to white (press D for the shortcut). Open up your cloud image and create a new layer.

Step 2 – Apply clouds

Go to the menu Filter and to Render>Clouds. This will apply a smothering of black and white clouds to this new layer.

Step 3 – Apply filters

Head to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur,  select the Zoom option and then set Amount to 70. Hit OK, and the clouds should blur outwards. Set the layer’s blend mode to Screen to reveal the blue sky.

Step 4 -Layer mask

On the clouds layer, click the Add Layer Mask button. With the Brush tool set to a large size with a soft edge (0% Hardness), erase parts of the effect where you want the original sky to show through to complete the look of rays of light.