Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop’s Blend Modes

Posted on 03. Aug, 2009 by admin in Basic

Photoshop’s blend modes are an important tool and to be able to master Photoshop you need to understand the ways to blend layers to produce dynamic and ultimately creative pieces of artwork. The Layer blend modes tab is in a drop down menu at the top – left corner of the layers Palette. The default layer blend mode is Normal. I will show you a close look at three of the blend mode sections and unveil what and how they do what they do.

Blending the different layers

Download this Monkey Image - to follow along.

To actually select a blend mode a layer, not the background layer must be selected in the layers panel. The Background is your,  well background. Its a base canvas and not a layer so what you can do is create a new layer or duplicate your background later ( CNTRL + j for pc / CMD + j for mac ) so that Photoshop creates the image on its own layer. Now you will have access to your blend modes. In the picture to the right notice the three large sections separated by a thick black line.

• Section one blends the highlighted layer with the layer underneath so that all the blacks are maintained and the whites go completely transparent.
• Section two, like the first blends the highlighted layer with the layer underneath, but the difference is the white are maintained and the blacks go completely transparent.
• Section three blends the highlighted layer with the layer underneath so that all of the blacks and whites are retained while the medium grays ( the midtones ) go completely transparent.

The following shows two images that illustrate how the blend mode works.
The first is an example of how the gradient is affected, and the second shows how the
duplicate layer responds.

Lets get you following along with me as i go through the different blending modes.

1. Open the monkey.jpg that you downloaded above in Photoshop and create a new layer. Press the D key to set the foreground and background color to black and white.

2. Select your gradient tool. Starting from left to right, click and drag on your canvas while holding down the Shift key. The Shift key will constrain the flow to one direction. You have just created a fill made up of 256 shades of gray. The blend mode is at normal, so the integrity of the gradient is maintained. Now let’s see the effects of each gradient as we apply the blend modes.

I want you to follow along so you grasp what each blend mode is doing to the gradient and the image below it. This will give you understanding on how tonal information is altered as well as a practical view of how your photographs / images you are working on are effected.

The Black Modes in the first section ( see the image above to the right ) include :

Darken : Whites go transparent, however, some residual of midtone still persists

Multiply: Whites go transparent, however, all midtone (grays) are nonexistent

Color Burn: Whites go transparent, more saturation occurs where midtones are.

Linear Burn: Whites go transparent with a more real representation of the gradient.

Darker Color: Has the same effects as the Darken mode. The difference is, Darken uses one channel chosen by photoshop to blend color. Darken Color uses all the channels; therefore whatever is the lighter color will be used.

The next section of photoshop blend modes has the following White blend modes.

Lighten: Blacks become transparent, some leftover midtone noise

Screen: Blacks go transparent, all midtones vanish

Color Dodge: Blacks go transparent,brightness where midtones are

Linear Dodge: Blacks go transparent, beings the gradient to effect.

Lighter Color: Blacks go transparent and beings the gradient out. Same effect as Lighten. The difference is where Lighten utilizes one channel chosen by the program to blend color, Darken Color utilizes a composite of all the channels. With this mode, whichever color is lighter, that is the color that will dominate.

The blending modes in the third section include the following and revolve around the midtones (the blacks and whites of the image):

Overlay: Midtones go transparent with some increased saturation in the low tones and higher brightness in the high tones

Soft Light: Midtones go transparent with subtle saturation in the low tones and subtle increased brightness in the high tones

Hard Light: Midtones become transparent with higher priority to black and white

Vivid Light: Midtones go transparent with drastic dominance of black and white

Linear Light: Midtones go transparent with purer representation of the whites and blacks

As you work using different blend modes is essential to you overall photoshop mastery. Use these blend modes on your own images with a gradient to see the effect it could have on your own master pieces. As you work through the tutorials and guide on this website, you will be given some practical examples on how these work.

Remember one of the greatest things about photoshop is the freedom of no rules with creativity. Just set your mind to achieving more dynamic results and you will master photoshop in no time.

Related posts:

1. Using the Differant Photoshop Tools
2. Creating an Animated Brush in Photoshop
3. Undoing mistakes in Photoshop