Formulas for blending modes

Hi,
I want to truly understand layer blending modes so I can use them better and predict their impact. I know from Bruce Fraser's books that the formula for the Multiply Mode is:
result = (top_pixel * bottom_pixel) / 255
This is great for me (I have a BS in Math). The question is: how are the other modes calculated? For instance, i am having trouble figuring out the Color Burn Mode...
Thanks,
Juan Dent

Color burn is a little easier to calculate in CMYK because the numbers are expressed as %
Base % / (1 – Blend %)
For example, bottom layer is 40M. Make a layer above with Color Burn, fill with 50M
.4 / (1 – .5) = .8
The color result is 80M
Because of this relationship, if the base % is half of the blend % the color result matches the blend color:
.25 / (1 – .5) = .5
You could probably arrive at a reliable result using a similar formula in RGB, but the numbers get crunched differently when dealing with 0 - 255
To get multiply in CMYK I always use
(Base % + Blend %) – (Base % x Blend %)
So if bottom layer is 40M. Layer above is multiply, 50M
(.4 + .5) – (.4 x .5) = .7
Perhaps this formula is wrong somehow but it seems to work for me.

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In Elements 5 I can no longer drop down menu for Blending modes

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Hi Trish, Thanks for your help. I tried what you said and it worked but if I then reload the program without pressing ctrl-alt-shift (so it now reads in the new Prefs file which it produced when it closed down) it's doesn't work again. I downloaded a trial of Elements 7 and that work OK and if I click on the Elements 5 prefs.psp Elements 7 loads and works OK as well. So I'm flommaxed as to what is happening. I reckon some update of Windows has broken it. Looks like I'll have to upgrade. Cheers Terry

Photoshop Help Video - Can't Locate Katrin Eismann Blending Modes Video

I bookmarked a Katrin Eismann video on blending modes on May 7, 2010. I am trying to locate that video now, so far without success.
Here's the former link: http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/?id=vid0012
As I recall, she showed a great example of how to isolate just a portion of a night time scene. As best I recall, the trees were colorful while everything else was black and white.
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Photoshop Help | Blending modes
And as you work your way though the discussion, you find this:
These examples show the result of painting part of the image’s face using each blending mode.
For a video on blending modes, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0012.
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This same non-existent link is still listed on various Adobe web pages, but alas, the page with the video no longer exists. This is obviously an error on the part of the (huge) Adobe website.
The best thing to do is to submit a bug report, and hope they fix it:
Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

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I'm sure there's a dead simple solution to this problem. I've been trying to build a simple composite node for a PB Graph that takes three inputs, maintains transparent areas in the "top-most" layer (Layer 1), 50% opacity overall for the middle layer (Layer 2) and 100% opacity for the bottom layer (Layer 3) without applying mathematical blending (like multiply or linear dodge blend modes).
If someone could point me in the right direction with regards to "Normal" blend mode (as in Photoshop), I would be much obliged...
Thanks in advance!
Regards,
Henry

The PDF Reference Manual gives the formulas for many of Adobe's blendmodes so start there:
http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/pdf/pdfs/pdf_referenc e_1-7.pdf.
Of course it never hurts to go back to Porter-Duff:
Compositing Digital Images.

Are there blending modes for the layers?

Like in Photoshop, is it possible to take on shape and blend (multiply, difference, soft light, etc.)the layers? I can't seem to locate it in Illustrator.
Thanks all!

Transparency panel.
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[svn:fx-trunk] 10959: Adding support for FXG 2. 0 additional blend modes that do not have a SWF equivalent.

