A Stroll Down Blend Mode Lane

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A Stroll Down Blend Mode Lane, Pt. 1

August 16, 2007

Photoshop

Demystifying Blending Modes

Shrouded in mystery, perched high atop the Layer palette in both Photoshop and PhotoshopElements there sits a pop-up menu that's been baffling folks for ages. The menu of which I speakis called Blending Modes. You've probably clicked on it before and chosen a few of the strange

words ontained therein only to be completely baffled by the effects, ranging from makingeverything dark or making everything light, to turning your image into an x-ray, to havingabsolutely no visible effect at all.

So what's the deal? What do Blending Modes actually do and what are they good for? Are thereany practical uses? Surely Adobe's not one for wasting valuable Layer palette real estate so it

must be something useful since it appears in both Photoshop and Elements. These questions, andmore, will all be answered over the next few weeks as we take a little journey into the WideWorld of Blend Modes. Each week we'll cover a new mode, discuss what it does and wrap it up

illustra ting a super practical usage for it.

Let's get started with the basics.

What are Blending Modes anyway?

Blending Modes control how one layer interacts with the layer below. That's it. Chances are

good that you've already played around with blending by changing layer opacity. Rememberhow the layer became see-through and you saw what was on the layer below? That's blending.Instead of making the whole layer see-through, you can use Blend Modes to control exactly

which areas (or colors, rather) of an image blend or mix with whatever is on the layer below, andwhich ones don't.
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Where do they live?

You can access Blending Modes in many places, including:

At the top of the Layers palette

In the Layer Styles dialog when you're adding effects like drop/inner shadows, glows,bevel/emboss, etc.

In the dialog of some filtersIn the Edit>Fade Filter command (available only after running a filter)In the Edit>Fill or Stroke command

When using all of the paint tools including the regular and Healing Brush Tools, thePencil, Eraser, Clone Stamp, History Brush, Eraser, Gradient, Blur, and Dodge/Burn

Tools. (Whew! I'm tired now.)

How do they work?

The Blending Mode menu is divided into several sections (illustrated below), according to whateach mode does. They're pretty easy to memorize, as the first mode in each section is usually

named after what it does. For example, Darken is the first mode in the section that will darkenthe underlying image. Remember, it's all about comparing two layers and then blending them


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together depending upon the colors found on each.

What do they do?

Using two intersecting circles, I'll illustra te what each mode does. In order for you to have a

frame of reference, the first screen shot is Normal mode.

Normal


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Nothing to see here! There is zero blending between the intersection of these two circles inNormal mode.

Dissolve

This mode turns semi-transparent pixels into a spattering of solids. Using two solid circles, theDissolve mode creates no change because there aren't any semi-transparent pixels. However, if I

use Layer Styles to add a drop shadow to the orange circle (which gives it some semi-transparentpixels to affect) and then change the Drop Shadow's Blending Mode to Dissolve, you can clearly

see its effect.


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What used to be see-through (the drop shadow) has been turned into a solid spray of pixels. Justto be clear, I did not change the Blending Mode in the Layers palette, I changed it in the Layer

Style dialog box because that's where I created the drop shadow.


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Honestly, I can't think of any practical uses for Dissolve mode. If you can, drop me an email.

Darken

The modes in this section have the power to make intersecting areas darker. Using the blue and

orange circles as an example, the intersecting area darkened.

Photoshop compared the colors of the top layer (the orange circle--a combination of red, green,and blue because I'm working in RGB color space), to the colors on the layer below (the blue

circle--yet a different combination of red, green, and blue) and kept only the darkest shadeswhere the two layers intersect. Basically, any colors on the top layer which are darker than what'sbelow will remain, and any colors which are lighter than what's on the layer below will

disappear. Using two fairly dark shapes doesn't illustrate this mode's power, so let's give it a spinin the more practical realm of combining two photos.

For example, to combine the images below you might be tempted to select and then delete (ormask) the white background of the crazy man, then place the sunburst on a layer below him.

That would work, but a faster method would be to use Blending Modes instead.


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Since the starburst image is darker than the background of the crazy man image (which is whereI want the starburst to end up), I can place the starburst at the top of the layers stack and change

its Blending Mode to Darken. Thus combining the two images perfectly in one fell swoop:

Since the crazy man's right cheek and hand are lighter than the sunburst background, those areasof color remained. To fix it, simply add a layer mask to the sunburst layer and paint those areas

with black (because in the realm of the layer mask, painting with black hides).


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Here's the final result with the layer mask circled:

Hopefully a little lightbulb just came on for you. As you can see, it's worth spending some timegetting to know Blending Modes and understanding how they work. Instead of having to create a

selection around this dude's hair in order for the background to blend perfectly, Photoshop did allthe work for you. That's what I call working smarter instead of harder!

