Blend

T You can come back to this video and use these timestamps to skip to any section that you So without any further ado, let's get started. Blend Modes are divided into groups. Each group of Blend Mode has a common property. The first group is the normal group and very surprisingly the first Blend Mode is normal. When the normal Blend Mode is selected, the layers do not interact with each other. It's Have a look. The yellow circle layer is on top of the red circle layer. If I take the red up, it's Now of course you can increase or decrease the opacity to control the transparency of the layer, but that's the most you can do with it. The next one in the normal group is the dissolve Blend Mode and since it is a normal group, t When the layer is solid and opacity and fill both are at 100, the dissolve Blend Mode acts same as the normal Blend Mode. Have a look at it. Dissolve and normal both are creating the same effect or no effect at all. The only difference dissolve shows is during transparency. Right now let's change it to dissolve and if I decrease the opacity, have a look at it. It is becoming transparent in the form of dots and the lesser the opacity is, the more further apart the dots are. Are you getting it? No? Let me give you one more example. Let's turn on a black background and let's turn on a soft beam. It is going from opaque to transparent. Gradually. Now if I change the Blend Mode from normal to dissolve, have a look at t It is becoming transparent slowly and gradually in the form of dots. The more opaque the area is, the closer the dots are. The more transparent an area is, the further apart the dots are and that is pretty much the difference. If you change it back to normal, it's not represented in form of dots and by the way 99. 9% of the time you will not use the dissolve Blend Mode. The next group is the darken group and as the name suggests, all of the Blend Modes inside of the first Blend Mode in the darken group is darken. Oh my god, I couldn't have guessed it. The darken Blend Mode will Make sense? No? Let me put some sense to it. Have a look at t So here we have a red solid background. Now have a look at the brightness level. So let's go to the color picker. So brightness level is what? 53% right? Let's turn on a simple gradient. So t If we change the Blend Mode from normal to darken, everyt Why is that? So let's change it back to normal and let's understand t So t Now what was the brightness level of t 53%, right? Everyt So let's turn it on and let's choose darken Blend Mode. Since t Still not clear? Let me show you one more example. So if we simply paint, so let's take the brush and let's take gray color and let'start painting on top of t Now on top of t If I change the Blend Mode from normal to darken, you will not be able to see it. It's totally Now if in the same layer where the darken Blend Mode is selected, if we choose a darker shade, just a little darker shade and start painting, it's gonna show up. But any lighter shade is not gonna show up. Let's move to the next Blend Mode w The Multiply Blend Mode is one of the Blend Modes w Just as the name suggests, the Multiply Blend Mode multiplies. So t It's not T Now anyt Zero, right? It's absolutely zero. Now anyt The n So if I multiply 563 with one, it's gonna be 563. So when you choose the Blend Mode Multiply, it simply does exactly that. So let's change the Blend Mode of t See, anyt Zero itself and zero is what? Zero is black. So 100% black is exactly 100% black in Multiply. Anyt The n So at the bottom, we had the red color. So the red color, that particular shade of red multiplied by one is what? Exactly that particular shade of red. If maths is confusing to you, no problem. I got you. Just keep in mind, Multiply darkens n Multiply shows everyt So it shows the black. But only and only 100% Black. Multiply So Multiply darkens shows 100% black and Now keep in mind, Multiply does not hide the brighter pixels So if we change the Blend Mode from Multiply to darken, have a look. All of the brighter pixels than the projected surface are now However, in Multiply, only 100% w Anyt The next one on our list is Color Burn. Sounds familiar? Dodging and burning, remember? Dodging is brightening and burning means darkening. So similarly, according to the name, Color Burn adds color and it darkens. However, technically speaking, Color Burn has four properties. N So it keeps the 100% w It keeps the 100% black off the projected surface as black. Totally black. It does not touch it. N And n Let's have a look at t So here we have a purple color. So if we turn it on and change it to color burn, have a look at t So anyt So let me show you an example. So if I create a new layer on top of it and if I just paint in w Let's choose it again, Color Burn. So it's going to leave the w It's not going to darken it. If you choose Multiply, it's going to darken the w But with Color Burn, it will leave the w Also, if