Written by continue from Layer Blending Modes Part one
The following sets are combination of the last two set, where 50% gray area has no effect on the photo, darker pixels on the blending mode will behave like their Darkening counterpart and the lighter pixels on the blending mode will behave like their Lightening counterpart.
Overlay – This is a combination of both Multiply and Screen blending mode, it affect both light and dark pixel where 50% gray will show no effect, white will have similar effect to Screen Mode and Black has similar effect to Multiply Mode.
Soft Light – This is a combination of both Darken & Lighten blending mode, it affect both light and dark pixel where 50% gray will show no effect, white will brighten and increase contrast and Black will darken and increase contrast. Notice the 50% gray in the sample did not affect the image while the darker circles darken and increased the contrast and lighter circles does the opposite.
Hard Light – is a combination of Linear dodge and Linear burn, it affect both light and dark pixel where 50% gray will show no effect, white will brighten the picture and Black will darken the picture. This is useful for adding shadows and highlights to an image as you can see in the sample below.
Vivid Light – This is a combination of both Burn and Dodge blending mode, it affect both light and dark pixel where 50% gray will show no effect, white will brighten and increase contrast and Black will darken and increase contrast.
Linear Light – Burns or dodges the colors by decreasing or increasing the brightness, depending on the blend color. If the blend color (light source) is lighter than 50% gray, the image is lightened by increasing the brightness. If the blend color is darker than 50% gray, the image is darkened by decreasing the brightness.
Pin Light – This mode will choose to keep either the color of the base or the blending layer using their light/shadow value. When the luminance value of the blending layer is lighter than 50% gray, any pixel darker than the blend color will be replaced. When the luminance value of the blending layer is darker than 50% gray, any pixel lighter than the blend color will be replaced.
Hard Mix – This mix will result in a definite color of Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, White and Black and nothing in between. This can be useful for special effect or evaluating shapes or analyzing the dominate colors of a photo.
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The next two modes are mainly for evaluation purpose, but with some creativity you can incorporate their effects into your design.
Difference – This mode is used to align two similar photos visually, if two exact duplicate photo were used, the result will be black because there will be no difference. In the example below, I duplicated the photo and made one the Difference blending and one as the base but I nudge the blending layer so that it is not 100% aligned on top of the base, notice the white spots in the final result, that is the difference from the nudging, now you can try to nudge it back so that there are no white spot.
Exclusion – Creates an effect similar to Difference mode except blending with light/white values result in inverted base color and blending with dark/black yields no change. In the sample the sun is the lightest and therefore the base color is inverted and the rocks are left alone because it is closer to a black value.
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The list sets of modes are for dealing with Hue, Saturation and Luminance.
Hue – It will apply only the hue of the blending layer to the base layer without changing the saturation or luminance of the base layer. Notice that the blue, red and green color spots in the example shows in the final result but only with the same amount of saturation and luminance of the base value.
Saturation – It will apply only the saturation of the blending layer to the base layer without changing the color or luminance of the base layer. Notice that the blue, red and green color spots in the example did not affect the color of the final result, the only information that the base is inheriting is the saturation level of the blending layer.
Color – It will apply only the color of the blending layer to the base layer without changing the light and shadow (luminance) of the base layer. It is perfect for coloring in a black and white photo or changing color of a part of a photo. In the sample below, the base layer takes on the color of the blending layer while retaining the grayscale of the original photo.
Luminosity – It will apply only the light and shadow (luminance) of the blending layer to the base layer without changing the color of the base layer. You will achieve the same result if you take the example I showed you above and switch the base to blending layer and blending layer to base.
You do not need to memorize every single mode but it would be helpful to know what Photoshop is capable of so that when you are creating your design you know what your limits are. I understand some of the modes are very complicated and difficult to understand so feel free to ask any questions or if you are able to write it in a way that is easier to understand please leave that in the comment.
I still haven’t found use for some of the modes such as Exclusion, Hard Mix and Pin Light. Have you used any of them for a project? if so let us know what you did with them.
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