PHOtOsHOP tutOrial cs4 - Blending MOdes | By JOn Measures 1

PHOto shop t u to r i a l c s 4 - B l e n d i n g Mod e s | B y Jo n Measures The Blending modes in Photoshop allow you to blend an image, vector shapes, type or any other layer contents with the layers underneath. You will find the blending modes in the layers panel and also in the options bar associated with various paint tools such as the Brush Tool. By default all layers are set to normal meaning that the layer is not affecting or being affected by the layers below. When you click on normal at the top of your layers panel you will see the list that you see on the right side of this page. The list is divided into sections various sections. Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Linear Burn, and Darker Color all combine with the pixles below to darken in various ways. Lighten, screen, Color Dodge, Liner Dodge (Add) and Lighter Color all have the effect of lightening the image underneath.

Example In the screen capture of my layers panel you can see that I have a file open with two images on differnt layers one of a rusty piece of metal and another of a man walking across the moors. The image of the walker is on top in the stacking order, therefore this is the one that we’ll apply the blending mode to. Currently the blending mode is on normal so the image of the man is completely obscurring the rusty metal below.

Link to video tutorial on the subject http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/?id=vid0012

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Blending Mode Examples On Dissolve I had to lower the opacity or you will see no effect created by changing to this blending mode. All the rest of the examples of blending modes combine to darken or show the darker parts of the layer with the guy walking on. The lighter parts of the layer especially white tend to dissapear. Therefore these modes are a quick way to remove white from an image. Dissolve

Color Burn

Darken

Linear Burn

Multiply

Darker Color

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Blending Mode Examples These examples all tend to lighten or show the lighter parts of the layer where the blending mode is applied, the top most layer or in this case the man walking.

Lighten

Linear Dodge (Add)

Screen

Lighter Color

Color Dodge

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Blending Mode Examples

Overlay

Vivid Light

Hard Mix

Although these examples are grouped together in the list of blending modes, they are more difficult to categorize than the last two groups.

Soft light

Linear Light

Hard Light

Pin Light

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Blending Mode Examples For these final six I am adding another layer. On all these examples the black white image I was using is left on Luminosity. Many of these modes are reliant on hue or color to blend and I’ve using a black and white image. This also helps to illustrate the fact that you can blend muliple layers together.

Difference

Saturation

Exclusion

Color

Hue

Luminosity

The real joy of blending modes comes from experimentation, they are a very powerful tool in a digital artist bag tricks, have fun exploring their potential.

© Jon Measures 2009

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