you had painted in black, so let's paint it in black right over there. There we go. So it's going to leave the black as black. To make it even simpler, let's pull down a gradient under that purple color and let's turn t So t On top of that, we have chosen the purple color and turned it on Color Burn. So it's going to leave the w It's going to leave the black, 100% black as black. And it's going to color the middle and also darken it at the same time. Now please keep in mind, t Color Burn is a part of special 8 blend modes. Now these special 8 blend modes react differently to Opacity and Fill. So let's have a look. If we simply decrease the Opacity, it's just fading it, right? It'simply fading it. It's not doing anyt However, if you decrease the Fill, it's going to decrease the projection in an interesting way. So let's decrease the Fill. Have a look at t It's controlling the projection. So Color Burn is one of those blend modes. So for t It's creating t Now let's talk about Linear Burn. It's a very similar blend mode to Color Burn with one major difference. So if we choose Color Burn, let's increase the Fill and Opacity to 100. Let's change it to Linear Burn. What is the difference that you see? Let me do that again for you. Color Burn and then Linear Burn. There's just one difference. Have a look at it closely. It does not, and listen to t It does not keep 100% w So if we created a new layer on top of it and painted w Let's increase the Flow to 100. Let's paint w It's not w If we change the blend mode back to Color Burn, see, it's keeping it w However, Linear Burn is not going to keep it w That's the one major difference. Otherwise, both are very, very similar. Linear Burn is also a part of special eight blend modes just The darker color is a blend mode w It is just a harsher version of the darken blend mode. So let's choose first of all darken. Let'see what it does. So if we choose darken, it So everyt So now let's choose darker color. It does a very similar t It shows the exact color of the gradient. So it is just an extreme version of the darken blend mode. Have a look at t It also, darker color also Moving on to the next blend mode group, the Lighten group. And I don't even have to say it anymore. The first blend mode is Lighten. Again, just keep in mind that the lighten blend mode is the exact opposite of the darken blend mode. So let'see what darken does. So t It's Remember, similarly if you choose the lighten blend mode, it will do exactly the opposite. Similarly, the screen blend mode is the opposite of multiply. So let'see what multiply did. So if we choose multiply, remember, it shows everyt And multiply, multiplies. So screen is the exact opposite. So if you choose screen, see, does the exact opposite t It shows everyt It So have a look at the pattern here. Opposite of darken is lighten. Opposite of multiply is screen. Again, opposite of color burn is color dodge. Now just as color burned, remember what it did. Color burn added color. It also darkened. Now one important property of color burn was that it kept 100% w It left it at that. Similarly, if you choose color dodge, so t Let me just increase the fill and opacity. T Now I have added a tiny bit of blend if on it. So let's just take it back to normal. Have a look at t Now if you choose color dodge, it will brighten. It will add color. However, it will keep everyt The areas that were totally black are black. It doesn'touch them. However, if you choose linear dodge, it will also brighten the areas that were totally black. Just as color burn and linear burn did, color burn kept 100% w Similarly, color dodge kept 100% black as black on the projected surface and linear dodge brightened 100% black as well. Moving on to the lighter color blend mode. T However, just keep in mind, it's the exact opposite of darker color. See what darker color does? So darker color again is an extreme version of darken. So if we choose darker color, it does what darken does but in an extreme fas Similarly, lighter color is an extreme version of lighten. So if we choose lighter color, it will do the exact opposite. Notice that those two bars showed up in darker color. So if we choose darker color, two bars were showing up and not And if we choose lighter color, those two bars are not showing up and everyt So therefore, we can say that lighter color is the exact opposite of darker color. Time for us to move to the next group, w Now, what is the meaning of adding contrast? In general, adding contrast is brightening the brights and darkening the darks. So every blend mode inside of the contrast group brightens the bright pixels and darkens the dark pixels. Starting with the first blend mode in the contrast group and t Now, overlay is a blend mode w Let'see what it does. So here we have a simple gradient. In the middle, we have 50% gray. At the top, we have 100% w And at the bottom, we have totally black. Now, let's change the