Rohinton Mehta
In part 5 of this ‘Learning’, we shall see the power of some ‘Blending Modes’ that Photoshop offers. To ‘blend’ is to mix. Here we are talking of an effect that is created when a ‘Layer’ blends or mixes with the one/s under it. Using the right blending mode, we can lighten or darken an image or even increase the contrast. Let’s take a simple example. You may download the images that I’ll be working on here (https://drive. google.com/open?id=0B0n0nvcjnIDRTU2ZGlaRWNxREk). The images will be available till 30th June 2017. The image ( _RJM7179.jpg) is a Raw file, which I have converted to JPEG for Image Editing – PART 5 Rohinton Mehta an easy download.
1. Open the image in Photoshop. Ensure that the Layers panel is open; if not, press the F7 key on the keyboard to do so. The original image will be seen in the Layers panel as the Background layer. You will also see a padlock on the right of this layer.
2. Using the computer mouse, drag the Background layer to ‘Create a new layer’ icon (the second from the right at the bottom of the Layers panel). This will create a new Layer, called Background copy.
Now go to the Blending mode (click in the space where it says Normal) and from the dropdown menu, select Screen. You will immidiately see that the image has lightened and you can see details which were earlier blocked.
4. Now let’s assume that you wanted even more details in the dark areas. So what can you do? Simple. Just create a duplicate of the Background copy by dragging the Background copy to “Create a new layer’ icon. The new layer will be shown as Background copy 2 (See PS 2). At this point, the image looks nice, at least to me.
5. To see the ‘before/after’, click on the eye icon in the respective layer.
6. You may now get rid of the two legs that you can see in the right bottom corner. Please refer to Image Editing Part 4 in our March 2017 issue in case you wonder how to do that.
7. Flatten and save the image using the Save As command. Remember , the Screen Blending Mode will lighten an image.
Now let’s see what the Multiply blending mode can do for us. You may download the image _DSC3155.jpg from our website (till 30th June 2017). We use the Multiply Blending Mode to overall darken an image. The image that we shall work on is on the lighter side.
Background, just as we saw in the earlier example.
3. Go to the Blending mode and this time, from the dropdown menu, select Multiply. The final image has much better tonality as compared to the original image. (Just like we did with the Screen Blending Mode where we further lightened the image, you could, if need be, further darken the image by again dragging the Background layer to the “Create a new layer’ icon).
4. Flatten and save the image using the Save As command.