That's all for now, but check back next week for more on Blending Modes. May the creativeforce be with you!

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August 23, 2007
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PhotoshopMastering Multiply

Welcome to the second installment of our journey through Photoshop and Elements' blendingmodes.

This week we'll continue on through the second category of blend modes that begin with Darken.As you might suspect, modes in this group have the potential to darken the underlying image.

Convenient naming, that!

This week is all about the Multiply mode. It will indeed make an image appear darker, and mygood buddy Ben Willmore says it's handy to think of this mode as actual ink. Here's what it looks

like using the blue and orange circles from last week:

Ben wisely notes that if you were to place a 35mm slide on top of another, the second one woulddarken the first. He also points out that if you were to run a piece of paper through an inkjetprinter, wherever color landed on paper the image would get darker as well. Nothing would
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happen to areas that were white of course, because a printer does not print whiteit just ignoresthose parts of the image instead. It is these reasons that the Multiply mode is great for:

Knocking out white backgrounds for use in create a collage (example follows later)

Fixing overexposed area of a photo (example of this in a bit too)

Making drop shadows see-through (same here)To accentuate edges in an image (fodder for another time)

For years I've used the Multiply mode for the second reason, to fix photos that were overexposedor that contained blown out highlights (that is, before the Shadows/Highlights adjustment came

along which does basically the same thing but in one step). I still use the old ways every now andthen so for the sake of nostalgiaand those poor souls who are stuck with older versions ofPSI'll detail it here using a picture of me getting inked in Austin Texas earlier this summer.

Using Multiply to fix overexposed image

Step 1: The first step is to duplicate the background layer by pressing Command +J (PC: Ctrl +J). Change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to Multiply and you get a darkened version

of the image:

And as per usual, another part of the image will now be too dark.


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Step 2: Add a layer mask to the duplicated layer by clicking the circle within a square icon at thebottom of the Layers palette. Set the top color chip to black, press B to select the Brush tool and

then paint with black those areas you want to hide. In this case, it's the darkened bits of thebackground. If the effect is still too dark, lower that layer's opacity, as shown below.

See what I mean? It's a pretty fast and easy fix for stuff like this. Now let's look at anotherpractical usage: knocking out a white background.

Zapping a white background

Since it's my birthday this Saturday, I decided to treat myself to a very special photo for use in

this tutorial, and it fits nicely within the theme of the images above, which involve a tattoo.

Using an image of a rather attractive man (!), we'll use the Multiply mode to blend the twoimages together (both were snatched from iStockphoto).
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Step 1: Pop open both images and make sure both document windows are visible. Click and dragone of the images into the other *from the Layers palette* as shown below.

Step 2: Change the tattoo layer's blending mode to Multiply. Press Command + T (PC: Ctrl + T)to summon Free Transform and while holding Shift key, drag a corner handle inward to make the


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tattoo smaller. Press Return when finished.

Step 3: Zoom into the image by pressing Comand + (PC: Ctrl +) then press T to select the Typetool. Add some text then click the Type Warp button in the Options bar at the top of your screen


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(circled in red below).

Step 4: In the resulting Warp dialog, choose Arc from the Style pop-up menu and tweak theBend slider to control how much the text curves.

Step 5: Zoom back out of your masterpiece by pressing Command (PC: Ctrl ) and say,"Ahhhh."


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That was fun. As you can clearly see, all the white in the image has been removed allowing thetwo images to blend perfectly with nary a selection or layer mask.

Drop shadows of another color

Another great use for Multiply mode is for that of drop shadows. In fact, by default this is themode used in the Layer Styles drop shadow option. The only problem is that prevents you from

easily creating a light-co lored drop shadow. The fix is to change the blending mode of the dropshadow itself, as shown below:


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What makes this fake sign funny is that it's not fake at all. During a trip through the SmokyMountains on our motorcycles, my husband and I actually saw a sign like this. We almost fell off

the bikes laughing because we couldn't figure out how else a tattoo could be done :)

That's all for now, but check back next week for more on Blending Modes. May the creativeforce be with you!

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August 30, 2007

PhotoshopContemplating Color Burn
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Welcome to the third installment of our journey through the blending modes founds in bothPhotoshop and Elements. We're still exploring the second category of modes that begin withDarken; and, as you already know, these modes have the power to darken the underlying image.

