If you use Photoshop at all, you need mastery of a simple, but often misunderstood feature in Photoshop – Blending Modes. With so many amazing tools available, it’s easy to overlook this feature, but it should be a part of your toolkit.

Where Are Blending Modes?

The biggest reason Blending Modes are ignored is because of their location – right in the Layers Palette.

It’s easy to miss because it’s right in front of you all the time. Just select a layer (or layers) and choose a Blending Mode.

What Are Blending Modes?

You can break Blending Modes into their physical blocks in the drop-down menu: Darken, lighten, saturation, subtraction, and color modes.

Now that you know how the tool breaks down, it’s a lot easier to know when and why to reach for various Blending Mode options.

When to Use the Blending Modes?

Blending Modes have many uses that can seem redundant with other filters already available. Here’s an example where we can use Blending Modes to create a tint:

Instead of using Hue/Saturation or another filter on the base image (Layer 1 in the above example), we can just drop the color we want on a layer above it and use Blending Modes to create the tint we want. You can use the arrow keys to go through the options, but if you know you just want to lay the color over the top, then the Screen option is a good place to start.

The Blending Modes are not "tweakable" – you cannot go in and edit them. But you don’t need to! The various modes can be tweaked by using the Opacity and Fill opacity options, respectively. If you cannot find a mode that is just right, go with the harsher effect and dial it down using layer Opacity or Fill opacity.

Other Applications of Blending Modes

As the name suggests, you can blend multiple layers to create amazing effects. To demonstrate, the below example takes our above concept and overlays an image of car headlights. Using the Hard Light mode and dialing it back with the Fill opacity feature, you can get interesting effects that are infinitely editable:

And Blending Modes can be stacked! Here’s our tint on top of both of the previous layers:

The applications are endless. The key is that Blending Modes give you a great deal more flexibility than using static effects like Hue/Saturation to get the same tinting effects or other unique ideas. Experiment with Blending Modes to find that perfect fit, but remember how the tool breaks down to save yourself some time.

Working Examples

Using a stock photo and texture, we’ll demonstrate how each effects the base image. Remember to keep the texture immediately on top of the stock photo in the layers palette. We kept the blending opacity at either 100% or 50% so you could easily reproduce our results for your own experiments.

Stock Images

The stock photo is courtesy of Alfi007 at stock.xchng (2.8MB):

The texture comes from TextureKing (3.2MB):

A Closer Look At Blending Modes:

Now let’s take a look at each individual blending mode, and learn a little more about them!

Normal at 50%

Uses a percentage of the blended image. 100% uses the blended image completely and 0% means that it’s not used at all.

Dissolve at 50%

Selects arbitrary pixels from the blended image and adds to the base. Just as in the normal mode, 100% uses the blended image completely and 0% means that it’s not used at all.

Darken

Compares the blended image with the base and keeps whichever pixel is darker.

Multiply

Takes the information from each pixel, multiplies the 8-bit color values on a per channel (RGB) basis and divides by 255. The result will always be a darker color, except for white: (0 X 0) / 0 = 0

Color Burn

Takes the 8-bit color values of each channel of the base layer and divides by the blended layer. The result is a higher contrast image, but generally darker.

Linear Burn

Adds the two 8-bit color values per channel and subtracts by 255 resulting in a the darker areas being much darker while lighter areas are in higher contrast.

Darker Color at 50%

Instead of using each channel’s 8-bit value, it looks at all the channels and only keeps the darker values.

Lighten at 50%

Opposite of darken, it only keeps the lighter pixel from each of the layers.

Screen

Opposite of multiply, it inverts the blended image and multiplies by the base image.

Color Dodge

Divides the base layer by an inverted blended layer.

Linear Dodge (Add)

Adds the 8-bit color values per channel from each layer. Comparable to the effect of screen, but a higher contrast effect. If the base layer is black there will be no change.

Lighter Color

Works like lighten mode, but it looks at all the channels, not on a per channel basis, and keeps the lighter pixels.

Overlay

This uses a combination of screen and multiply producing a much higher contrast image.

Soft Light

Same as overlay but less of a contrast between the two.

Hard Light

Same as overlay but with even more contrast.

Vivid Light

A combination of color dodge and color burn using the blended layer as the reference.

Linear Light

Same as vivid light but with higher contrast.

Pin Light

Combines the pixels from the blended layer using lighten mode and the dark pixels from the base layer using darken mode.

Hard Mix at 50%

Luminosity of the blended layer added to the color of the base image.

Difference

Takes the lighter pixel from either layer and subtracts it from both.

Exclusion

Toned down version of difference.

Subtract

Simply subtracts the 8-bit color values on a per channel basis from each pixel of each layer. If the result is negative, it shows up as black.

Divide

Divides the 8-bit value from each layer by each other.

Hue

Uses the hue from each pixel of the blended layer while keeping the saturation, color, and luminosity of the base layer.

Saturation

Keeps the luminosity and hue of the base layer but uses the saturation of the blended image.

Color

Uses the color from the base layer but takes the luminosity and saturation from the blended layer.

Luminosity at 50%

Retains the hue and color of the base layer and applies the luminosity from the blended layer.

