In this video article, I’ll show you how I use the Sunrays filter to enhance a sunrise landscape photograph. In this landscape photograph, you’ll see that I shot it at sunrise with the sun at my left. In the original, the sun isn’t really visible and the sunrays are rather limited. I’ll use the Sunrays filter to add the sun back in and make the sun rays more visible.

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Sunrays filter controls

  • Place Sun Center: Click this button to interactively nudge the sun’s position by dragging
  • X: Moves the sun’s origin point along the X-axis
  • Y: Moves the sun’s origin point along the Y-axis
  • Sunrays Amount: Controls the overall intensity of the sun rays
  • Sunrays Look: Changes the overall brightness of the scene
  • Sunrays Number: Use a higher number for more rays and a lower number for fewer
  • Sunrays Length: This impact the distance the sun rays will travel
  • Sunrays Warmth: Use this slider to adjust the color temperature of the rays
  • Sun Radius: This affects the size of the sun rays origin point
  • Sun Glow Radius: Changes the size of the glow around the sun
  • Sun Glow Amount: Controls the intensity of the glow
  • Sun Warmth: Can change the sun from bright white to a warm glow
  • Overall Penetration: This slider impacts how much the sun passes through an area. This can be useful when trying to natural composite the rays into a photo.
  • Overall Randomize: Get entirely new results that are a variation based on the current settings

Watch the video

Conclusion

The Sunrays filter in Luminar is an amazing tool. A couple of areas to pay attention to are the placement of the sun using X and Y controls and also the Penetration control so that the sun is positioned correctly in the depth of the picture. Then once you have the sun and rays setup the way you want them, explore the other controls to refine the look sun and the rays. Now fine tune the other filters you are using in the photograph to take into account the addition of the light the Sunrays filter added to the photograph. A few other filters that I would suggest you explore for landscapes would be the Orton Effect, Sharpening and Vignette filters.

I hope you enjoyed the article and found it helpful!

Get $10 off Luminar 3 with the promo code PHOTOFOCUS.