This week it's Color Burn's turn to be in the spotlight and wouldn't you know it's one of thehardest blending modes to explain. In fact, it's so hard to explain that I'm going to skip the

explanation altogether. If it sounds like a cop-out, well, you're right. The only thing I can say isthat sometimes you just have to trust what you know and not worry about the why or the how. Imean, it's completely within the realm of possibility that you (and I) will come to understand

how this mode does what it does after using it over a period of time. It's highly unlikely, butpossible nevertheless :)

That being said, here's what you need to know about this mode:

Like Multiply, Color Burn ignores white. If you have white on a layer and change itsblending mode to Color Burn you'll see absolutely no change. Nada. Zilch. Zipparino.

You can use this mode to both darken and increase contrast in the overall image, though

the result will look fairly unnatural if done on the entire image. This can be useful.When used with different shades gray, Color Burn will intensify color on the layer below.This is important!You can use this mode to colorize a grayscale image. Also important.

When used on a drop shadow (in the Layer Styles dialog), the texture of the surface*below* the drop shadow will become more pronounced as the drop shadow becomes a

bit more see-through. This can be important.

In the tradition of tutorials past, here's what the Color Burn mode looks like using the blue andorange circles we started this series with:
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After changing the blending mode of the orange circle to Color Burn, the area where it

intersected with the blue circle became much darker, almost completely black. Now let's talkabout useful things you can do with this blending mode.

Fixing a dull sky

Probably the most useful trick of all for the Color Burn blending mode is to fix a dull and boringsky. Just create a new layer on top of the original photo and fill it with gray. The darker the gray,the darker the sky will become. Please allow me to illustrate on a photo of the Texas state capitol

which I shot a few months back.

I've already created three layers perched atop the original image and filled them with varyingpercentages of gray. I've also added layer mask to hide the capitol so that the change affects the

sky only (if you're curious, I used the Magic Wand and clicked on the blue, then choose Select >Similar about five times until the whole sky was selected). I'm including the Layers palette in thenext several screen shots so you have a clear (hopefully!) understanding of what's happening.


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Here's what the original image looks like:

Using a layer filled with 25% gray set to Color Burn mode, the sky begins to darken ever soslightly:


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Here's what the sky looks like using a layer filled with 50% gray, also set to Color Burn mode.As you can see, the sky is darkening as I use darker shades of gray. NOTE: A slight vignetting is

also being introduced as the image darkens, and it's most noticeable on the upper right side.That's from my camera lens and could be fixed with the Lens Distortion filter, just FYI.


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Using a layer filled with 75% gray makes the sky super dark:

However, if I lower the Opacity of the 75% gray layer to 65%, the sky looks just right (if itweren't from the vignett ing it'd be perfect!).


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Colorizing a grayscale image

Another fabulous use for the Color Burn mode is to colorize a grayscale. Just create a new layer

above the original photo and use the Brush Tool to paint on the new color. Change it's blendingmode and this is what you get:

It's true that you can use other blending modes to colorize a grayscale, but Color Burn will

produce the deepest, most vibrant and intense color. Overlay, Hue, and Color tend to produce

lighter, more saturated colors. In the end, it all depends on what kind of look you're after.

And by teaching you only what you need to know about this mode (or rather, the useful thingsyou can do with it), we were able to skip over the mindless mumbo-jumbo about how it looks to

see the primaries used in the colors on that layer and looks at the primaries used in the originallayer and depending upon which ones are present it will strip out the third.

Right.


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See what I mean? If it doesn't make sense to me, there's no way in heck I can make it make senseit for you :)

Check back next week for more on blending modes and until then, may the creative force be with

you!

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September 20, 2007

Photoshop Elements

Photoshop

Creating a collage with Linear Burn

Welcome to the fourth installment of our journey through the blending modes founds in bothPhotoshop and Elements. Though we're still trudging through the second category of modes

which all darken the overall image, I think you'll find Linear Burn to be one of the most useful.That is, if you're interested in creating some really trendy, funkified collages. Linear Burnproduces an effect that looks a lot like Multiply, though darker, and more saturated (brighter). It's

also similar to Color Burn, though the end effect won't be as high contrast.
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Beginning with the orange and blue circles we started out with, here's what Linear Burn doeswhen applied to the orange circle which lives at the top of our layers stack:

Once again, the area where the circles intersect becomes much darner (black, really), though unlike the

Color Burn mode, the orange remains. "Big fracking deal," you might be tempted to say and I'd have to

agree. The real fun of this blending mode lies in making collages or composites (an image comprised of

many). Though first let's take a peek at what Linear Burn can do to a normal photo.

Making a photo pop

To show you how this particular blending mode differs from the others in the same category, let's

take this photo of a hot air balloon, duplicate the background layer (Mac: Command + J, PC: Ctrl


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+ J) and change the blending mode. Here's the original:

Darken mode doesn't do anything at all, because there's no color or brightness variation betweenthe two layers. However, as you can see below, each mode farther down the blending mode list

gets successively darker and more saturated with color.

