Photoshop Blending Modes https://photoshoptrainingchannel.com/blending-modes-explained/#when-blend-modes-added For those mathematically inclined. https://photoblogstop.com/photoshop/photoshop-blend-modes- explained?utm_source=swissmiss&utm_campaign=026451ea8a- RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email Before we dig in, it s important to understand the terminology, so the figure below shows the definition of the key terms used. 1
Layer Blend modes can be accessed at the top of the Layers palette (shown to the right) and defaults to Normal. You can access the various blend mode options by clicking on the double arrows (downward pointing red arrow) to get the drop down menu. When you want to play with the various blend modes the quick way to scroll through them all is to select the Move tool then hold the shift key and using the + or the keys, tap your way forward and backward through the list. Blend modes can be toned down by using the Opacity and in 8 special cases **, the Fill slider (upward pointing red arrows) Finally, once you find some blend modes that you use frequently, the keyboard shortcuts can be accessed by Alt/Shift on a PC or Option/Shift on a Mac. The letters for each are with the modes below. Only 15 (of the 27) modes are available for 32 bit images Layer Blend Modes Dissolve - Randomly reveals pixels beneath the blend layer as the Opacity of the top layer is reduced DARKENING MODES - Anything white in the blend layer has no effect. - Anything darker in the Blend layer will affect the base layer. Darken (keyboard short cut key = K) - Looks at the luminance in each RGB channel and keeps the darkest - Keeps the darkest BLEND of both layers. No change if they are the same. Multiply (keyboard shortcut key = M) - Multiplies the lumosity of the 2 layers. - White produces no change - Black remains black. - Everything in between will darken the base layer 2
**Special Color Burn (keyboard shortcut key = B) - Darker than Multiply because it also increases contrast. - Mostly not useful unless you adjust the Fill slider (located under Opacity) **Special Linear Burn (keyboard shortcut key = A) - Decreases brightness of the base color - Darker than Multiply but less saturated than Color Burn - Most contrast in the darker colors - Using the Fill slider will produce different effects than the Opacity Darker Color (no keyboard shortcut) - Similar to Darken but doesn t blend pixels. Just keeps the darkest color of the Blend or Base layer. LIGHTENING BLEND MODES - These turn the results brighter - Black is invisible Lighten (keyboard shortcut key = G) - Works like Darken in that it looks at the base and blend layers and keeps the lightest - Black is invisible. White stays white. Everything else has an effect. Screen (keyboard shortcut key = S) - Black has no effect. Everything else has a lightening or brightening effect. **Special Color Dodge (keyboard shortcut key = D) - Brighter effect than Screen by decreasing contrast between Base & Blend layers. - Similar to using the Dodge tool. Use the Fill slider to create desired effect **Special Linear Dodge (keyboard shortcut key = W) - Similar to Color Dodge but stronger Lighter Color (no keyboard shortcut key) - Looks at the base and blend layers and keeps the lightest pixels. Tends to be blotchy. CONTRASTING BLEND MODES - Mixture of Darken & Lighten Modes - Creates contrast by using complementary blending modes - Looks at colors that are darker or lighter than 50% grey and makes them darker or lighter. - 50% grey has no effect (except in Hard Mix) 3
Overlay (keyboard shortcut = O) - Combination of Multiply & Screen, both at half strength. - Overlay makes calculations based on the Base layer Soft Light (keyboard shortcut = F) - Softer version of Overlay; less contrast Hard Light (keyboard shortcut = H) - Combines Multiply & Screen based on the Blend layer - Harsh - Usually need to reduce the Opacity **Special Vivid Light (keyboard shortcut key = V) - Extreme Overlay -> Instead of half strength lighten or darken, it does full strength, - Can use Opacity OR Fill sliders to soften the effect. Both sliders will have different effects. **Special Linear Light (keyboard shortcut key = J) - Uses Linear Dodge on lighter areas and Linear Burn on darker. - Often extreme. Use Opacity or Fill sliders to soften and change. Pin Light (keyboard shortcut key = Z) - Extreme Mode that uses Darken & Lighten. It can result in patches of dense color and completely removes mid-tones **Special Hard Mix (keyboard shortcut key = L) - It adds the RGB channel values of the Blend layer to the Base layer. Resulting mix can only be black, white, R, G, B, C, M, Y - Can use Opacity or Fill sliders to adjust INVERSION BLEND MODES - These look for variations between the Base & Blend layers **Special Difference (keyboard shortcut key = E) - Applies the blend by setting the resulting pixel to the value of the difference between the Base & Blend layers. - White inverts the color of the Base layer. - Black does nothing - Fill & Opacity sliders both have different effects on the outcome - useful for aligning layers together Exclusion (keyboard shortcut key = X) - Similar to difference. White inverts base color. Black has no change. And 50% grey stays grey. 4