blend mode from normal to overlay. Let'see the before and after. So here is the before, here is the after. Everyt Before, after, before, after. T However, anyt So simply put, overlay In other words, we can say that the overlay blend mode increases contrast. Let's have a look at t So let's And if you make a copy of the background layer by pressing Ctrl or Command J and change the blend mode from normal to overlay, have a look at it. It simply increases the contrast. Now, t And if you make a change on the background layer, you will also have to make that same change on the background copy. So a better way to do it, just a small tip, is simply create a levels or curves adjustment layer. Don't do anyt Let's choose any one of them and change the blend mode of that one from normal to overlay. So it does the exact same t It creates a virtual copy of the layer w Have a look at it. It adds contrast to it. The next one, Soft Light is a blend mode is somet So if we again create a levels adjustment layer or just make a copy of the background, Ctrl or Command J and change the blend mode from normal to overlay that rhymed, have a look. It adds a ton of contrast. If you change it back to Soft Light, it adds mild contrast. That's it. So t So similarly, if you had the gradient, I can show it to you even better. So here we have the gradient again, right? T It again If you choose Soft Light, see, it's just a mild version of it. Overlay and then Soft Light. Let's contrast. Hard Light is a blend mode w So here we are in Photoshop and let's create an interesting effect with the background layer selected, press Ctrl or Command J. Now let's blur it out totally. Let's go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur. Let's add a ton of blur, something 424 and or maybe let's go for 470. That sounds perfect. Let's change the blend mode from Normal to Hard Light. Have a look at the faded contrast it adds. However, if you choose overlay, it won't be faded. But if you choose Hard Light, look at the change here. See the fadedness in the shadows? Now of course, t You can always decrease the opacity. So let's decrease the opacity and let's give it a tiny bit of the effect, the fill here. Have a look at t So here's the before, here's the after. Adding that colorful punch and a little bit of faded contrast, it's creating a really nice effect. Before, after. Subtle but nice. Now let's talk about the next blend modes, Vivid Light and Linear Light together because both of them are very similar but with one major difference. So here we have a gradient from w Now on top of that, for any color w It's going to leave 100% black as black and 100% w But if you choose an extreme color, of course t But mostly, if you choose any color w Now if you choose Linear Light, it's going to change. Linear Light does not keep 100% w Does that ring a bell? Just The linear t Just keep in mind Vivid Light, it keeps 100% black as black and 100% w However, Linear Light, it's not going to do that. Both of the blend mode have two common properties. N Let's just take t Let's just delete that. So here we have a beautiful picture. Let's turn t Now t Keep in mind that Linear Light is a part of the special eight blend modes. So Opacity and Fill would react differently. So if we decrease the Fill, have a look. It's decreasing the projection and creating a wonderful effect in here. So you can also create a gradient of blue, orange and again blue, something You can also choose, let'say, Vivid Light for a similar effect. I think I There you go. Here's the before, here's the after. The next blend mode, Pin Light is an interesting combination of Darken and Lighten blend mode. Before we begin with Pin Light, I would However, have a look at t So t If you choose the blend mode, Pin Light, it creates an interesting effect. Let's choose Pin Light right there. It is just That's it. And I can prove that to you. So let us Right? Turn t Let's change the blend mode from Pin Light to Darken. But t We want to take it away. So let's add some levels to it. Ctrl or Command L and play with it. Just Let's take it to about half, maybe 128 would be fine. Now, I'm going to make one more copy of t Ctrl or Command J. Place it at the top. Turn it on. And t Press Ctrl or Command L again. And take it at 128, 128. So these are the two blend modes, Lighten. And t Let's name t Let's make a group of both of them. So select the first one, hold the Ctrl or Command, select the second one, Ctrl or Command G. And there you go. Look at what kind of effect it's creating. And look at what the exact same effect. So you understand how that's it. Hard Mix is a very interesting blend mode. It confirms the layer to just eight colors. So what are those eight colors? Let me show that to you. So here we have a simple gray background and on top of it, we have a representation of the colors. So let's turn it on. So here's a color wheel. And on the right hand side, we have a gradient