In a journey of mastering Adobe Photoshop, one stumbles upon many features, each opening up a world of new possibilities. One such feature that often remains enigmatic for many beginners is the concept of blending modes. It is time to unmask this feature and exploit its true potential.
Understanding the Basics
The blending modes in Adobe Photoshop consist of various sets, each serving a unique purpose. Let’s begin with the two simplest ones – the ‘Normal’ and ‘Dissolve’ blending modes.
- Normal is the default blending mode and signifies that the layers do not blend at all.
- Dissolve, on the other hand, finds pixels with opacity differences and applies color to them. Though not frequently used, it serves a niche purpose in particular scenarios.
The Multiply Set
This set’s name, “Multiply”, offers insight into its function. All blending modes in this set aim to darken the base color using different methods.
- Darken blending mode evaluates which color is less bright between the base color and the blend color and opts for the darker color. It can provide a rather intriguing effect of reversing the layering order.
- Multiply is a more commonly used mode, which multiplies the color information from the base color and the blend color. The resulting blend will always be darker, with darker colors yielding an even darker result.
- Color Burn increases the contrast between the two colors to darken the base color. It eliminates white from the blend layer, but could leave digital artifacts if the colors are significantly different.
- Linear Burn operates similarly to Color Burn but treats whites differently. Whites in the base layer are darkened to reflect the blending layer.
- Darker Color is considered a better implementation of the Darken blend mode. It simply chooses whichever pixel is darker, blend or base, and displays that, regardless of color.
The Screen Set
Next, we explore the Screen set of blending modes, which act as the polar opposite of the Multiply set. All these modes aim to brighten the base color.
- Lighten simply opts for the brightest pixel between the base and the blend.
- Screen inverses the color information from the base and blend, making a lighter color.
- Color Dodge reduces contrast until the base pixel more closely resembles the blend pixel.
- Linear Dodge increases the brightness of the base to resemble the blend.
- Lighter Color is a more aggressive replacement mode to lighten, replacing dark with light pixels.
The Overlay Set
The Overlay set of blending modes is designed to eliminate mid-tone greys between two layers. The modes in this set offer diverse results by adjusting the levels of contrast and luminosity.
- Overlay blends the base and mix color to remove mid-tone grays, providing a brighter result when working with colors.
- Soft Light uses the blend layer as the starting point and then mixes in the base layer, resulting in a more subtle effect.
- Hard Light operates similar to Overlay but adds more contrast to the mix.
There are four other blending modes in this set – Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, and Hard Mix. These modes primarily manipulate contrast, brightness, and color saturation, offering an assortment of effects for the user.
The Inversion Set
The Inversion set of blending modes works primarily with contrast and inversion effects.
- Difference and Exclusion create a selective inversion effect, with the former focusing on brightness values and the latter excluding greys.
- Subtract inverts colors in the blend layer and overlays the result upon the base layer.
- Divide, considered the opposite of Subtract, removes white and changes black to white, making greys much lighter.
These blending modes can often be employed for alignment purposes or to achieve particular artistic effects.
The Component Set
The final set, the Component set, comprises four blending modes that manipulate hues, saturation, and luminosity.
- Hue changes the base colors to reflect the hue color from the blend layer.
- Saturation applies the level of saturation from the blend layer to the colors in the base layer.
- Color applies the hue and saturation from the blend layer to the luminous values of the base layer.
- Luminosity detects the luminous values from the blend and applies them to the color values from the base.
With this, we conclude our exploration of the blending modes in Adobe Photoshop. As we have learned, each blending mode has its unique effect and can significantly alter your graphic editing experience.
In the world of Adobe Photoshop, mastering blending modes is a step towards mastering the art itself. Happy editing!