Blending Modes - Photoshop for Beginners | Lesson 5

So, right here on my left hand side, there is snow falling with a black background. If I change the blend mode of this video right here to screen, what happens? The black background goes away and now there is winter and summer. So that is what blend modes are. Blend modes control the way a layer interacts with other layers. And keep in mind, we are talking about a layer blend mode. Brushes also have blend modes and that's for a separate video. So here we have an image. On top of that, we have a beautiful gradient and texture layer. Right now the blend mode is normal. If you change the blend mode, as you hover through it, it gives you a preview of what each blend mode will do. And you can go through each one of them, see what they do. Let us say we like screen, we can stop at that. It's creating a wonderful look. And then you can decrease the opacity to your liking. You see what is happening right now? What is blend mode again? Blend modes simply control the way a layer interacts with the other layer. So right here, as you can see, the screen blend mode is making things brighter. On the other hand, the multiplied blend mode makes things darker. Here's the before, here's the after. Each blend mode has its own characteristics. We have lots of easy and fun projects to do today. So make sure to download the practice files. Also, just wanted to let you know again, this is a free course and you can access the entire playlist by going to learnphotoshopfree.com or simply click the link in the description. You can also go to my YouTube channel and access the playlist from there. I regularly try to upload videos there. In this lesson, we'll dive deep into the six most important blend modes that we're going to use in our 95 to 99% of our Photoshop life. And if you're beginners, these are most of the only blend modes that we're going to use. However, if you're interested in other blend modes, we got it covered too towards the end of the video. Let's start with the normal blend mode. Turns out it is not as normal. The normal blend mode right here is usually the default blend mode. And I underline the word usually, but not always. The normal blend mode is like keeping a picture on top of the picture. That's it. A picture over a picture. That's the normal blend mode. So right here, we have a green circle. On top of that, we have a yellow circle and the blend mode is normal. The only control you have over the interaction of both of these is decreasing the opacity. That's it. And now it's a Venn diagram. However, there are situations where the normal blend mode is not normal. Let us take a look at this composite. This is the background. By the way, I blurred it. Here was the before, here was the after to make the subject stand out. On top of that, we have our subject. Now, the light is coming from behind. I know it's snow. There's a little bit of fill light on her face, but she needs to be a little darker. So right now at the top, if we create a Curves Adjustment layer, so select the subject layer, click on the Adjustment layer icon and then choose Curves. We learned the basics of it. The right hand side is for the bright areas. The left hand side is for the dark areas. If you create a point and take it up, it makes it brighter. If you create a point and take it down, it makes it darker. So right now, let's say I want to make the highlights in the subject a little darker. So I create a point right about here and take it down. But at the same time, the shadows are getting too dark. So let's make the shadows brighter by creating a point on the left hand side and make it brighter like this. But whatever we are doing right now, it is also affecting the background. We don't want that to happen. So here's the before, here's the after. We wanted this curve only on the subject. Now yes, you can hold the Alt key or the Option key, click on the line between these two layers to create a clipping mask to limit it just to the subject. However, let's go back to how it was if we put both of them in a group. So select the Curves Adjustment layer, hold the Ctrl or Command, select the Subject layer, press Ctrl or Command G to put them in a group. Even though the Curves Adjustment layer and the Subject layer are inside a group, the effect of the Curves Adjustment layer goes outside of the group into the background. So if I turn it off and on, it is falling in the background. But have a look at the blend mode of the group. It is not normal. And this time, whenever you create a group, the default blend mode is not normal. It is pass-through, which means the adjustments will pass through and the effect will be outside of the group as well. If you change it back from pass-through to normal, it won't get outside of the group, whatever adjustment you have. So here's the before, here's the after. Have a look. The normal blend mode right here is stopping the adjustment from getting outside of the group. So again, the normal blend mode is the default blend mode in most cases. It is just like keeping a picture on top of a picture. That's it. The only control you have is the Opacity. Now there's a situation when the normal blend mode is not as normal. It has some special use cases. And that is when you create a group. The default blend mode of a group is pass-through, which lets all of the adjustments inside of the group pass through to the outside. However, if you change the blend mode of the group from pass-through to normal, it will keep the adjustments limited to the elements of the group. Let's talk about the Multiply blend mode. The Multiply blend mode is very easy to understand. If there's one phrase you need to keep in mind to remember it, it is this. Multiplying darkens. That's it. So here we have a beautiful scenery. And on top of that, we have some brightness levels. This is 0%, Absolute Black. This is 25, 50%, which means 50% gray. This is 75% brightness. This is 100%, right? Absolute White. So, Absolute White right here, Absolute Black right here. If we change the blend mode from normal to multiply, see what happens. Whatever area that was 100% black stays, right? And whatever area which was 100% white hides. So, here's the before, here's the after. This area stays the same, which means Absolute White hides and Absolute Black 100% shows. And the rest of the colors, they only darken. That's it. Let's solidify this concept. We're going to be using it a lot. So this is the normal blend mode. Here's 100% white, here's 100% black. So now, if I change the blend mode to multiply, Absolute White hides and the rest of the things show. And the only thing this blend mode does is darkening. Let's take a look at some real world examples. Now we know we do have Exposure sliders for darkening, we have Curves for darkening. But if you want a flat out, easy darkening, where you don't have to worry about the values a lot, here's the way to do it using blend modes. So we know Multiply darkens. So you can simply make a copy of this layer, press Ctrl or Command J to make a duplicate, make sure the background layer was selected. And then you can simply change the blend mode to Multiply. It darkens the overall thing. But it's too much on the shadows. So double click on the right hand side of the layer and take it away from the dark areas of the underlying layer or the current layer will do too. It's the same image. Hold the Alt key or the Option key, click on the slider to break it apart and take it all apart like that. So that way it is darkening the bright areas. Here's the before, here's the after. Not too much of a highlight. Now there is a major problem with this method. Let us go back to Blend If. Let's return to how it was so that you can see the problem. Let's say we unlock the background layer, we move things around, we stretch it, let's say we make it larger, or we stretch it a little bit. Now there is an issue right here, because the position of this one is different. And this one is different. Every time we stretch something, move something around, we also have to move this one, we have to worry about the effects that we apply to it. So instead of doing it this way, the right way to do it is this way. Let us delete it. Let's keep it the way it was. So we want to darken with the Multiply Blend Mode, but we also want it to be non-destructive. For it, simply create any Adjustment Layer that at a default position doesn't make any change. For example, if you create a Curves Adjustment Layer, by default, unless you do anything, it doesn't do anything to the image. Or if you create a Levels Adjustment Layer, let's go right here, unless you do anything, it doesn't do anything, right? Let's reset it. You can click on this button to reset. So whenever you move something here and there, you can always click on this button. Alright. Now, just create one of those Adjustment Layers. Doesn't matter what, by default, it shouldn't do anything. And then change its Blend Mode to Multiply. That way, you can select this, move it around if you like, do anything, and you don't have to worry about having the same image at the top and having discrepancies. The way Adjustment Layers work is that they keep a virtual copy of everything that they're seeing underneath it. So that is why it doesn't have an issue. Now, of course, you can apply Blend If here as well. Double click on the right hand side of the layer and take it away from the dark areas like this. And this works too. So, Multiply darkens. Easy way to remember that. Now we also learned that Multiply keeps the black and hides the white. Let's say you want to bring some birds into this image. Now we have some birds. The birds are close to black. We can make it black if we wanted to, but the sky is blue. So how do we deal with this? First of all, let's bring the birds first. Let's choose any of the Selection tools. We're going to go for the Lasso tool. It just is a basic tool to make a selection and make a selection of the birds right here, of all the birds that you want to bring over. Alright. Now, once the selection is active, we can press Ctrl or Command C to copy and then get back to this image and paste it. Ctrl or Command V. There you go. Now, for flexibility or non-destructive abilities, because we're going to be resizing it, do not forget to convert this layer into a Smart Object by right clicking on the layer and choose Convert to Smart Object, so that when you resize, you don't lose details. Press Ctrl or Command D for Transform. Let's make it smaller. Let's place it right here. Looks bad. But if we change the Blend Mode from Normal to Multiply, the sky kind of becomes transparent, but not fully transparent. So what becomes transparent with the Multiply Blend Mode? White, right? So if we can find a way to make the sky white, it would work. I'm going to change the Blend Mode back to Normal so you can see what is happening. On top of it, let's create a Curves Adjustment Layer. Click on the Adjustment Layer icon and then choose Curves. We're going to be using a lot of curves in Photoshop. And if you want to learn more about curves, this is the video to watch. But for right now, we just want to target the birds. So click on this button. It also creates a Clipping Mask. So we want to make the bright areas, which is the sky, brighter. For it, take the slider on the right hand side and bring it to the left. So at this point, the sky becomes absolutely white. Now if you go back to the birds layer, let's name it that way and change the Blend Mode from Normal to Multiply. Have a look. The sky goes away, but not completely. We need to go back to the Curves Adjustment Layer. Click on right here to open up the properties and then let's take it even further and now it completely goes away. Now, if you want the birds to have a little warmer color, you can do this. Click on the Adjustment Layer icon and then choose Hue Saturation. We want to limit it just to the birds. So click on this button to create a Clipping Mask. Both of them have arrows towards the birds and we want to colorize the whole thing. So just check Colorize. And there you go. This is the color we wanted. Of course, you can change the hue to whatever you want, but this is what we wanted and it just works perfectly. Now you can take the birds, Ctrl or Command T, resize it, do whatever you want. This just looks awesome. Let's talk about the Screen Blend Mode and it's the opposite of the Multiply Blend Mode. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that screen brightens and it does exactly the opposite of what Multiply does. So here we have, again, this beautiful scenery. And on top of that, we have the various brightness levels, 0%, 50%, 100%, okay. If I change the Blend Mode from Normal to Screen, have a look what happens. White stays, all right, and everything that was 100% absolute black hides. The black hides and all of the other colors are just brightening the image. So the Screen Blend Mode only brightens and it keeps the white. Right here, if I change the Blend Mode to Multiply, have a look, it does exactly the opposite. It keeps the black, hides the white and makes everything darker. On the other hand, the Screen Blend Mode keeps the white, hides the black and makes everything brighter. Now, just as you can darken with Multiply, you can use the Screen Blend Mode for flat out brightening. Now, of course, we can make a duplicate and change its Blend Mode to Screen to brighten, but then again, it will be destructive. So instead, we will create a Levels or a Curves Adjustment Layer, something that by default doesn't change the image unless we do anything. Let's just close the Properties and change its Blend Mode from Normal to, let's say, Screen. And there you go. It brightens up the entire image. But then again, it makes the sky too bright. So how do we take the brightness away from the bright areas? Simple, use Blend If. Double click on the right hand side of the layer and take it away from the bright areas of the underlying layer. And this time, you can also use Current Layer because it's the same image. So take the slider of the underlying layer from right to left. Of course, to make it smoother, hold the Alt key or the Option key, click on the slider to break it apart, and I would take it all the way apart. Hit OK. It just adds life to this image. Here's the before, here's the after. Now, let's take a look at some real world examples. So here we have a singer. We want to add some drama to her singing. Let's add some smoke to it. So let's go to our Finder. Here I have a smoke image with black background. Let's drag it and drop it over the canvas like this. Let's make it larger. Hit Enter or Return. Now, which is the Blend Mode which hides everything that is 100% black and only brightens screen because we are talking about it. Change the Blend Mode from Normal to Screen. And just as we do that, have a look at it. This is amazing. Now, of course, we would take it a little down like this, maybe make it a little larger. It's up to you. That looks nice. And for added effect, you can try this. You can select the Subject layer, click on any of these three tools, select any of these three tools. At the top, click on Select Subject. And then we learned about it in the Layer Masks lesson, which you can watch right here after this video. And then you can select the Smoke layer and create a negative mask. We want to take this away from the subject. Hold the Alt key or the Option key and then click on the Mask button. If you do that, whatever area is selected, that will be black and the rest of the areas would be white. If you don't hold that, that would be the opposite. Now, this looks interesting. On top of that, we can make another copy. Press Ctrl or Command J to make a duplicate. And in this one, let's turn off the mask. How do we turn off masks? Hold the Shift key and click on the mask to turn it off. And then you can move it slightly probably or make it slightly larger like this and decrease the overall opacity. Now here's one more creative thing you can do. You can select Smoke, press Ctrl or Command D, right click on it and then choose Flip Horizontal, so that it becomes a little different and have a look at this. Now we have smoke behind the subject, a different variation of the same smoke on top of the subject, making it more realistic. Of course, you can make it even larger to differentiate it like this. Now if you really want a nitpick, you can also color the smoke. So let's choose the smoke behind the subject on top of it. Click on the Adjustment Layer icon and then choose Hue Saturation. Use the same adjustment before, limit it to the smoke by clicking on this button and just colorize the entire thing. And there you go. You can color it whatever you want. So yellow, red, purple, you can go with this one, you can go with the red one. It's all up to you. Let's say I'm going with this one for this one. And for the smoke on top, you can go with a slightly different shade. So let's create one more Hue Saturation Adjustment Layer and limit it to the smoke in front by clicking this button, check Colorize, and then you can have a slightly different shade. For example, this green, this blue, it creates a wonderful combination. And then you can control the saturation to your liking. So that's how you color the smoke. Now just as we did with the snowflakes in the beginning, you can also apply light leaks as well, or any kind of overlay that has a black background using the Screen Blend Mode. You can buy a collection of these overlays all over the internet. You can look for them in Envato Elements or many other places. We in fact used one of them in our previous lesson about layers, I think. Now let's learn about Overlay and Soft Light. Why are we talking about them together? Because they're very much related and do exactly the same thing, however, with different intensities. So right here, we have the same brightness levels over the scenery. Here we have 50% gray, black, white, 25% brightness level, 75% brightness level. You get the whole gist of it. Now if we change the Blend Mode from Normal to Overlay, watch what happens. All of the areas that was 50% gray, neutral gray, that hides. Remember we talked about it when we were creating film grain in the previous lesson? It is the exact same concept right here. Anything that is brighter than 50% gray, that area brightens. So here's the before, here's the after. Amazingly brightens. Anything that is darker than 50% gray, that area darkens. And that's what's happening all throughout the image. So here's the before, here's the after. Brighter areas, brighter than 50% gray, brightens. Darker areas, darker than 50% gray, darkens. And 50% gray hides or keeps the layer underneath the same. But then, what is Soft Light, you might ask? Well, this was Overlay, right? If I change it to Soft Light right here, have a look. It is the same thing, but with a lower intensity. So here is Soft Light, here is Overlay. Overlay is a little harsher version of Soft Light. Again, Soft Light, Overlay. In both the cases, 50% gray hides. An easy way to remember it is Overlay and Soft Light are blend modes where Overlay is of the higher intensity and Soft Light is of a lower intensity than Overlay. They increase contrast because they make the bright areas brighter, dark areas darker, and they hide anything that is 50% gray. Let's take a look at some real world example. So here we have a painting which is a little faded out. Similarly, just as we did with Screen and Multiply, you can create any adjustment layer that by default doesn't affect the image unless you do anything and change its blend mode to Overlay. And there you have the pop right in there. It increases contrast. If you think it's too much, you can change it to Soft Light. I think that looks better to me. Again, on top of all of this, you of course have control over the opacity, but just the way it is, it just works out, works great. Now the Overlay blend mode, of course, can be used for overlays. Let's say you want to add some texture to the wall right here. Let's open up some texture. So I'm going to go to my Finder or Explorer. I have a texture right here. Let's drag it and drop it over the canvas so that it adds as a layer, and then let's rotate it. By the way, here's the tip. If you hold the Shift key and then rotate, it rotates by 15 degrees at a time so that it's straight. Otherwise, if you were rotating freehand, it wouldn't be as straight. So right now we are rotating. It may be a little bit tilted one degree here and there. So to be sure, always hold the Shift key and then rotate, and let's make it larger like this, place it like this, and then you can change the blend mode. But before we do that, select the Subject layer, select any of these three tools. At the top, click on Select Subject to make a selection, and then select the Texture layer. We want to hide the subject area. In other words, that area inside of the mask needs to be black. So hold the Alt key or the Option key and then click on the Mask button to create the opposite mask. Now, let us change the blend mode from Normal to Overlay. This looks pretty amazing. Now at the bottom, does it look okay? Yes, it fits right in there. Wow, that is pretty good. Now again, if you think it is too much, change the blend mode from Overlay to Soft Light. That is more natural. Again, up to you. You are the artist, your style. Go for what looks good to you. Now let's learn the color blend mode, and for simplicity, it just changes color. That's it. So here we have a green apple. Or do we? If we create a new layer and take the brush, take red color right here, and if we start painting, it is just flat out painting. However, if we change the blend mode from Normal to Color, it paints it in that color. But in this case, I wouldn't be using the color blend mode because Hue Saturation works better, but that is how basically the color blend mode works. It does not change the brightness levels, just changes the color. In this case, a better solution would be this. Sorry for sidetracking. So just create a Hue Saturation Adjustment layer and then target the greens. Select the hand right here. So you can click and drag it to the right to change the saturation. But if you hold the Control and then click and drag, it changes the hue. So here we have juicy red. Now, there are some areas not selected properly. You can easily expand the range. So let's expand the range to the right. By the way, if you want a masterclass on hue saturation, here's the video. And now we have the juicy red. Now, of course, we didn't want it on the leaves. So you can select the mask, take the brush, black as the foreground color, press X to toggle between the foreground and the background, and then take it away from the leaves and this place as well. A rod, or I don't know what to call it, but you get the idea. There you go. That's nice. Now let's take a look at a real world example of the color blend mode. As you can notice, there's a lot of color cast on the skin. There's green right here, green right here. How do we make them go away? Simply create a new layer, change the blend mode from normal to color. Now keep in mind, there are other ways of doing it. Just this is one of the ways. Change it to color. Now take the brush, all right? Now we need to sample the good skin color areas. For it, first make sure that when you choose the eyedropper tool right here, sample size should be three by three, and you're sampling the current layer and the layer beneath it. Take back the brush, the brush tool right here, and then when you hold the Alt key or the Option key, the eyedropper tool will show up momentarily and then you can click to sample whatever color you want. And that color would be in your foreground color box. And then you can paint that color. So let's paint with this particular color right here. Now, since the blend mode is color, you're absolutely changing and removing that green color cast. Let's sample from here, paint right here. If the blend mode was normal, this would be just simple fills. Change it to color. Right here as well, there's this green cast. So I'm gonna sample this one and fill it up right here. The green just goes away. You can also sample this color from here and try painting. No, that's not looking nice. Also, there are red patches on the skin. So you can sample this color, fill it up right here, or sample a warmer color and remove these pale areas. I'm gonna paint all over it. We definitely need to decrease the opacity. So let's decrease the opacity to about 50%. Now, can you see the change? Look at the color cast that was here before. So here's the before, you see the greenish tinge there? Here's the after, that goes away. Right here, it was greenish too. So here's the before. See the green patches right here? Here's the after, that has gone away. Right here next to the eyes, we have greens. So we can take a sample and paint right here to take that away as well. Similarly, take a sample, paint right there to take that away. And then of course, you can brighten the entire thing. Create a Curves Adjustment Layer, click on the Adjustment Layer icon and then choose Curves. And I'm gonna take the right slider to the left like that. And we only want the brightening on the face. So select the mask, press Control or Command I to invert the mask, makes it black. Take the brush, white as the foreground color, make the brush larger and paint over the face. There you go. Now, without the color layer, if I turn this color layer off, let's name it. If this was off, you could see all kinds of green right here, right there. Now, once we turn it on, all of that goes away. So here's the before, see the greens? Here is the after. So that's all the blend modes you're gonna need in most of the cases. However, if you want to learn the science of all 27 blend modes, yes, there are 27 of them, you can watch this video right here. Just as a quick recap, all you need to remember is this. You have the normal blend mode, which is default blend mode in most cases, but with groups, if you change the blend mode from pass through to normal, it doesn't let the adjustments get out of the group. Number two, we have the Screen blend mode. Screen brightens, Multiply darkens. Overlay and Soft Light increases contrast. Hides everything that is 50% gray. Multiply hides everything that is 100% white. Screen hides everything that is 100% black. And finally, the Color blend mode changes the color. So that's all for this lesson. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, make sure to give us a like and also don't forget to subscribe and not just subscribe. Ring the bell so that you, my friend, don't miss any other future tips, tricks or tutorials. Don't forget to catch all the lessons of this course by using this link right here. New lessons will be added regularly. I would also like to take this moment to thank all of these nice and amazing people for supporting PiXimperfect on Patreon and making this series possible. Thank you for watching. I'll see you in my next one. Till then, stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating. Bye. ♪ What can I do, do, do ♪ ♪ I keep falling, falling, falling for you ♪ ♪ True, true, I keep falling, falling, falling for you ♪