PHOTOSHOP BLEND MODES Rosie Lemons 3/13/18
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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.
PHOTOSHOP BLEND MODES Rosie Lemons 3/13/18
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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
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**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)
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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.
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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
- 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
Pass Through
- 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.
PHOTOSHOP BLEND MODES Rosie Lemons 3/13/18
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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.
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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)
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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.
PHOTOSHOP BLEND MODES Rosie Lemons 3/13/18
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ARTISTIC APPLICATIONS
Using texture layers, blend modes and layer masks…..
BEFORE
AFTER