Revision: 10959
Author:   [email protected]
Date:     2009-10-09 13:38:19 -0700 (Fri, 09 Oct 2009)
Log Message:
Adding support for FXG 2.0 additional blend modes that do not have a SWF equivalent. For the optimized FXG case, we now generate an ActionScript SymbolClass and set the corresponding blend shader. This requires checking in the additional shader classes and PBJ files, but note we do not yet use them in MXML graphics.
Note: This change does not address luminosity masks.
QE notes: Please update FXG opt. testsuites for additional blendModes.
Doc notes: No
Bugs: N/A
Reviewer: Paul
Tests run: checkintests, mustella spark/core/fxg
Is noteworthy for integration: Yes, this change includes support for the additional blendModes of FXG 2.0 (though only for the optimized FXG case, and not MXML graphics).
Modified Paths:
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/SparkClasses.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/modules/compiler/src/java/flex2/compiler/fxg/FlexFXG2SWFTranscoder.java
Added Paths:
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    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/ColorBurn.pbj
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/ColorBurnShader.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/ColorDodge.pbj
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/ColorDodgeShader.as
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    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/Exclusion.pbj
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/ExclusionShader.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/Hue.pbj
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/HueShader.as
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/Luminosity.pbj
    flex/sdk/trunk/frameworks/projects/spark/src/spark/primitives/shaders/LuminosityShader.as
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Separate blend mode for each clone source

If each clone source could have it's own blend mode (not to mention its own opacity and hardness) setting it would be more effective. The current blend mode setting in the clone source affects the preview only.
I often have to jump back and forth between Normal, Lighten, and Darken modes, and would like the convenience of clicking between sources already set to what I want.
Thanks

What goes on in the new "Clone Source Panel" is unrelated to Tool Presets oddly. It would be possible, to optionally allow recording of the settings in the Panel, as part of the Clone Tool Presets. But they never bothered to do it. Its as if this feature was designed with no understanding of the importance of Tool Presets at all. This would solve your problem.
The shortcut for Lighten Darken and Normal are Alt > Shift > G, K and N, respectively. This may speed up your work.

Why is a layer blending mode result altered by adding and effect?

I've done a search online and haven't come up with an answer but does anyone
know why a layers blending mode result is altered by adding an effect?
I am using CS3 on a PC (Windows XP SP2) and have two layers; one a Tiff and
a second a text layer with an ambient light and a spot shining on them. Both
layers have 3D turned on and accept lights and are in the same position in
space.
To make the text, which is coloured black, sit better I changed the layers
blend mode to soft light which works well.
I wanted to soften the edge of the text a little so I added a Fast Blur
effect and suddenly the result of the blend was completely different. If I
turn off the effect it goes back to what it was before but even if the Fast
Blur is set to zero, ie no blur on the layer, the blend result is altered.
Does anyone know what's going on?

Many thanks for that. I tried the Box Blur but it too shifted the result of the blend. In the end, to get this job out of the door, I changed the colour of the text to orange, lowered the opacity and used Multiply as the layer blend mode. Adding the Fast Blur effect to this didn't shift the result of the blend mode. It's not as sexy a look as using Soft Light but it works. I wonder if it's something going on with the maths or this a real bug? <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected].. > Presumably a bug that uses the blur's convolution kernel when it > shoulddn't. Please report at <a href=http://www.adobe.com/go/wish>. Still, > sometimes changing the blend behavior is inevitable. Even if the layers > visually look the same, the actual pixel values may change and thus create > a different result in the blend formulas. That should not be the case > here, though. Replace the Fast Blur with Box Blur set to 8 or 9 iterations > and the result should look the same, but without the blending problem, I > guess. > > Mylenium

Merging/Flattening Layers with different blending modes and maintaining the visual appearance

Hello,
I see there are many others that are having the same problem as me. And alas, it doesn't seem like the problem has been solved or very understood for that matter.
I want to be able to take a document, that has multiple layers, inside of multiple groups with various layers having various blending modes applied to them and from within that document, select simply two of those layers, one with a Divide blending mode and the other layer Normal, merge those two layers, but have the visual appearance of the merged layer maintain the visual appearance of what the layers looked like before I merged them.
Everytime I attempt this, Ps takes my Divide layer, reverts it back to Normal and then merges the layers, thus changing the appearance of what it was before the merge. This is not the desired result.
I understand that when you flatten an entire series of layers, it applies all the blending modes and maintains the visual appearance. Is there a way to do this with just two layers instead of all the layers? If so, that would be great information. If not, why not?
Thank you
Jake

Short answer: No.
A "layer" with a specific blending mode implies a sequence of math operations on a given pixel. Think of the visible pixel R, G, and B values as the result of a potentially complex math formula that combines numbers from each layer in complex ways (those ways being defined by the blending mode you've chosen). You can't always simplify particular factors of your choosing in a given math formula.
The next step is to examine why you would want to do so. Perhaps there's a more direct way to achieve your goal that would avert the need entirely.
Another possibility, if the effect of several layers together is something you'd like to manipulate as a unit, is to Group the layers.
-Noel

How to change blending mode on multiple layers at the same time

I'm using CS5. I have a document with about 70 layers. I would like to change the blending mode to "lighten" for each layer. Is there an easy way to do this?

