The Sprague Lab

Wow! Welcome to PS Friday week 9.

Today’s week is just a little different, as it doesn’t necessarily involve a step-by-step tutorial, but some inspiration and examples to get you started (or help you get further) down the road of one of my favorite Photoshop tools:

Blending modes.

Dum.Dum.Duuuuuuuuum.

(Darn, I wish this blog had real sound effects.)

So I thought about giving you a quick run-down of all the various blending modes before setting out to show examples, but I discovered (while looking at the Photoshop help), that they are intensely mathematical. And math + Jes has never been a good combo. So rather than copy and paste the schtuff from the help (which you are MORE than welcome to go read..), I’ll just say that nainly the trick here is to know in GENERAL what is going to happen to your layer if you choose a specific blend mode, and then experiment. :) Happy accidents happen to me all the time this way. :)

Here is the example layout for blending modes:
(I saved this one larger on purpose, so you could enlarge it for detail. Just click on it to see it larger.)

You can see all the layer blending modes at the very top of the layer palette.

My favorites are: Multiply, Color Burn, Screen, Color Dodge, Overlay, and Soft Light. The others produce pretty specific results that I’m not necessarily looking for. So these are my first choices.

Multiply and Color Burn will both make the layer look darker.
Screen, Color Dodge, and Soft Light will make the layer look lighter, and Overlay will go dark or light depending on the color of the things inside the layer, as well as what is below it.

The beauty of blending is that you can experiment with multiple modes and really see what will work best.

Here is the run-down of all the blending modes (and opacities) I used in the layout above, to give you some examples and ideas:

I used a text paper over the enlarged photo, from Jen Wilson’s Being kit.
Brushes are from the Designing With Digital CD, from Rhonna Farrer
Striped paper is from Kellie Mize’s kit called Boogie Star over at DesignerDigitals.
Frame brushes are from Katie Pertiet’s Edges kit (DesignerDigitals)
Sanded brushes are from the Digital Distressing Kit over at Scrap Artist
Sanded overlay around the outside is from Grunge Overlays by Katie Pertiet (DesignerDigitals)
Title font is Danette Outline, from Fonthead.

I can’t wait to see your experiments with blending modes! Especially blending papers over one another or onto photos, or blending brushes! Some VERY cool stuff can happen if you just take the time to play.

Don’t forget to post a link to what you create!

Have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend! :)