Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert

Ourfavourite
Blending Modes
There are over 20 different
Blending ModesinPhotoshop CS
and Photoshop Elements. Here are
theten that we usemostoften…
Lighten
3Thismodewillonlyblend tones
andcolourswheretheoriginal
layerislighter.
Difference
7Thismodeshouldbeused to
establish exactregistrationof
twosimilarimages.
Multiply
4Thisblendbehaves like an
in-cameramultipleexposure;
theresultsareoftendarker.
Luminosity
8 Thecolourandsaturation
oftheoriginallayerremain
unchanged.Greatfor dodging.
How we created our image
The shoot
1We shot an artistic ‘implied’
nude in a home studio using
a simple one-light set up, lit with
one flash light, a large soft box
and a black background. We also
used a textured shot of the base
of an old roasting tin and a film
effect border, which we created
from scratch in Photoshop.
Combining images
2We combined the main
image of our nude with the
textured image of the roasting
tin and used the Hard Light
Blending Mode to mix the two
layers together. We used a Layer
Mask and the Opacity slider to
refine the blending.
Finishing touches
3Using a Hue/Saturation
Adjustment Layer we
reduced the saturation to
remove most of the colour from
the layer. We then added our
border, changing the Blending
Mode to Darken. We completed
our image by using the Free
Transform tool to pull the border
into the right shape.
Darken
1Only blendstones and colours
where the original layer is darker.
We used thisfor the border.
Screen
5This mode mixes the layers
in a way that’s more or less
oppositeto Multiply (left).
Hue
9The brightness and saturation
of the original layer stay intact;
the hue istakenfrom thetop layer.
3
1
PhotoshopSchool
APPLY TEXTURES TO YOUR PHOTOS
2
Soft Light
2 Dependingonthecolourofthe
original layer, thiswilllightenor
darken the coloursofthe toplayer.
Overlay
6The top layerissuperimposed
in a way thatmaintainsthelight
and dark areas oftheoriginallayer.
Hard Light
10
Themodeweusedfor thetexture.Itcombinesthe
Multiply and Screenmodes.
DigitalCamera July2010
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