Photoshop doesn't allow multiple layer editing. That's why the styles are grayed out. Only 1 layer at a time.
What version are you talking about?
CS5 definitely let’s one apply a Style to multiple Layers.
rfcommagere, I don’t know how to make it much clearer:
• set the Blending Mode on one Layer
• with that Layer selected create a Style with »Include Layer Blending Options« checked
• select all other Layers that should have that Blending Mode
• click the Style in the Styles Panel

Is there a way to get the result of using multiple blending modes in one object?

Hello,
I wonder if there's a way to merge multiple objects with blending modes to one object. Here is the example:
On the left rhere are three objects with the same appearence but different blending modes(color dodge, normal, overlay), on the right they are overlapped, which are still three object. I'm looking for the way to have the same result as the right overlapped one, but as one object. Having the same multiple objects only for the result of color blending mode uses too much memory for my computer.
Thank you for your help in advance.

create one object: then in your appearance panel, duplicate the fill twice. Select the top fill and expand the sub menu, click on opacity, choose blending mode. repeat.
G

Hue Blend Mode Confusion

Hello,
In reading about the Hue blend mode, I have come to understand (perhaps erroneously) that given two layers (T)op and (B)ottom, that if the Blend Mode of T is set to Hue, then the hue information in T will be blended with the saturation and luminosity in B, which essentially means that the hue information in B is replaced by the hue information in T. However, in running some experiments, I've noticed that when dealing with a very simple document comprised of two layers only, that setting the Blend Mode to Hue also changes the saturation and brightness.
Here are the steps to duplicate the observed phenomena using two regular layers:
Create a new blank document.
Fill with the color that corresponds to the HSB values (0, 70, 50).
Add a new layer above the existing layer (blend mode Normal).
Fill the topmost layer with the color that corresponds to the HSB values (230, 70, 50).
Using the Info panel, the HSB values for the document should read as (230, 70, 50).
Change the Blend Mode of the topmost layer to Hue.
Using the Info panel, the HSB values for the document should read as (230, 70, 50), but instead read as (230, 66, 53).
And here are the steps to duplicate the observed phenomena using a regular layer and an adjustment layer:
Create a new blank document.
Fill with the color that corresponds to the HSB values (0, 70, 50).
Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (blend mode Normal).
Adjust the Hue value in the Properties panel for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to be -130.
Using the Info panel, the HSB values for the document should read as (230, 70, 50).
Change the Blend Mode for the Hue/Saturation layer to be Hue.
Using the Info panel, the HSB values for the document should read as (230, 70, 50), but instead read as (230, 66, 53).
The results in both (for me) are identical. Am I misunderstanding the Hue blend mode?
Thanks,
Matt
Photoshop Info:     13.0.1 x64 Extended
OS:                        Windows 7 64-bit
CPU:                      Dual Xeon E5440
RAM:                     16 GB
Video:                    Nvidia GeForce GTX-580

Hi Chris,
Thanks very much for your straightforward and helpful answer. So, it would appear that my simplistic understanding of the Hue blend mode as 'replacing' the hue of the underlying layer(s) is incorrect. Would a fair rendering of what the Hue blend mode actually does be as follows?
"The Hue blend mode will perform a direct replacement of the hue in the underlying layer(s). The brightness and saturation of the underlying layer(s) will not be affected *unless* the resultant hue, saturation, and brightness 3-tuple would result in an illegal HSL combination, in which case the saturation and brightness of the resultant pixels will be altered to bring the HSL values into compliance."
Also, is there a way for the Info panel to display HSL values?
Thanks again,
Matt

CS4 bringing photoshop layered files into illustrator - blending modes

Hello.
I have a layered photoshop file that is being brought into illustrator. One layer is a drop shadow and is set to multiply within photoshop. The drop shadow is NOT an effect. It's just a plain layer of a drop shadow. When I bring it into illustrator it doesn't act as if it is set to multiply when placed over my illustrator object. I know it's easy enough to make the shadow within illustrator and set the blending mode there but I would like to know why this is not working.
Thanks in advance for the help.
-PB

Illustrator's blending math is not the same as Photoshop's -- there will be differences if you import/export layered data between the apps.

