Blending Modes in Photoshop, Part 1: The Basics
filed in Photoshop on Nov.20, 2009
A member of the Australian Digital Photography forum suggested I write a post about layer blending modes in Photoshop, so I decided to one-up him. This is the first part of a three part series on blending modes. By the end of this set of tutorials, you’ll be able to:
- Name the three most basic and useful blending modes, and know how they work behind the scenes (which aids you in figuring all the others out).
- Use the Screen and Multiply modes to control the exposure of parts of a photograph much the same way curves or levels are used.
- Effectively implement layer opacity, layer masks, and the gradient tool to selectively apply the strength and area of the effects to your pictures.
- Intelligently experiment with blending modes to create new effects.
- Blend textures & other images into a photograph to give it a different feel.
- Combine Photoshop’s powerful filters with blending modes to achieve a multitude of looks.
- Use keyboard shortcuts to access blending modes.
- And [Read the rest of this entry...]


