Blend Modes Tips for Photoshop CS2
Photoshop boasts many great features, and blend modes are one of the best things it has to offer. A blend mode examines the values of pixels on one layer or, if using a painting tool, the color being applied (the blend color) and compares them to the values of the corresponding pixels on any visible layers below (the base color). It then runs a mathematical calculation on the two sets of numbers and uses the numeric results of the calculation to alter the display of the image.
In this tutorial we’ll explore some cool tricks and effects that can be created with the blend modes in Photoshop CS2. [If you’d like to download the images used in this tutorial to practice this technique, visit www.layersmagazine.com/magazine-downloads.]
Where the Blend Modes Live
STEP 1 Blend Modes Are Available in Many Places
Blend modes occur in a few different places in Photoshop, so these first two paragraphs are not really steps per se, but pointers to where you can find the blend modes. The most obvious places they occur are in the mode menu at the top of the Layers palette and in the Options Bar for any of the painting tools. The first instance blends the active layer with all underlying layers, and for the painting tools, it blends the color being applied with the rest of the image. The New Layer, Fill (Edit>Fill), and Stroke (Edit>Stroke) dialogs also offer a choice of blend modes.
STEP 2 Blend Modes with Styles
Blend modes also occur in the general Blending Options section of the Layer Style dialog, but these have the same function as the regular layer blend modes. Within the controls of the layer styles themselves, you’ll also find that all of them use blending modes. Some, such as Bevel & Emboss, have separate modes for the highlight and shadow part of the effect. Finally, blend modes also occur in the Apply Image and the Calculations dialogs, both which are found in the Image menu. In this tutorial, we’ll be concentrating on using blend modes in the Layers palette.
Quickie Darkening and Lightening Effects
STEP 1 Add an “Empty” Curves or Levels Adjustment Layer
Two blend modes, Multiply and Screen, can be used to add a quick and easy darkening or lightening effect. To do this in a way that’s flexible and adjustable, simply add a Curves or Levels adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves [or Levels]) to an image you wish to lighten or darken. In the dialog for Levels or Curves, click OK without making any changes. I call this an “empty” adjustment layer since it doesn’t contain any modifications to the tonal values.
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STEP 2 Change Blend Mode to Multiply or Screen; Adjust Opacity
To darken the image, open the blend mode pop-up menu at the top of the Layers palette and change the blend mode for the adjustment layer to Multiply. To create a lightening effect, use Screen. The initial effect will probably be much too pronounced, so the next step is to scale back the effect by using the Opacity slider at the top of the Layers palette to lower the opacity of the adjustment layer until it looks right. You could also use the layer mask on the adjustment layer to apply the effect to specific areas of the image.
Remove Color Shifts from Curves
STEP 1 Increase Contrast with a Curves Adjustment Layer
When using Curves to increase contrast, there is sometimes an undesirable color shift that occurs. In an RGB image, the color and the brightness values are created by the values in each of the Red, Green, and Blue channels, and by increasing contrast, you often get a color shift as well. A blend mode can help with this. To try this out, download the image “Orange-Blue.jpg,” open it, add a Curves adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves), and modify the curve as shown. Click OK once the curve has been set.
STEP 2 Set Curves Layer to Luminosity
Turn the Eye icon for the Curves adjustment layer in the Layers palette on and off and you will see there is a noticeable color shift that occurs in the orange color. To remove the color shift but still keep the contrast increase, use the Luminosity blend mode for the Curves layer. Luminosity tells Photoshop to only apply the adjustment to the luminosity or brightness values in the image and leave the color values alone.
Combining Images with Darken & Lighten
STEP 1 Add Ferryboat Image to Sailboat Image
Anytime you wish to collage two images together where the main element of one is either darker or lighter than the underlying image, you can use the Darken or Lighten blend modes to quickly combine them. To explore how this works, download and open the files “sailboat.jpg” and “ferryboat.jpg.” Select the Move tool (V) in the Toolbox and with the Shift key held down, drag-and-drop the ferryboat image onto the sailboat photo to create a new layer. Keep the Shift key down until the new layer appears (this will center the new layer).
STEP 2 Combine Layers with Darken Blend Mode
Move the ferryboat layer so the bottom of it aligns with the bottom of the sailboat image. Then set its blend mode to Darken. Since the water and ferryboat are darker than the underlying image, they are displayed instead of the pixels on the sailboat layer. The Darken mode also works well when adding darker clouds to an image where the sky is too light. If you had a layer where the item you wished to add was lighter than the rest of the image, then you would use the Lighten blend mode to display the lighter areas instead of the darker areas.
Better Desaturation with the Color Mode
STEP 1 Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer
Many people like to create a grayscale effect (or combine grayscale with original image color) by desaturating an image using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. But the default blending method often does not preserve the color contrast of images with very bright and saturated colors. Once again, a blend mode can provide the solution. To try this out, download and open the image “Peru Pigments.jpg.” Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer by choosing it from the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, and move the Saturation slider all the way to the left (-100). Click OK.
STEP 2 Change Blend Mode to Color
Turn the Eye icon for the Hue/Saturation layer on and off and notice that the bright yellow powder on the right has lost all of the bright tonal values from the original and now appears to be a middle gray tone. Now change the blend mode for the adjustment layer to Color and the bright tonal values will be restored. Anytime you have an image with bright colors and want to use a Hue/Saturation layer to create a grayscale effect by desaturating it, use the Color blend mode for a more accurate translation of the color values into grayscale.
A Flexible Way to Add Film Grain
STEP 1 Add a Layer of 50% Gray
Open any image that you want to add a film grain effect to. From the main menu, choose Layer>New>Layer. Another way to do this is to use the shortcut of Shift-Command-N (PC: Shift-Control-N). In the New Layer dialog, open the Mode pop-up menu at the bottom of the dialog and select Overlay. When this mode is chosen, a checkbox will be enabled that allows you to fill the new layer with an Overlay-neutral color of 50% gray. Go ahead and check this and click OK to create the layer.
STEP 2 Add Noise
For the Overlay blend mode (and all the modes that are grouped with it), 50% gray is a neutral color that does not appear in the image. When you change the layer so that it’s either darker or lighter than 50% gray, this will show in the image, and this is how we will create a layer of film grain. Double-click the Zoom tool to view the image at 100%. Choose Filter>Noise>Add Noise. In the Noise dialog, click the Gaussian and Monochromatic options and add noise until you get a film grain effect that you like (we used 8). Click OK.
The Celebrated 50% Gray Dodge & Burn Layer
STEP 1 Add a Layer of 50% Gray and Darken (“Burn”)
This final trick is an oldie but a goodie. Open an image where you want to lighten and darken certain areas (“dodge” and “burn” in classic darkroom terminology). Using the same procedure as in Step 1 of the Film Grain effect, add a new layer that’s set to the Overlay blend mode and filled with 50% gray. Select the Brush tool (B) and an appropriate-sized brush tip and press D on the keyboard to make black your Foreground color. In the Options Bar, lower the brush opacity to 20%. Brush over areas in the image that you want to darken (“burn”).
STEP 2 Lighten (“Dodge”) with White
Press X on the keyboard to exchange the Foreground and Background colors and make white the Foreground color. Leave the brush opacity set to 20%. Now brush over areas in the image that you want to lighten (“dodge”). Gradually build up the brush strokes to increase the lightening or darkening effect. To tone back any lightening or darkening, simply paint with the opposite color. To remove the dodging and burning entirely, paint with 50% gray (click on the Foreground color swatch and use RGB values of 128, 128, and 128 in the Color Picker).
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