Subtract (No keyboard shortcut key) - Subtracts pixel values from the base. Black has no effect (subtracting 0 from the value), while white makes things totally black (subtracting 100% from the value). Divide (No keyboard shortcut key) - The opposite of Subtract. White has no effect but all of the darker colors will lighten. COMPONENT BLEND MODES Pass Through - Uses different combinations of Hue, Saturation, and Luminance to create effects Hue (keyboard shortcut key = H) - Preserves the Saturation and Luminance of the base layer but adopts the Hue of the Blend layer Saturation (keyboard shortcut = T) - Preserves the Hue & Luminance of the base layer while adopting the Saturation of the Blend layer - A Black & White Blend layer turns the image into greyscale because none of the pixels in the lumosity layer have saturation. Color (keyboard shortcut = C) - Preserves the luminance of the base layer while adopting the Hue and Saturation of the Blend layer - Ideal for colorizing Black and White images Lumosity (keyboard shortcut = Y) - Preserves the Hue and Saturation of the Base layer while adopting the Luminance of the Blend layer - If you have layers combined into a group (folder), the blend mode defaults to Pass Through rather than the usual Normal of other layers. This tells Photoshop to consider each layer within the group as just part of the stack of all layers. - If you change the blend mode of a group, Photoshop with first blend the layers within the group and then apply that result to the base layer beneath it. 5
BRUSH BLEND MODES - have two additional modes, Behind and Clear. Behind will paint only on transparent pixels Clear will act like and eraser and get rid of pixels Brush blending modes have to be applied to the actual layer that you want to change and not the layer above like you would a layer blending mode. LUMINANCE BLEND MODE Layer Style - Accessed by double clicking on a layer near but not on it s name, which brings up a dialog box containing many options, one of which is the Blend if sliders - When adjusting the This Layer slider, if you slide the white triangle to the left, any luminance levels to the right of the triangle will become transparent, and the composite pixels from the layers below will show through. If you slide the black triangle to the right, any luminance levels to the left of the triangle will become transparent, so the composite pixels from the layers below will show through. Any luminance levels between the 2 triangles will be opaque. 6
If you look closely at the black and white triangles, you will notice that there is a cleft running down their centers. This cleft indicates that the triangles can be split. To split the triangles, hold down the Option key (Windows: Alt) while dragging one half of a triangle away from the other half. When you split a triangle, any luminance levels between the 2 halves will gradually range from transparency to opacity. This useful technique is often used to introduce smoother transitions between transparency and opacity. - The Underlying Layer adjustments work the same as the This Layer adjustments. The only difference is that this slider will determine which luminance levels are visible in the composite view of all of the layers below the active layer it forces the lower pixels through (up) to the active layer. - You can also access the layer blend modes at the top under General Blending - Uses for blending modes: DODGE & BURN Dodge & burn on a 50% grey layer set to overlay Easy way to do this is to select New Layer, which will bring up the dialog box below where it says Mode, select Overlay from the drop down menu (accessed by clicking the downward ^) and then you can check the box below it that says Fill with Overlay-neutral color. Then use a paint brush and either black (to darken) or white (to lighten), paint on the overlay layer to dodge and burn. You can always lower the opacity of your brush to reduce the effect of what you are painting in. To remove something you ve painted in, simply change the color you are painting with to 50% grey (RGB 128,128,128 or hexadecimal 808080) 7
LUMOSITY CONTROL 1) Add a Black & White adjustment layer and set the blend mode to lumosity 2) Click on the finger with arrows in the upper left side of the Black & White adjustment palette and then take your pointer into your image (should look like an eyedropper) and left click and drag left or right to brighten or darken that color. This is VERY useful especially for blue skies to darken the blues in the sky for more contrast with clouds. Unfortunately, Adobe Elements doesn't have that adjustment layer... but you can approximate the results by substituting a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer instead. 8
ARTISTIC APPLICATIONS Using texture layers, blend modes and layer masks.. BEFORE AFTER 9