from black to w Now if you change the blend mode from Normal to let'say Hard Mix, have a look at what it does. See, t We add all the colors, all the gradients. It is just reduced to w Isn'that interesting? Have a look at it again. So t And if I change it to Hard Mix, it is just black, w Right? So if you choose the blend mode Hard Mix, it will confirm the colors to those eight colors. It will not let you have any color outside of those eight colors. And what are those eight colors? Black, w So let's create a solid color adjustment layer and create a nice effect for t So here we have some beautiful flowers. So we can of course create a solid color adjustment layer by clicking on the adjustment layer icon and let's choose solid color. Let's add some more blues to the flower, something See what it does. It will reduce and confirm all the colors to just those eight colors. So in t Have a look at t Look here. Now, here's an interesting part. Keep in mind that the Hard Mix blend mode is a part of special eight blend modes. Now, what's with the special eight blend modes? It reacts differently to Opacity and Fill. Now, if you decrease the fill of the Hard Mix blend mode, it shows more and more colors. If the fill is at 100%, it will never ever show more than eight colors. But if you decrease the fill, have a look. More and more colors begin to show up, w So you can keep it at about 26. Have a look at the nice effect it's creating. You can also create a gradient if you want to. So click on the adjustment layer icon and let's choose gradient. You can choose from a variety of gradients in here. Let's choose t I And now, decrease the fill. T I love the colors in here. Moving on to the next blend mode group, w Now, the blend modes inside of the Inversion group are mostly utility blend modes. You might not use it artistically, but they have their own practical uses. The difference blend mode is simply the difference between two interacting colors. Technically speaking, it is the difference between the R, G and B values. Have a look at the color of it. The color is R, G and B. Look at the RGB values. R 230, G169 and B 57. Right? Now, we have the same ellipse, same circle with the same color, moved a little differently. Now, if you look at the color, double click on the th 230, 169, 57. Now, if I change the blend mode from Normal to Difference, have a look at what happens. Look at the area where it intersects. That area becomes black. Why is that? Have a look at the RGB values of black. So, if I simply take the color picker, look at the RGB values of black. 0, 0, 0. And do It'simply 230 minus 230, 169 minus 169 and 57 minus 57. So, the difference between the same colors or the same values is of course 0. And what is 0, 0, 0? Black. So, therefore, Difference blend mode is simply the difference between the RGB values of two interacting colors. Now, let me show you one more example. So, here is one more circle. And look at the values of it. 255, 0, 0, right? And t So, Difference between 255 and 230 is what? Let's change the blend mode from Normal to Difference. You will look at the difference instantly. It is green. If you pick that color, have a look. Difference between 255 and 230 is what? 25. And both of them are exactly the same because they were 0, 0. So, Difference between 0 and 169 is 169. 0 and 57 is 57. So, it's just a difference of RGB values. Well, that is all great. But how are you supposed to use the Difference blend mode? Well, I have a video about it. Or just a simple reminder. You can use the Difference blend mode for aligning stuff. So, let's have a look at t We have a simple scenery. And you have a scenery on top of it with a different exposure. I just copied the same exact same t So, if I turn it on, they're in the exact same position, right? So, exact same color on top of the exact same color. So, if I choose the blend mode Difference, it's going to be black. But if I move it a little bit, you will see the disparity. Zoom in. And once we align both of them nicely, it should become black. But for that, you need to align them. See, once we align them, it becomes black. So, the Difference blend mode can be greatly used for aligning stuff. So, let'say in one of the photos, the eye is not in focus. So, you take the eye from another photo of the same person in the same lighting situation, bring it in, and you can use the blend mode Difference to align the new eye on top of the blurred eyes. There can be many other users. Trust me, you will not use it 99. 