Did You Know. Blending Modes in Photoshop
Did You Know: Hints and Tips is a series where I talk about small little tips that made my life so much easier hoping to make yours easier too!
Blending Modes
Days after days I see people who have no idea what the Blending Modes in Photoshop actually do and who basically scroll through all of the modes to find the right effect. I have decided to explain to everyone what each and every Photoshop (and Illustrator’s as well by the way) Blending Mode does.
First of all, let’s make it clear, that Blending Mode is when one image blends with the other to create a unique image. Blending Mode is not always two images and a filter. For example, if you stick with the Normal blending mode, and lower top image’s opacity, the pictures will also blend under normal circumstances.
Most of the blending modes, however, adjust the images that are blended. To make this Did You Know issue 2 more understandable, we’re going to be using two images for blending:
Darken Modes
Darken
The primary task of this blending mode is to create a darker image hence the name. Every pixel is checked on both of the pictures and the choice is made between the overlaying pixels in favor of the darker one. So if your lower layer is filled with black, the result will be black. There is no change if the lower layer is filled with white.
Multiply
Multiply blending mode multiplies the overlaying pixel colors and the result is a combination of two colors brought together. The result is always darker than any of the two original colors. Just like with the Darken, multiplying with black results in black and multiplying with white gives no result.
Color Burn
Color Burn is a bit tricky. What the mode does is it applies upper layer to the lower layer on pixels where upper layer is darker then the base layer plus increases the base layer’s contrast. So if your applying a white layer using this mode, nothing changes (white is the brightest color there is) and applying black layer will result in everything being black.
Linear Burn
Linear Burn does the same thing as the Color Burn with one exception – it decreases the brightness instead of increasing the contrast. This is why compared to Color Burn, Linear Burn looks sort of pale.
Lighten Modes
Lighten
Remember, how Darken worked? Well Lighten is the same thing except for one thing – it chooses the brighter overlaying pixels out of the two layers and makes it visible. See, the division of the Blending Modes actually makes sense!
Screen
Screen multiplies the inverse of the overlaying pixel colors and the result is a combination of the inverse of the two colors brought together. The result is always lighter than any of the two original colors. It works the same way as Multiply only it goes the lighter way, not the darker.
Color Dodge
Being the opposite of the Color Burn mode, Color Dodge chooses those pixels of the top layer that are brighter than the base layer and makes those visible. It also decreases the contrast in the base layer.
Linear Dodge
Linear Dodge chooses those pixels of the top layer that are brighter than the base layer and makes those visible plus decreases the brightness in the base layer.
Lighter Color
Lighter Color is a basic blending mode that chooses the lighter color out of the two layers’ and makes the one visible.
Overlay Modes
Overlay
Overlay mode, depending on the top images’ attributes applies Multiply or Screen blending mode to the image, however unlike the two blending modes covered before, the highlights and the shadows of the base layer are preserved.
Soft Light
Soft Light works with percentage of gray of the top layer. If the pixel is brighter than 50%, then the area is lightened, if it’s darker, then it’s darkened. Hence using black or white layers to top the base layer results in darkening or brightening the image.
Hard Light
Hard Light can be seen as the combination of the Soft Light and Overlay blending modes, because it lightens or darkens the base image in terms of the percentage of gray on the top layer, plus it either multiplies or screens the lower image colors.
Vivid Light
Vivid Light blending mode works with contrast. If the colors are lighter than 50% gray, then the base picture is lightened too by decreasing the contrast. Darker colors of the top layer make the base layer’s color get darker by increasing the contrast.
Linear Light
Linear Light works with brightness and depending on the gray percentage either increases or decreases the brightness of the base layer’s colors.
Pin Light
Pin Light is tricky. If the top layer’s colors are lighter than 50% gray, base layer’s pixels darker than the top layer’s ones are replaced by those. Pixels lighter than the top color will not be changed. If the top layer’s colors are darker than 50% gray, base layer’s pixels lighter than the top layer’s ones are replaced by those. Pixels darker than the top color will not be changed. (Wow, that was a tough one…)
Hard Mix
Hard Mix adds RGB values of the top layer to the base layer and creates the final image with the colors usually being over saturated (if the RGB values combined exceed 255, then they stay at 255)
Difference Modes
Difference
Difference blending mode creates an environment, where the values of the colors with higher brightness subtract those of the other layer. If used with white, it result in an inverted image in terms of color.
Exclusion
Exclusion creates same effect that the Difference mode creates, however the contrast is also lowered.
Composite Modes
These modes work with four values: Hue, Saturation, Luminosity and Color. In each mode the value that is in the name of the mode is being provided by the overlaying layer, whereas others are provided by the base layer.
Hue
Saturation
Color
Luminosity
Conclussion
I hope that know you realize that every blending mode is there to create some specific filtered composition out of two images and depending on what you require, the blending mode will help you achieve the result needed. Everything that has been thought-out proves to be better and more professional, so next time don’t go through every single blending mode to see what you like. Vision should be more important than the unexpected outcome.
See you next time!
