Learning blending modes

I've learned most of what I know about PSE from a certain magazine from England. But in their step by step instructions, you are told to use this or that blending mode, but not why.
Are there any threads on here that expalin what the different modes do and when to use what? I've tried to do search but didn't work.
Thanks
Ricih

http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/blend1/blend1.htm
The above is a set of tutorials that includes tables listing practical uses of blend modes for photographers.
His examples are done using photoshop but the blend modes are the same in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Layer masking is used to constrain the blend mode effects to portions of the photos. With elements, you will need to use an adjustment layer so you can hijack the mask. If you are just going to blend the image with itself, create a levels adjustment layer...leave it at the default setting and click ok to accept. Adjust the levels adjustment layer's blend mode and opacity if desired. This will act just as if you were working on a duplicate of the image...and you have a mask.
If blending two different images, use a clipping mask/group. Here's a link on info about using clipping masks/clipping groups...same thing different name.
http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/learn/Photoshop_Elements/layers/layer_groups_clippi ng_masks/1_layer_groups_clipping_masks.htm
Other tutorials that cover blend modes...
http://www.northlite.net/ps/blend.htm
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/layer-blend-modes/
http://www.photoshoptut.com/photoshops-blend-modes/
http://www.psdtop.com/blog/basic/understanding-blending-modes/
Still one more...don't read #20 as it covers advanced masking (Blend If) that isn't available in Photoshop Elements.
http://www.teamphotoshop.com/articles-The-Techniques-Layer-Blend-Modes-Explained!-5,8,65a. html
Edit: That last link you'll have to copy and paste it into your browser to get it to work. It's not linking correctly.

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Blend mode learning resource

Has anyone come across a learning resource which employs a graphic approach to explain all the availble blending modes?

This is also a great book on blend modes:
http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Power-Blend-Modes-Photoshop/dp/0321823761

Blending Modes 101 | Learn Photoshop CS6 | Adobe TV

Blending modes are one of the most creative areas in Photoshop. Let Infinite Skills author, Andy Anderson, take you on a tour of this amazing area in Adobe Photoshop.
http://adobe.ly/NsBIKV

First of all, thank you Adobe group!
But I can`t find Working files. For some videos, they`re shown below the vids, but where can I find Working Files Folder for this course?
Thanks in advance:)

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.

Photoshop 6 and the change in Color Dodge/Burn blend modes

Photoshop 6 introduced a few changes in blending modes. Here´s a tip on how to save those older PSD´s, and continue with the Color Dodge/Burn behaviour you are used to:
Courtesy of Mark Hamburg, verified and posted by Chad Baker:
To create a new Color Dodge/Burn layer that will work like the old ones used to, simply Option (Alt) click the New Layer icon and select Color Dodge/Burn as your mode, then check the box to fill your new layer with a neutral color (black for Color Dodge and Difference, white for Color Burn).
To fix an existing Color Dodge/Burn layer (from one of your 5.5 files for example) that has 100% layer opacity, simply bring up the fill dialog with that layer selected, then fill the layer in 'Behind' mode with black.
To fix an existing Color Dodge/Burn layer that has an opacity of other than 100% it's a little trickier, but not much. The process is the same as above, but you must perform a quick trick first. Select the layer, then go to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. What you need to do is change the Advanced blending opacity to whatever your General blending opacity is, then move the general opacity up to 100%. Now all you have to do is what you did before, fill the layer in 'Behind' mode with black.
See also:
Adobe Techdoc#321884

Very bad practice to just use image slices into your website.
Check out this tutorial to learn how to efficiently slice, dice and markup your design into an active HTML format - http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/news/slice-and-dice-that-psd/
Also, Spry - has been deprecated and is no longer officially supported by Adobe. http://blogs.adobe.com/dreamweaver/2012/08/update-on-adobe-spry-framework-availability.htm l
Consider using a jQuery menu.
-Sudarshan

3d blend mode

hey everyone. I'm a little new to after effects, but I'm trying to learn. So im doing a day to night conversion. I created a new solid and added CC spotlight to it. I set the blend mode to classic color dodge, but when i turned the gray solid to a 3d layer, I could no longer change the blending mode. what do i doooo...

