Set the blur amount to maximum, click and drag the cross to the top-left corner of the preview box.

The rays look good enough but are way too small. With the layer still selected, click the Edit menu and choose Free transform.

Zoom out and drag the transform’s bottom-right handle to scale the layer. Press enter (or return) when you’re done

Set the Layer Blending mode to Soft Light to get a nice, “after the rain” effect.

The Tweaks

Use Photoshop’s Move Tool {} to nudge the rays to a more natural position.

Create a duplicate of your sunbeam layer and set its blending mode to screen.

Go to the “Filters/ Blur” menu again and click on motion blur. Set a high Distance value and click ok.

Finally, turn down the opacity of the second layer down to 50% or lower.

Tip: if you want a brighter result, set your first light ray layer to screen (and its opacity to 30% or so)

Our results

The Soft Light version:                                                                                                                               And a brighter one, after a few more minutes of tweaks:

A végén

Or, the end of this somewhat lengthy Photoshop Tutorial. This is by no means the only way to create light rays. It’s just one of the quickest techniques.