Multiply


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Think of this one as double-inked, wherein the whole image was printed twice and thus thewhole thing became darker.

Color Burn


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Produces a high contrast, darkened yet colorful effect.

Linear Burn

Here we get a dark yet slightly brightened effect, but without the added contrast you'd get with

Color Burn.


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With the colors in this particular image, Linear Burn produced the darkest image overall.

Creative Collages

As promised, let's take a look at practical usage of Linear Burn, that of a creative collage. You

might be surprised to learn that the collage below was created with nary a selection! Instead, itwas created with blending mode goodness.


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In the Layers palette below, you can see the original image on the bottom followed by what's leftof the little girl once I applied a Threshold adjustment to her, and deleted all the white bits (see

part 1 ofSensational Serigraphs, Pt. 1tutorial for this technique). I also selected her layer andadded a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to make her face appear dark brown instead of pure

black.

Next, I popped over to iStockphoto and did a search for "flowers" in the illustration database andgot the brownish, ornamental flowers you see on the third layer from the top (circled below). A

quick search of the photo database for "grunge texture" produced the green rays and dirty brownpaper (also circled below).

I opened all three images and dragged each layer into the main document. I changed the blendingmode of each one to Linear Burn and that is it. Period. Nothing else was done to create this
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collage as you see it above.

Now aren't you glad you read this tutorial? The next time you want to create a really funky,texture-riddled, trendy collage, reach for Linear Burn!

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January 03, 2008Photoshop

Making a macabre collage with Darker Color

After having a bit of a "holiday themed tutorial" break, it's time to continue on into the wideworld of blending modes. Therefore, I would like to welcome you to the fifth installment of our

journey which focuses on a brand new blending mode called Darker Color. It's new in PhotoshopCS3, though it doesn't yet live within Elements.

This mode is very similar to one we've already discussed called Darken, wherein the colors of

two layers are compared and the darkest ones win (which usually results in a darker imageoverall, except where white is concerned). With Darker Color, Photoshop compares theluminance data (think light value) of the colors in each layer. This mode doesn't really blend the

colors of the two layers together like the other modes in the Darken category. Instead, the darkestareas just come shining through so to speak.

Don't worry, it'll make sense in a minute :)

If you'll remember in our practical example with Darken mode (A Stroll Down Blend Mode

Lane, Pt. 1), we successfully used it to zap the white background of one image and swap it withanother image that was darker in color. Basically we took these two images (on separate layers inone document, of course):
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And created the following by changing the blend mode of the darkest layer (the sunburst) toDarken. A layer mask was added to the sunburst layer to hide the area of the underlying image

(the crazy dude) that was darker in color than the sunburst--his cheek and hand. The techniqueworked really well because heck, *anything* is darker than the original white background.

But if we were to use the Darker Color mode instead, we'd get something like this:

Since the sunburst is darker than the white, the method indeed worked; however, there's really noblending of colors. Notice how there is still a decent amount of white in the hair area (circled inred above).

The dark difference of it all

To illustra te further, let's return to our original example of orange and blue circles.

Darken mode


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With Darken mode, Photoshop compares the color channels in both layers, picks the darkest onesand combines the result where the two layers intersect. Thus, a new color is created (green).

Darker Color mode

In this mode, Photoshop compares the luminance channels (think light value) instead of the colorchannels. Since blue has a darker luminance value, it wins out over the orange. However, notethat no new color is generated where the layers overlap. That's because there's no real color

blending going on. The darkest color--in lightness value--is what remains where colors of bothlayers intersect.

So how does this help you? A good question indeed. As you've already guessed, if you're tryingto zap a white background, Darker Color probably won't be the best tool (though it's easy enough


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Interesting yes, though it gets better if we try this with plain old dirt:

Now we're cooking! In fact, she looks a bit cooked--like a vampire who's in the process ofmeeting the sun, perhaps (muhahahahaha!).

To show you how very different this mode is from the others in the darken category (which is all

we've worked with so far), I offer the following comparison using the same images:


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Notice how Darken introduces a new color where the colors intersect (that of green), and all of

them produce more of a blended photo look (albeit with varying degree of contrast andbrightness). Color Burn will have the highest contrast and most vivid colors, and Linear Burn

will be the darkest overall.

The new Darker Color mode is the only one that truly isolates the darkest areas withoutblending/darkening the whole image, as shown below. Until next week, may the creative forcebe with you all!


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Poor little mermaid ;)

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A Stroll Down Blend Mode Lane

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Transcript of A Stroll Down Blend Mode Lane