As Mylenium said, if it's not working you must be using the raytrace 3D renderer. It works fine for me in classic 3D. Check the button in the upper right had corner of the comp viewer to change it.

Making it easier to cycle through blend modes

Maybe there is a way to do this that I'm missing. Learning or seeing how all the blend modes work is really tedious. You have to trigger the dropdown, go to the blend mode, click it, then repeat all that to try the next blend mode. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if you could just quickly cycle through the blend modes with a slider or the arrow keys? Is there such a thing? Or maybe a screen of blend mode thumbnails, showing all the blends for a particular overlay at once.

Matt Stow has created a command to cycle through the blend modes: http://www.mattstow.com/extensions/Objects/FW_Blend_Modes_1_2.mxp
You might need to right-click the link and Save As to download the .mxp correctly. Once installed, you can set keyboard shortcuts to easily cycle forward and back through the blend modes.

CS5: Color Blending Mode

Okay well i have a problem
Just bought Photoshop CS5 - & i'm designing my first image..... Below is an image of the sort of effect i'm trying to get.
Changing colours of an object without having to paint them etc etc.
The Image above says that We should Get the stock image > desaturate it > then Create A New Layer > Blending Options: Color
Well the problem i am having is the fact here is my image
As you can see - it is smoke particles, well what i am trying to do is - Colour those particles similar to the above image.
To do this - id normally make a new layer above that & set the blending mode to Color - however it doesnt seem to work.
I get a blob of colour when i try to colour the individual smoke particles;
Is there anyway someone can help me & point me in the right direction as to what i'm doing wrong - i dont want a blob of colour like that - i only want to colour the Smoke particles themself to achieve a rainbow effect. Here is my layer palette to help.

Now's your chance to learn.
Layer - Add Layer Mask.
Go into the Channels panel, find the mask, and paste the smoke into it, then Image - Adjust - Invert.
-Noel

How to bulid new layer blend modes?

please look link: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1755389
I did not learn Microsoft Visual Studio, I want to use my algorithms, have same functionin   as The layer blend modes in photoshop , but algorithm not the same , written in JavaScript to run very slowly, pls help me.
thx

inline unsigned8 Mul8x8Div255 (unsigned8 a, unsigned8 b)
unsigned32 temp = (unsigned32)a * (unsigned32)b + 128;    //how modify here?
return static_cast<unsigned8>((temp + (temp >> 8)) >> 8); //how modify here?
inline unsigned16 Mul16x16Div32768 (unsigned16 a, unsigned16 b)
unsigned32 temp = (unsigned32)a * (unsigned32)b + 16384; ////how modify here?
return (unsigned16) (temp >> 15);   ////how modify here?
inline float Mul32x32(float a, float b)
if(a>=b){
rerurn 255-(510-a-b-(255-a)*(255-b)*(b+255)/(255*255)); //here ok
else {
return 255-(510-a-b-(255-a)*(255-b)*(a+255)/(255*255)); //here ok
pls help me
how modify:
inline unsigned8 Mul8x8Div255 (unsigned8 a, unsigned8 b)
unsigned32 temp = (unsigned32)a * (unsigned32)b + 128;    //how modify here?
return static_cast<unsigned8>((temp + (temp >> 8)) >> 8); //how modify here?
inline unsigned16 Mul16x16Div32768 (unsigned16 a, unsigned16 b)
unsigned32 temp = (unsigned32)a * (unsigned32)b + 16384; ////how modify here?
return (unsigned16) (temp >> 15);   ////how modify here?

Smart Object and blend mode issue

I have an object that I moved from another image and needed to resize. The object is an image of a bottle and glass, with both the bottle and glass having reflections from their base. They both also have some layer masks with the reflections. I grouped the glass and bottle and created a smat object before the move to the new file). Anyway everything worked fine, except the reflections are much stonger in the new file (they are sitting over the same colored backgrond as in the original. If I open up the smart object and put a background behind the images and the reflections (background is transparent)everthing looks as they should. The reflections have a blend mode of multiply).
So why does the smart object not render the reflections properly (without lowering the opacity more within the smart object group) they appear almost at 100% in the new file. Any suggestions?
Can't post the files as this happened at work.
Thanks
Jeff

Anything to do with soft proofing? Does the new document have the same colour space as the original?

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.

Learning blending modes

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