Has anyone ever encountered layer blend modes behaving strangely?

I use photoshop quite a bit for retouching and photo compositing. Tonight I encountered a strange problem. I was trying to create a vintage look on a photo and had a number of adjustment layers including a curves, levels, color fill and there were also a few texture/noise layers all set to varying opacities. Near the top of all this I had a vignette layer that was black around the edges and white in the center set to blend mode of multiply. Well, when I was clicking on and off I realize that that vignette layer was definitely lightening the center part of the overall image quite a bit (the part that is white on the vignette layer), almost like a screen. So I flipped the vignette layer through different opacity modes and saw that there was no change in its behavior, every mode was screening the white, even darker color and multiply. I thought maybe it was interacting in a weird way with one of the other layers so I turned all the others off except the back ground-- still no change. Then I dropped the layer down one at time until it was below the background. When I started to move it up again, it was behaving normally for a moment until I moved it up a couple levels in the stacking order and then it went back to the screen behavior. Anyway I shuffled it around a bit but there was no consitency to when it would display the correct opacity and when it wouldn't, so it did not seem to be an interaction with any specific layer. I don't know, but I can't really think of any case where white set to multiply should produce a lighter result even if it were interacting with another opacity. In any case it does seem to me that there is something going on with the overall computation of opacities. I tried creating a new black and white layer and it was also doing the same thing, behaving strange and not displaying the correct opacity.
I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. I'm going to shut off the computer and hope this goes away when I reboot, but if it does not, does this sound familiar to anyone? I'm not a regular visitor to this forum, but I thought I'd put it out there in case anyone else has experienced anything like this. I've only got 5 gigs of ram on this computer and I've been working away for a while... maybe photoshop just couldn't keep up(?) I'm using Photoshop CS5, RGB Adobe 1998 colorspace. I've never had anything like this happen in the last 11 years I've been using photoshop. Hmmm.... hope I don't have to reinstall or call support or worse. fingers crossed.

Nevermind. It is still having the problem. I have to think that this file is just corrupt somehow because I just opened another file and can't seem to cause the same problem. Basically, I can fill a layer with white, put it to a blend mode of multiply or darker color and it will block out everything of the image below, ie totally opaque. The opaqueness varies depending on the if there are other layers also on blend modes, but it does not seem to correspond to normal blend mode interaction. If I put it right on top of a regular layer with an image on it, it totally blocks it out on a blend mode of multiply... weird. I am going to scrap this file and see if the problem recurs in other files. My 2006 Mac Pro is getting some years on it and has been running pretty slow. I'm not a hardware expert but I've done everything I know how to do to maintain it. Was thinking of upping the ram to see if I can hold out a bit longer before I upgrade the computer. Wouldn't surprise me if this problem is related to the computer.

How do I mask a path with a blending mode so that if only effects the groups below?

I am working on a logo but have run into what seems like a simple problem but nothing about masks that I have found seems to work. I have
two groups and in one of them I have a path with an overlay blending mode. Above both groups I have the same path with the same blending mode. (I have used two as I wanted a stronger effect on the lower group)
Here is the project against white:
As you can see the logo itself looks fine and I thought it was ready to use.
However upon exporting it I noticed that the layers with opacity that where invisable agaist the white where now visable. I ussumed this would eb a simple fix as I am used to this problem with After Effects. Illistrator is not my forte and I am not used to how the masks work.
After two hours of messing around and searching on the internet for answers I have given up. This must be a common thing to pop up but I couldn't find the answer so here I am. Please can someone help me remove the unwanted white circles.
Thanks,
Ben.

Thank you for replying Monika,
I have copied the Paths but dont understand what you mean by expand the 3D effect. With the text I was able to click ungroup and edit the individual sides. I am unable to do this with the logo, I dont know exactly why. Also when I combine all my paths they just go into one group. You will have to excuse me, I still have a lot to learn.
Thanks,
Ben.

Formulas for blending modes

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