Blending Modes 101

In this tutorial, we will be discussing the power and the effect that each blending mode has on an image.

Color Wheel

(Click us both)

The Color wheel has 12 segiments with all colors, different hues, primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. The three primary colors are red, green, and bluemeaning they cannot be mixed with any other colors to create themselves - secondary + tertiary NEVER = primary, etc...

Secondary Colors are orange, violet, and green and 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.

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.

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; there is no white, gray, or black added to these colors.

Value is the lightness or darkness of a color, or the relative amount (in percentage) of white or black in a hue.

Luminosity and/or Lightness is 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 than hues with a high content of black.

Tints are white when added in increments to any color that results in a lighter value of that initial color - called a tint. Blue and white make light blue, which is a tint of Blue, Green and white make a tint, etc...

Shades is black or gray, when added in increments to any color that results in a darker value of that color - called a shade. Blue and Black make dark blue, a shade of blue, red and black make a darker shade of red, etc...

Saturation is the degree of purity within a hue (get an image and use the hue/saturation tool command/control+U, and drag the slider to the right).

Intensity is the brightness or dullness of a hue. Iintensity maybe lowered by adding white or black.

A list of blending modes and their effects

First thing is firts, you MUST have two or more layers in order to use or harness the power of blending modes. You cannot have one layer and expect it to do much of anything if you don't have more than two layers!

(Click us both for source images)

Note: For the boat, you can simply use the magic eraser tool to rid of all the white in the image and then simply drag n drop it into the landscape img.

(normal)

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.

(dissolve)

Dissolve makes the lower layer take on the colors of the top layer, and how much depends on the opacity of the upper layer...

(darken)

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)

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. This can also be reversed by switching layers too.

(color burn)

Color Burn burns in the color of the upper layer with the lower layer. No part of the image will get lighter...

(linear burn)

Linear Burn works like multiply, however, results are much more intense.

(lighten)

Lighten compares the two layers pixel for pixel and uses the lightest pixel value. No part of the image gets darker...

(screen)

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)

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 (Add))

Linear Dodge (Add) works like screen but with more intense results...

(overlay)

Overlay multiplies the light colors and screens the dark colors.

(soft light)

Soft Light will multiply the dark tones and screen the light tones.

(hard light)

Hard Light muliplies the dark colors and screens the light colors.

(vivid light)

Vivid Light will dodge 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)

Linear Light is the same as Vivid light but it works on the brightness of the lower layer.

(pin light)

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)

Difference reacts to the differences between the upper and lower layer pixels. Large differences lighten the color, and small differences darken the color.

(exclusion)

Exclusion uses the darkness of the lower layer to mask the difference between upper and lower layers.

(hue)

Hue changes the hue of the lower layer to the hue of the upper layer but leaves brightness and saturation alone.

(saturation)

Saturation changes the saturation of the lower layer to the hue of the upper layer but leaves brightness and hue alone.

(color)

Color hanges the hue and saturation of the lower layer to the hue and saturation of the upper layer but leaves luminosity alone.

(Luminosity)

Luminosity changes the luminosity of the lower layer to the liminodity of the upper layer while leaving hue and saturation the same.

Hopefully this was helpful to all you guys and gals out there searching for the exact definitions for the blending modes in Photoshop. With this knowledge you can incorporate the use of layers masking, channel selection, and other fundamentals to create sophisticated images!!