Layer Blend Modes

July 6, 2008 · Print This Article

This Layer Blend Modes Tutorial will help to explain what all the blend modes mean.

They’re all very important when using Photoshop and the more you understand what they do the easier you can work your way around Photoshop. It’s not complicated and a fair bit of it is trying them out as I explain what they all do.

Below I have outlined the different modes in a nice colourful image; further on you’ll see my simple explanations - if you get stuck, leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to reply and help you further.

Feel free to request something similar to this layer blend modes tutorial.

Layer Blend Modes - The Steps

Pink:
The pink section contains four modes in this group; darken, multiply, color burn, linear burn. They all darken your colours in slightly different ways. The best way to see what the four modes do is to grab an image and change the layer mode in your layers palette. Note that they make no difference to white.

Purple:
The purple section contains four modes; lighten, screen, color dodge, linear dodge. They are the opposite to the pink section, instead of darkening like the pink section does, they lighten everything; again, the best thing to do is try them out. Note that like the darken modes, these lighten modes make no difference to pure black.

Blue:
This blue section is what some call “Light Modes”, they darken the darkest colors and lighten the lightest colors… allowing the mid-tone to intermix, so that foreground and background remain independently identifiable.
Overlay, Soft Light and Hard Light alternatively multiplies the blacks and screens the whites, but in different degrees… it’s tricky to explain and we’ve found the best way is to try it on a few images. You’ll see what they do and how the different modes can help you.

Green:
This green section is what some call the “invert section” - these two options invert color of underlying layer depend on brightness of active layer. Sometimes they’re fantastic but they don’t always help - depends what you’re doing. Again, try it out!

Yellow:
The last section; mode colours. This group of blending mode plays with colours, brightness and saturation.

Aaannddd you’re done. I hope this tutorial was helpful and made sense - if you do have any questions regarding this Layer Blend Modes Tutorial then feel free to leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to help you.