One of the new, mind-blowing features in Photoshop CS5 is the Puppet Warp Tool. It gives you the ability to manipulate an image in incredible new ways and has many different applications, from deftly alterting the shape of an object in a photo to moving an object to another location in an image and much more.

Now that designers have had some time to experiment with the tool, we’re starting to see a lot of really interesting applications. This roundup of Puppet Warp tutorials covers the basics and includes some tutorials you can walk through for unique visual tips, too. But you can’t just jump right into the Puppet Warp Tool without some other tools in your toolbox. Often the feature works best after you have extracted your image from the background, as an example. So we found some great tuts for extraction techniques and other handy skills, just in case the Puppet Warp Tool doesn’t work for your specified task.

Puppet Warp Tool Tutorials

Puppet Warp Tool Basics

Who better than the infamous Russell Brown to provide a thorough walk-thru of the Puppet Warp Tool? This exhaustive video tutorial shows you just about everything you could want to know about the Puppet Warp Tool.

Rope Text Effect

This tutorial walks you through a unique use of the Puppet Warp Tool by creating a wrapping, rope effect. Easy to follow and a stunning final piece.

Using the Puppet Warp Tool for Extreme Manipulation

We’ve all been there and needed to make a major change in a photo. Sometimes you need to remove something from the background, but it’s tough to move things from the foreground. Check out this tutorial as they show you how to make major changes to an image without destroying your point of focus, too.

Photoshop CS5 Top 5: Puppet Warp

Get a great overview of the best ways to use the Puppet Warp Tool. This excellent video is easy to follow and provides some interesting new ideas for using this tool.

Tweaking Images with Puppet Warp

If you just need a quick tip for how to use the Puppet Warp tool, try this helpful tutorial. You will quickly learn how to make small changes to objects within images.

Moving Body Parts in a Photo

Need a fun tutorial for more Puppet Tool practice? This one takes you through how to take the image of a sitting girl and turn her into a crazy gymnast by moving her leg behind her head.

Remodeling a Figure in Photoshop

This incredible in-depth tutorial teaches you how to remodel an object using the Puppet Warp tool. You also learn other warp and transform techniques for editing figures.

Creating Cinemagraphs

You’ve seen those still images with slight, subtle movements, right? They’re becoming more and more popular. The Puppet Warp Tool is an ideal way to create a cinemagraph from a still image. This tutorial walks you through how to create a cinemagraph using the Puppet Warp Tool, and provides an excellent breakdown of the complete process.

Beyond the Puppet Warp Tool

Finally, the Puppet Warp Tool is just one tool in your design arsenal, so don’t get too fixated on its abilities. In this tutorial you can see how the tool is used in context of a broader design goal. While the tutorial is high-level, it’s important to see the tool used alongside other features that allow dramatic image manipulation.

Extraction Tutorials and More

Extracting Images in Photoshop CS5

So you have this great idea, but you’ve noticed that the Puppet Warp Tool can only go so far. Backgrounds get warped, no matter how many @#!& pins you put in there. A great way to easily fix that problem is to extract the foreground image you want to manipulate later. Here’s a great tutorial for covering how to use the Quick Selection Tool to extract a background. The tutorial also covers some of the new content aware editing tools in CS5.

How to Extract and Cut Out Hair from a Photo

Extracting hair from a background to use on another background can be much more difficult than cutting out smooth edges. This tutorial deftly shows you how best to cut out hair from a photo.

Photoshop CS5 Extracting Images

Another great image extracting tutorial, this one shows how to use layer masks. Quick and easy, this is a great one to review if you need some review or are a beginner.

Photoshop Advanced Background Extraction Technique

This tutorial is second in a series, so it’s a little more advanced. It quickly shows how to use the Extraction Tool to extract a background and then goes on to show how to blend objects to perfection.

Warping Images

Perfect for beginners, this tutorial shows how to warp your images, known as the warp or envelope distortion technique. Learn how to use handles on the bounding box and apply layers.

Plastic Surgery Using the Liquify Tool

The Liquify Tool in Photoshop is perfect for when you need to make subtle to extreme changes to the shape of an object. This tutorial takes you through the steps to making subtle changes to a model’s shape while still maintaining the shape of the water in the background.

Anthony Turano Photoshop Tutorials: Liquify Tool

Learn from the famous speed retouching master how to use the Liquify Tool to make subtle changes to a model. Turano shows how to pre-highlight areas for changes as well as gives some very helpful hints as to how to better use the Liquify Tool.

Photoshop Liquify Tool

This tutorial gives more unique hints for using the Liquify Tool, such as the pros and cons of different brush sizes. The “work-arounds” and “best techniques” given in this video are definitely worth reviewing.

Photoshop CS5: Refine Edge

In Photoshop CS5, refining edges in a selection is much easier than before. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Edge Detection to make your selection much cleaner.

Remove From a Photo Using Content Aware

The new Content Aware feature in Photoshop CS5 makes removing objects much easier than in previous versions. This tutorial shows just how quick and easy this new feature is to learn.

Favorite Feature: Content-Aware-Fill

Learn all of the great features that come with Content Aware in Photoshop CS5. This video takes you through three different handy ways that you can use Content Aware for editing images.

So how are you using the Puppet Warp Tool? Are you using it for dramatic changes, cinemagraphs, or just simple changes that can now be done much more quickly?