999% of the time. The math be All you need to know is t It's a variation of the blend mode Difference with a slight change. It does not invert the midtones. That's it. Or artistically speaking, you can apply it to create some faded effects here and there. So, I have added a blue color on top of the subject. A simple blue color, I can make it a little brighter and change the blend mode from Normal to Exclusion. Look at the kind of effect it's creating. Now, keep in mind, it makes black disappear. So, if I choose black in here, it's not going to do any changes in here. As you increase it, you see more and more blues in the shadows and yellow in the Remember, RGB opposite of CMY, blues the opposite of yellow. So, as Increase it, see a nice inverted effect. I really I'm going to stop here and decrease the opacity. It creates a pretty nice effect. The next blend mode group, w T I have never used it. Maybe you will find a use for it. And the first blend mode is Subtract. Let's have a look at it. So, here's a blank doc Let's create a new layer. Let's take the brush and let's take a simple color. Let's get the RGB values to 50, 50 and 50. And let'start painting in here. Whoops. I didn't mean to do that. So, t Doesn't mean anyt There we go. Pretty nice. And on top of it, let's create one more color. And let t And let's paint here. Right? Now, let's change the blend mode from Normal to Subtract. Look at what it did. It turned it green, right? Now, let's pick t Let'see what the values are. It is 0, 40, 0. And how is that? Remember, the first time we picked 50, 50, 50. Second time we picked 50, 10, 50. So, 50 minus 50 is 0. 50 minus 10 is 40. And t Now, un In other words, let's understand it in t So, if there was a surface and the value of R would have been, let'say, 0, on top of it, we create a color with the value of R 150. And we changed the blend mode to Difference. The resulting color would be 150. Why? Because the difference between 0 and 150 is 150. However, if you had chosen the Subtract blend mode, the value cannot be minus 150. So, it will remain 0. Does that make sense? No. Let me try to make it sense for you. All right. So, let's delete both of them. Let'start afresh. So, here's a new layer. And let's choose any color. And let'set the value of R to 0. Right? And we paint it. On top of it, we create a new layer. And t Okay? Now, let's paint on it. Let's choose the blend mode Subtract. Have a look. It will be absolutely black. Now, let's pick the color. It is 0. Why is it 0? Remember, the first time we chose the value of R to be 0, the second time it was 100, it is not the Difference blend mode w T So, it could not subtract 0 minus 100. It cannot go below 0. So, it's going to keep it at 0. However, if you chose Difference, have a look at it. It's going to choose 100. Take the value of R is 100 because the difference between 0 and 100 is 100. However, 0 minus 100, it's going to keep it at 0 because it cannot go below 0. Now, there's not much practical use of it. Maybe you'll find some use of t However, I was just simply applying a simple gradient map and chose Subtract and it created a pretty nice effect. Sometimes, it might create nice effects but that's basically it. And I added some curves and wrote some text and that's it. The Divide blend mode simply divides the color and how does it do that? Well, it uses some simple maps. So, let us understand how it works. I'm sorry guys, there's a lot of maps in t Alright, have a look at t Remember what we learned before? T No light, not So, t Now, if you have any n The So, t Great. Now, if you have any n The n Right? Makes sense. So, the top area will not change. It will be the same exact color. So, now let's go ahead and change the blend mode of t Look at the top area. It's the same before after but the bottom area is absolutely w Now, there's a lot more math that goes into it but t I hope it makes sense to you and if you find some use for it, please let me know in the comments below. The next group is Component Group and it deals with different components of color like Hue, Saturation and L Hue is what color? Saturation is how much color and Let me show that to you. So, here is the color picker. T So, if I change t Hue determines what is going to be the root color. Now, if I choose Saturation, t Now, once we have chosen a root color, let's choose a root color yellow, something And once we have chosen that, let's choose S w How much of that color? Little of that color? More of that color. More yellow? Less yellow, right? If you take the Saturation all the way down, it's going to become gray scale. Next comes the brightness of the color. So, the yellow color that we had chosen, how bright do you want that to be? So, let's choose B. This is Maxim If you take it down, all the way down, it's going to be black. Making sense? So, that's how it works. Components of color, Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Okay. Similarly, we have similar Blend Modes. First of all, let's talk about the Hue Blend Mode. So, here we have a beautiful photo of the flowers. Now, just ignore t On top of it, we have t If we change the Blend Mode to Hue, see what happens. Again, keep in mind, Hue is what color? It is the root color. So, it's going to only change the root color of the existing color. So, let's change the Blend Mode to Hue. See what it