Blending modes
Photoshop and Elements allow for layer
blend modes that change the way layers react with each other. Some
of them you will use in every day work. If you have a photo that is
too dark, for example, many times a quick fix is to duplicate the photo
layer in the layers palette and change the duplicate layer mode to
Screen. If a photo is too light it can sometimes be corrected by duplicating
the photo layer and changing the layer mode to Multiply.
How do you know what layer blend mode
to choose? Let's look at them and how they work, and take some of the
mystery away! (Some. Not all.) Color
To understand blend modes, you need to
know a little about color.
Color is light, and likewise, light is made up of many colors.
Objects absorb or reflect these light waves.
Our eyes perceive these wavelengths as color. Let's start with the
color wheel.
The COLOR WHEEL has 12 segments that
consist of primary, secondary and tertiary hues, or colors.
The three PRIMARY colors are RED,
YELLOW, and BLUE. They form a triangle on the wheel. These colors
cannot be mixed by combining any other colors. They are indicated
on the color wheel with a P.
The three SECONDARY colors of ORANGE,
VIOLET, and GREEN (marked on the chart by an S)
are created by mixing equal parts of the primary colors they fall
in between; ie, VIOLET is the secondary color produced by mixing
equal parts of RED and BLUE.
The TERIARY colors are the colors
that result from mixing the primary and secondary colors on either
side of them: ie, mixing the secondary color ORANGE with the primary
color RED results in red-orange. These colors are marked on the color
wheel with a T.
Using the color wheel you can determine color schemes
fpr balance and harmony in your artwork, webpages, desktop publishing
designs or home decorating.
Hue: Hue refers to the color...red,
blue, etc.
The primary, secondary, and tertiary colors,
or hues, are these colors at their full saturation or brightness;
that is, there, there is no white, gray, or black added.
Value: the lightness
or darkness of a color, or the relative amount (percentage) of white
or black in a hue.
Luminosity, or Lightness: A measure
of the amount of light reflected from a hue. Those hues with a high
content of white have a higher luminance, or value.
Tints: white when added in increments
to any color results in a lighter value of that color, called
a tint. Blue and white make light blue, which is
a tint of Blue.
Shades: black or gray when added in
increments to any color results in a darker value of that color,
called a shade. Blue and Black make dark blue, a
shade of blue.
Saturation: The degree of purity of a hue.
Intensity: The brightness or dullness
of a hue. Iintensity maybe lowered by adding white or black.
The blending modes In Photoshop and Elements the layer blend modes can be changed in
the layers palette. In these programs, changing the layer blend
mode affects the entire layer, even if you have a selection. In Illustrator
the blend modes work basically the same, but a different blend mode
may be applied to different objects on the same layer, so the blend
mode popup is found in the transparency palette.
The dropdown menu on the left contains the blend modes which we'll
discuss fully in a minute.
Normal is the default, and the objects interact with each other as
if they were both solid color objects, at 100% opacity. When one is
over the other, what is covered you can't see.
The rest of the modes interact with each other in different ways.
To use layer blend modes you have to have two or more
layers. The blend mode will react with the layer below it. If you have
only a background, the blend mode popup will be grayed out, as these
modes cannot be applied to backgrounds.
For these demos I will be using an image with two layers.
The blending mode will be applied to layer 1 and we'll look at the
way they interact.
Normal mode
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Normal mode is the default. The colors of
the two layers will not interact in any way, and it will display
the full value of the colors in layer 1. What you see in the
image window will look like this.
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Dissolve
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Dissolve makes the lower layer take on the colors of the top layer, and how much
depends on the opacity of the upper layer. The layer 1 opacity is set at
50% here.
Disolve only affects pixels with some transparency,
which is why I lowered the opacity to 50% in this example. |
Darken
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Darken compares each
pixel value of the upper layer to its counterpart's pixel value
of the lower layer and chooses the darker of the two to display. |
Multiply
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Multiply darkens
the lower layer based on the darkenss of the upper layer. No
part of the image will get lighter. Any applied tone darker than
white darkens the lower layer. White becomes transparent.
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Color Burn
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Color Burn burns
in the color of the upper layer with the lower layer. No part
of the image will get lighter. |
Linear Burn
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Linear Burn works
like multiply but the results are more intense. |
Lighten
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Lighten compares
the two layers pixel for pixel and uses the lightest pixel value.
No part of the image gets darker. |
Screen
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Screen brightens
by lightning the lower layer based on the lightness of the upper
layer. The result is always lighter, and makes it a good mode
for correcting exposure in photos that are too dark. |
Color Dodge
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Color Dodge dodges
the lower layer with the upper layer, resulting in a lighter
image. No part of the image will be darkened. |
Linear Dodge
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Linear Dodge works
like screen but with more intense results. |
Overlay
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Overlay multiplies
the light colors and screens the dark colors. |
Soft Light
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Soft Light will multiply
the dark tones and screen the light tones. |
Hard Light
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Hard Light muliplies
the dark colors and screens the light colors. |
Vivid Light
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Vivid Light
will dodges or burn the lower layer pixels depending on whether the upper layer
pixels are brighter or darker than neutral gray. It works on
the contrast of the lower layer.
|
Linear Light
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Linear Light is the
same as Vivid light but it works on the brightness of the lower
layer. |
Pin Light
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Pin Light
changes the lower layer pixels depending on how bright the pixels are in the
upper layer. It acts like Multiply when the upper layer color
is darker than neutral gray, and acts like screen if the upper
layer color is lighter than neutral gray.
|
Difference
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Difference reacts
to the differences between the upper and lower
layer pixels. Large differences lighten the color, and small
differences darken the color. |
Exclusion
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Exclusion uses the
darkness of the lower layer to mask the difference between upper
and lower layers. |
Hue
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Hue changes the hue
of the lower layer to the hue of the upper layer but leaves brightness
and saturation alone. |
Saturation
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Saturation changes
the saturation of the lower layer to the hue of the upper layer
but leaves brightness and hue alone. |
Color
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Color changes the
hue and saturation of the lower layer to the hue and saturation
of the upper layer but leaves luminosity alone. |
Luminosity
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Luminosity changes
the luminosity of the lower layer to the liminodity of the upper
layer while leaving hue and saturation the same. |
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