Mark White looks at how Photoshop can enable you to blend and mix colours and layers together, just with a simple drop-down menu of tools
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Mark White show how Photoshop enables you to blend and mix colours.
Blending is key for any artist, digital or otherwise. When you add layers into the mix of Photoshop, it becomes easier for you to structure your artwork and blend it with other layers to create more realistic imagery.
The blend modes change how their selected layer reacts with the pixels in the layers below them. They can alter the colour or the tone of your art; they’re often used for brightening, darkening, changing hue or reducing colour, and you can use as many of them in a project as you like.
One of the first things that anyone with Photoshop should do is have a play the program’s blend modes. Once you become more seasoned with the program, a knowledge of how to harness blending is vital to improving your digital art skills.
For the sake of consistency, the blend mode examples shown here all have the same solid colour adjustment layer, before going on to explore the effects of the mode. 1 The first set of blend modes – Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Linear Burn and Darker Color – are all used to darken your layer in reaction to the layers below. This is good for creating fill layers that are full of colour, or adding shadows to your work.
2 Increase brightness with the Lighten blend modes
The Lighten blend modes are used to brighten up your artwork a little and add a splash of colour to an already dark canvas. These modes are also particularly good for creating optical effects such as double exposures and light leaks in your artwork.
3 Manage light placement with contrast blend modes
The tonal blend modes can alter the highlights, midtones and shadows all at once. Blend modes such as Overlay and Soft Light can be used to pinpoint the brightness and contrast in various places in your image, and Linear Dodge is good for sharpening, for example.
4 Reverse out elements in your art with inverting blend modes
The inverting blend modes turn any layers below them into their opposite colour and tone. These are particularly useful for creating non-destructive inversions in your image, especially if you’re looking to depict pinpoint effects in specific places.
5 Control the effects of colour with the Color blend modes
The Color blend modes are used for altering colours in your artwork, whether you’re looking to tweak the hue, saturation, full colour or luminosity on the layers below. They’re perfect for developing even more precise results with your shades.