did? So, any color you choose, it's going to change the root color to that. So, I'm going to change the Hue to green. It's going to change it to green, blue, pink or whatever color there is. Now, keep in mind, Hue will only change the root color. If there is no root color, it will not change it because there's not Now, have a look at t Here's one more photo. On the left inside, it's absolutely grayscale. There is no Hue in there. On the right inside, there's the original image. Now, when I turn t It's not adding color to it. Why? Because there is no Hue to change. There is just no root color, no Hue to change. So, it cannot change anyt However, on the right inside, it's changing it because there's already Hue here and there. Right? There is some root color to change. Now, if I turn t Now, let me show you one more t Have a look at the value of the Hue. So, in t Now, if we take the color picker and look at the Hue of different areas, the saturation and brightness might change. But in all of the places, the Hue is near close to 64. See, t So, it brings the Hue to exactly the now, in grayscale areas, there is not But any place where there is a tiny bit of color, it's going to change the Hue to 64. Okay. Now, let's talk about the Blend Mode Saturation. Again, Hue is what color or the root color? Saturation is how much color? It has not It has only to do with how much color. So, even if you choose a yellow here and change the Blend Mode to Saturation, it's going to try to increase the saturation to that level. No matter what Hue you choose, it's going to be exactly the same. However, if you increase the value of S in here, let's choose S. If you increase the value of S, let's increase it. It's going to increase the overall saturation. If you decrease it, it's going to decrease the overall saturation. So, it only controls the amount of color. No matter what Hue you choose, right? I'm changing the Hue. It's the exact same t However, if I'm decreasing the saturation by taking it to the left, it's decreasing the saturation of the image. If I'm increasing the saturation, it's increasing the saturation. It only controls the amount of color. Let's move on to the next one, w Now, what color does? It applies the color. Whatever color you choose, it's going to apply it all throughout the image, whether it's grayscale or not, it's going to apply it. If we had chosen saturation, there was color to increase on the right-hand side, but the left-hand side was grayscale. So, no matter how much saturation, blend mode you apply, it's going to be grayscale. But if you choose the color blend mode, it's going to apply whatever color you choose uniformly throughout the image. See, whatever you choose, it might be dark, it might be bright, it will apply that color. It okay. Moving on to the last one, the final blend mode, l Now, the l Only touch the brightness levels. Let me show you what you can do with it. So, here is a pretty nice image. If we go ahead and create a Curves Adjustment layer, click on the Adjustment layer icon and let's choose Curves, right? If we, let'say, increase the contrast, it also saturates the color a little bit. But if you don't want to do that, but if you don't want touch the color, but only the brightness levels or brightness values, simply change the blend mode to l Have a look at the colors are no more affected. If I change that back to normal, see, it'saturating the color. But if you choose the blend mode, l Similarly, you can do some interesting stuff with it. Let's delete the Curves Adjustment layer and again, create, let'say, a black and w Click on the Adjustment layer icon and choose black and w It's going to make it black and w But if we choose the blend mode, let the colors be the way they were. So I'm going to change it from normal to l See, the colors are now back. Now, the black and white adjustment layer is only going to affect the l The colors are going to stay intact. Now, I can play with all the colors individually. Isn'that amazing? So I can play with the greens, sirens, blues separately just by changing the blend mode to l So l Only affect the l That's it. So there you go. That's a general understanding of the main 27 blend modes in Photoshop. Keep in mind these timestamps. Anytime you might want to come back to t Now, in Photoshop, there are three more blend modes that show up in special situations. Pass through, w Second is be Now, those are not very important. Be You don't even have to look into those. But pass through is a very important blend mode, especially for compositing. And I have a video about it. You can check it out right here. So that's pretty much it for t Hope t And if it did, make sure to give us a like and also Ring the bell so that you, my friend, don't miss any other future tip, trick or tutorial. I'd love to take thanks so much for all your support. I'll see Till then, stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating.