Photoshop Blending Modes Explained

Photoshop guru mad clothes got pieces that blend modes are like opacity on steroids mix them well hey there this is amazing today we're going to talk about what our blend mode and how to apply them to your images in Photoshop but before we begin have you ever used opacity slider before hmm what does it do it controls the transparency of the current layer right so if you decrease the opacity slider it becomes more and more transparent if you increase the opacity slider it becomes opaque now blend modes go a little more crazier with then most not only you'll be able to control the alias where you want the image to be opaque or transparent but also you'll be able to control how the image or the layer is being projected over the layer which is beneath it besides you won't believe there's a lot more crazy stuff that you can do but here's the thing how many blend modes are there in Photoshop 27 so are we going to cover all the 27 blend modes in home let me tell you something there's only four important blend modes that you will ever use in the life history of Photoshop of course I lied there's a couple more but we are going to discuss four most important blend modes that you need in Photoshop and a couple of more which I'll mention in this tutorial and also have some awesome examples I'll show you how that is being applied aside from theory stay tuned till the end because at the end we are going to use multiple blend modes to create awesome stuff inside of Photoshop so without any further ado let's get started [Music] so here we are photo shop and by the way did you notice something different I actually was heavily sweating in that shirt so I changed it but that's besides the point so the first blend mode that we are going to talk about is multiplied but before we begin to explain what it is how it actually works and how to apply it let's create a new layer to create a new layer click on this icon so this is an image that I downloaded using a plugin called pixels now Paxos allows you to search for free stock photos from inside of Photoshop and it's absolutely free so if you want to know more about that plugin so this is the plugin if you want to know more about it go ahead and check out the video right here or here alright so create a new layer to create a new layer click on this button and once you click on this button a new layer will be created as simple as that next make sure you select the gradient tool alright make sure this is selected linear gradient pisses then select the gradient from black to white this might be the third option from here all right click on that and uncheck the reverse let's make sure it's unchecked okay so it's from black to white now let's create a gradient from black to white so drag from the top to the bottom now you can also press and hold shift to make sure that the line is straight and leave it now let's change the blend mode to multiply so here change it to multiply alright now what interesting has happened in this watch the areas that were white watch this look at the layer thumbnail the areas that were white have gone completely transparent the areas that where black remains to be completely opaque so 100% white is 100% transparent 100% black is 100% opaque think of it this way have you ever studied multiplication in elementary school and do you remember it is definitely honest be honest and if you do I'm assuming that you do if you do you know that anything multiplied by zero is what zero anything multiplied by one is what the number itself right now think of black as zero and think of one as totally white 100% white zero is nothing one hundred black totally dark one is 100% white the widest a screen can go zero is the darkest a screen can go now multiply is nothing but just that when it is black its multiplying the background color with it so anything multiplied by zero is zero so it's completely black anything multiplied by one woof since white is one anything multiplied by one is the number itself so the colors remain unchanged very hat total wipe now the gray is read somewhere between 0.5 so that weight was multiplied by the number and then changed all right so it was made a little bit darker so that's how multiply works as the name suggests it simply multiplies and you have to remember that black is zero white is one that's pretty much it and that's easy as a pie all right so let's delete this layer and let's see how we can use multiply in our images in real-life situations all right so the first use is to create a vignette very easily all right so let's delete this layer and let's create a new layer and this time select the radial gradient okay select this and create a new pair like this now this is just the opposite we wanted white in the middle black at the side so let's go back and make sure you check only vert all right now let's do it all right so as you can see the corners are gray and in the middle we have white so change it to multiple I'm so sorry all right watch we have created what open yet so there are lots many uses of using multiply so let's delete this let me show you one more interesting things so what if you wanted birds in this image so I just opened up this image this has a lot of birds in it now watch this the background is almost close to white and the birds are black so if I use multiply here guess what will happen the background will become transparent and the birds will remain black so let's move over just the birds to that image so let's to roughly select the birds copy it ctrl C come on see if using a Mac command or control would be alright so this creates a new layer with that selection now change the blend mode to multiply so as you can see since the background was not completely white some of the background is still retained with the birds but what we can do we can apply a levels adjustment layer to make the background completely white click on the circle gray white icon and select levels so once you select levels make sure you press and hold alt or option + click on the line between layer 1 and the levels adjustment layer so this makes the levels adjustment layer just applicable to the layer that's beneath it in this case this is layer 1 so drag the slider from the right to the left wash it completely vanishes away isn't this amazing and select this layer and resize it do whatever you want now you have the birds in this image isn't that interesting so the Epis multiply remember black is zero white is one and multiply just multiplies those numbers with the colors and the terms which shall beneath that particular layer so let's move on to the next blending mode and this will be I just forgot alright so the next learning mode that we are going to talk about is screen think of screen like this screen is just the opposite of multiply just exactly the opposite so let's create a new layer create that gradient again and do that again now if I apply a screen all right let's change it to linear of okay okay just ignore what I did all right change the normal to screen now watch it just did the opposite it's making the areas that 100% black completely black transparent it makes the areas which are completely white opaque so that what it does just remember the complete opposite Hoff's multiply so this can be very essential in placing objects that have a black background that you would like to remove for example I have a logo so let's just import that let's see this less important logo open let's open a logo you know the pixel perfect logo right alright so control a control C control V let's paste it here command a command C command V if you're using Mac then change the blend mode to screen watch the black things go away now I can transform it ctrl T or command T phasing a Mac let's make it a little smaller and yes let me give you a pro tip so up until now if you were transforming you were pressing and holding shift and it transforms in proportion but what if you wanted to transform from centre press and hold shift and alt or save shift or option if you're using a Mac and then transform it transforms from this Center isn't this amazing sometimes you want to do that when you want to place objects in the centre of the image all right let's place it somewhere in the corner and press Enter so there you go you can do this with almost any image that has a black background suppose in this example if you wanted to add smoke into this image so I downloaded a smoke photo just with a black background so let's just import that file open let's just import that all right so this is smoke image and I want to control a control C and let's paste it over this and change the blend mode to screen watch can we have real smoke coming out of this a door or a window door actually so isn't this amazing so you can distort it if you want let's so let's distort it right so so of course you can go ahead and create a mask and delete the areas that the door ends take a brush and paint with black that the door answers you can do lots of crazy stuff but that's for some other tutorial but this is what the basics of screen tell you so this is smoke coming out of the door you can always control the opacity decrease the flow just a little bit and make this a little opaque take black and make this little opaque and opaque so let's not go in-depth into it so that's what screen does screen is the complete opposite of multiply it treats white as one and black as you go so if you cannot remember the numbers all you need to remember is just the opposite of multiply and the next blend mode that they're gonna talk about is and this time I remember it is soft light so let's get into it so we are back to the original image and I've again created that gradient and this time let's change the blend mode to stuff light now watch what it does watch now the areas that are black it has darkened blue area the areas that were white it has brightened those areas but watch look at the middle the areas that were gray it has made it completely transparent so here's how soft light works the areas that are exactly 50% gray it makes those areas transparent it makes a black area stalker it makes the white areas lighter in a way you can say that this is increasing contrast that's what contrast does right it keeps the middle in the middle brighten the areas that are bright dark in the areas that are dark and that exactly what soft light is doing now how would you practically use soft light there couple of things a couple of ways how you can practically use it so let's go ahead and delete this and let's create a copy of this sample ray and change the blend mode to soft light so automatically you increase the contrast so if you think the contrast is too much you can always go ahead and decrease the opacity so one of the ways of using it is increasing contrast but of course you have contrast adjustment layers why would you use it there's another way and this is for increasing sharpness all right so let's go ahead and let's change it back to normal and watch what I do let's go to filter other High Pass now what high pass does is let's zoom in let me show you what high pass does what High Pass does is that it makes everything 50% gray but the edges the edges it enhances the edges it brightens and darkens according to the color you have in the original image so as you can see the edges have been pronounced and you can control the radius to control where the edges are what do you want to consider as the edges so if you go overboard like 31 the edges will be kind of soft so if you go too low the noise will become the edge so you need to find a happy place where actually the edges are pronounced alright so this is a fine number 2.7 click OK and change the blend mode to soft light watch so this is before this is after so this has become a little bit more sharpened so before after all right isn't this amazing now since most of the areas are 50 percent grade they became transparent and the areas and the edges where look they were brightened or darkened to make the edges pronounced and hence increase the sharpness so let's look at it hat look it looks as if I am just enhancing the outline of the image so let's open another image that actually requires sharpening so this is the image that I took and we obviously want some sharpening in her foot so to do that make a copy of the background layer and make sure before you apply the high-pass filter you change it to a smart object so that you can change the radius later so right click on it and change it to smart object and convert to smart object click on it and then go to filter other high pass now tune in to a value where the edges are pronounced but still there's an advantage that you have since you converted this into a smart object whatever value you have so let's select a random value and click OK and change it till soft life now as you can see the sharpness has been increased but if you are not satisfied with this you can always go ahead double click on the hilar High Pass sorry high pass and change the values of radius to see which is working for you all right so I think this value 6 or 5 is working for me nicely just so you know soft light is the blend mode that is used in dodging and burning if you don't know what dodging and burning is it's just brightening and darkening certain areas of the image to give it dimension so have a look let me do it very quickly for you so in this image the face as you can see is fairly flat so I want to add dimension to it so let's create a new lid and I'm doing it very quickly just to show you how it actually works take the brush click the brightest area of the face then make it more brighter and sometimes a little more be saturated and then simply paint over the areas that are already bright so let's make the brush a little bit smaller to make the brush smaller all you have to do present hold alt or option and right mouse button and drag it to the left to make it smaller drag it to the right to make it bigger so let's make it a little smaller and change the flow to around say 5 ok and start painting over the areas that are right so we are giving it a dimension but as you can see that the colors are very plain it's not really looking realistic why because we haven't changes the blend mode so change the blend mode to stop light all right let's look at the before and afters visitor before this would be after so we added some dimension to it so you can go ahead paint as much as you want so I painted with a little lighter color then you can paint with darker color over the darker areas it adds a little bit of dimension so that's not dodging and burning and that kind of wraps up soft light the next one that we're going to look at next blend mode in this series is overlay now overlay is the big brother of softly I think of it like this everything that soft light does overlay does the same thing but it amplifies it it does it more alright overlay is the stronger version also I'll slide so let's move back to the image of the landscape and you remember that we added a sharpness layer to at a high-pass filter to it so if you want to increase the effect of sharpness click on it and select overlay overlay is what give more stronger brother the elder brother of soft light watch it's more sharpened so this is overlay this is soft light a little this is overlay let me make it more clear to you so let's just delete this and let's add the gradient again and create a new layer add this gradient and make it overlay alright so as you can see it's doing the same things but it's going extremes it is darkening the areas that I've liked is brightening the areas that are white but it's going very more than soft light so look at it look at soft life doing the same thing the middle is still transparent but overlay takes it a step further see the middle is still transparent it's the same as it was before so that covers all the four important blend modes that you will ever need to know and that will mostly use in Photoshop but I do remember my promise the awesome stuff wavy use multiple blend modes but before that let's learn a couple more blend modes that you might use from time to time so it's later so the next most important not most important sometimes you might use it is linear light and you will use linear light only while doing frequency separation now I'm not going into frequency separation in this video because I already have a video about it so go ahead and check it out right here and next comes okay so I talked about linear light right so we'll talk about linear light in that video for now let's talk about one another blending mode and that is cue and color now these blending modes are used to color stuff in Photoshop so for example if you wanted to make the grasses a little more yellow or wanted to have a yellow cast over it so take a brush all right take a color say yellow and paint over the grass create a new layer don't forget to do that all right paint over the grass the flow is five let's increase the flow to 100 and this is looking strange now but watch change it to you now as you can see the grass has turned a little yellowish let's try changing it to color it does the same thing but takes a step ahead so sometimes few works in changing colors and sometimes color works in change in color so if you want to change the color of something these two blend modes are the way to go so let's look at them a few more examples so if you want to make her face like green like Hulk you can do that this paint over her face let's change all right so it's already soft light so let's try you it's green let's try color it's also green so that's what it does you get the idea so this is not a practical usage of it but you understand what I'm trying to say caste and stuff can't that kinesics that's what I said you will only use for and these kind of things you can use it see if you really want to change colors something if you really want to selectively added color I have a dedicated tutorial on that in that I give you five ways to do that five way to selectively adjust colors so go ahead and check it out right here or here alright so let's go ahead and let's learn the thing that I had promised to you in the beginning how to use multiple blend modes to leverage creativity alright so the first thing that we are going to do we are going to add a lipstick to this beautiful a lady so create a new layer then select the color you want take the brush select the color you want say whatever shade of lipstick you want maybe I want this I like your red lipsticks I don't apply them but I like it on other people alright click OK zoom in and just simply paint over her lips let's make make the brush a little smaller and make sure you don't go beyond the boundaries of the lips otherwise things can get worse okay so you can always delete that using eraser or a mask but let me do that really quickly for you make sure you fill in the lips very carefully all right now at this point you might think this is looking like a joker but wait till I change the blending mode so let's change the blend modes now not one blend mode will work you need to try out different blend modes so there's a way to cycle through blend modes and the shortcut is Shift + so if you press shift + + it cycles through different than modes but now I'm pressing Shift + but the blend modes are not changing why is it not changing because the brush tool is selected make sure this to the move tool is selected and then you press Shift + this changes the blend modes Seawatch multiply works a little bit caliber and works a little bit but it looks strange so we know that okay watch linear burn also works alright so but to get perfect results everybody has told you about this I'm going to tell you something there's no way you have ever told you about all right let's change the blend mode to multiply it looks good but the highlights are gone the highlights are missing because multiply makes things dog and not brighter so here's what you can do you can right click on it go to blending options and drag the slider from the right this below underlying layer slider from the right until you can see the highlights now you begin to see highlights stop stop where you begin to see highlights press and hold alt click on this this will separate the sliders and you just separate it look watch isn't this amazing alright let's take it a little bit to the right and you add just a little bit of this not too much just a little bit okay this is cool now this has added the highlights just the highlights but we want more dimension we want a little brightness so what blending mode brightens things do you remember screen right let's make a copy of this to make a copy of this controller command J and then change the blend mode to screen but we want this blend mode to be apply to only brighter areas of the lips so right click and go to blending options and let's just reset this slider to its original position and this time let's see drag slider from the left of the underlying layer so that we don't affect the dark area so we want these areas to be bright presen old altar option click on it it will separate and there you go watch watch isn't this amazing now you can go back to this blending options blended so click on this icon and you can always go ahead and tweak it if you want if you want to decrease the highlights in case you wanted to do that I wanted to do that so click OK so here we have two licks watch the realistic list and if you think it's too much let's group all of them ctrl G select both of them and let's decrease the opacity but I think total opacity is fine so that's one of the ways in which you can combine different blend modes to give you the effect that you want just remember the function to multiply darkens screen license overlay and soft light deletes everything that's 50% green all right so let's now what you're going to do you're going to give a little bit of texture to an image so let's open up the general image that we had in the beginning and what if you want this image to be at the top of a crumpled paper so so to do that go to file open and open a textured paper image so I had this I guess alright so select control a control C control V and let's make it a little bigger okay so remember what I told you to enlarge from the center to transform from the center press and hold shift and alt okay press ENTER now to delete all the areas that are white fill select what multiply as you can see this is looking good but it's not looking really SH fine because we are missing out on the highlights to add highlights what then mode shall we use screen right so make a duplicate of this and change the blend mode to screen now it's not looking that realistic you know why because multiply and screen both are combining to give you the whole image together again we need to have highlight for only selected areas okay only the areas of the paper listen to this carefully only the areas of the paper that are bright okay not the underlying layer are you getting what I'm trying to say so right-click on this go to blending option and this time instead of dragging the slider of the underlying layer from the left to right drag the slider of this layer from left to right why because you want to keep the highlights of the areas that are bright in this layer in the paper lay not on the layer beneath it not on the background layer all right so drag it all the way to the point where you want to keep the highlights and press and hold alt or option click on this let's make it smooth okay take it a little to the left and there you go that's amazing isn't it so there we have the highlight and we can always go ahead and decrease the opacity if we want now that's one more interesting thing that you can do now highlights are becoming whitish we don't want the highlights to be white we want the highlights to be bright so let's try overlay watch it's looking much more natural so let's try increasing the opacity watch it isn't this amazing now of course if you wanted to place this image on a crumpled paper you had to distort this place you could have added a little bit of texture but that's for some other tutorial I know that that was quite a long tutorial and I apologize for that but I really wanted to go in depth about blending modes and also wanted to show you some examples so you can actually apply them in your images all right so that's pretty much rest of the session for introduction to blend mode alright so if you enjoyed this make sure you give it a thumbs up also make sure you subscribe to our channel don't you subscribe click on that help of U so that you don't miss anything I'll see you guys in my next till then stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating [Applause]

Channel: PiXimperfect

Views: 587,786

Keywords: piximperfect, photoshop blending modes, photoshop blending modes explained, overlay blend mode, layer blending mode, blend mode screen, what are blending modes in photoshop, blending modes explained, blending colors, photoshop blend modes for photography, how to blend two layers in photoshop, blend layers photoshop, linear light photoshop, blend images photoshop, how to blend images in photoshop, screen layer, soft light photoshop, color blend mode, Photoshop CC 2017

Id: zGTbOfhyXnA

Length: 27min 25sec (1645 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 22 2017