One-Step Photo Editing with Blend Modes

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I stumbled over this brilliant concept and just had to play with it. Because of course I did. 😉 Photos make our memories tangible and are a significant contributor to preserving those memories. But let’s face it… the photos that tend to mean the most are the candid ones, the ones that happened on the fly, and that sometimes means they’re not as true to the snapshots we carry in our hearts as we’d like. Sometimes there really is a quick fix though!

This is a photo I found on Pixabay. It’s tack sharp but has an obvious colour cast and looks underexposed to me. I like the photo, but think it could be better. I could run a whole bunch of edits on it and spend a lot of time trying to make it fit the way I envision it. But… first I’ll run some Blend Modes on it, just to see. [Editor’s note: Blend Modes are the same in Photoshop, but have extra tweakability.]

Before we start experimenting, make a Copy of your photo layer. Why? So the original isn’t altered. Also, because of how Blend Modes work. More about that in a minute. Right-click on your photo layer and choose Duplicate Layer… from the options.

Then click OK. If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, CTRL/CMD>J will do both steps in one move.

We’ve talked about Blend Modes a LOT in previous tutorials. But we haven’t really talked about how they work. You may have noticed that they’re grouped in the drop-down menu found in that button bar at the top left of the Layers Panel. The first grouping is the NORMAL Modes. That means the layers don’t interact with each other when at full Opacity. Next is the Darken Modes; these DO allow the layers to interact with those underneath them, and produce different effects as you’ll see. The third grouping is the Lighten Modes. Self-explanatory, sort of. Following that is the Contrast Grouping, which is also essentially self-explanatory.  If you’re interested in learning more about the science of Blend Modes, check out this video from PiXimperfect. It’s about 42 minutes and is based on Photoshop so there are some differences, but it’s fascinating! Now, let’s play!

Click on the Blend Mode button bar and open up the dropdown menu. We’ll skip the Normal Modes and start right with Darken.

Just so we can remember what the original looks like before I change it… each Mode is named under the image.

Darken: It hides every pixel that is darker than the base brightness. The only change here is that the snow looks more gray to me.

Multiply: Only the purest black is unchanged.

Color Burn: Will change pure black and pure white,  darkens and adds colour. This effect is more evident if a solid Fill Layer is applied to above the photo. But this photo is just the photo. It’s a hot mess.

Linear Burn: Basically the same as Color Burn, but it does NOT keep pure white pure white.

Darker Color: You’ll probably never use this one – it’s not really any different than the Darker Mode. The others are more interesting.

Let’s get the original back up so you don’t have to scroll so much to see the changes.

Lighten: The polar opposite of Darken; the snow is a bit whiter, her skin tones are a bit more visible and there’s a hint of purple in her jacket.

Screen: Huge difference! It’s the opposite of Multiply, so it lightens the whole image. This is the easiest fix for underexposed but otherwise perfect photos there is. If it’s too bright, tone down the Opacity until you’re happy.

Color Dodge: Everything is brightened and a lot of the highlights are blown. But it’s an intriguing look.

Linear Dodge: More highlights are blown, the overall image is a bit brighter. More colour variation is noted.

Lighter Color: Again, you’ll probably never use this one because there’s not any obvious difference.

Back to the original before we move on to the Contrast Group, which will lighten lights and darken darks.

Overlay: Yep. Sure did increase the contrast.

Soft Light: This is similar to Overlay, but more gentle.

Hard Light: It sounds contradictory, but this one adds a faded contrast rather than harsh.

Vivid Light: The image looks sharper, with a harsher contrast again. It keeps the white white and the black black.

Linear Light: Lots of contrast but not a ton of detail…

Pin Light: This one is a combo of Lighten and Darken. They seem to cancel each other out.

Hard Mix: Hard is right! The contrast is almost eye-boggling!!

Individually, these Blend Modes are useful and interesting. But the real magic happens when they’re stacked. Check out this image:

I made 4 Copies, so 5 layers in all. The top layer is Screen at 100%. Second layer is Color Burn at 35%, Third layer is Linear Light at 70%. Fourth layer is Hard Mix at 10% and the bottom layer is the original.

Same four layers. But I changed the Linear Light to Linear Dodge at 50% and increased the Hard Mix to 20%. I could play with this photo for days!!

Quick Trick: Gradient Titles

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Are you up for another way to use Gradients in your scrapbooking? Let’s apply one to some text to create a title. (I’m showing it on a photo, but it’ll be great as a layout title too. You could even create your own Gradient papers and alphas with this Trick!!) It’s a really quick way to elevate our layouts. Let’s use this photo.

Did you recognize the Joshua tree? Trajan Pro 3 is an Adobe font; I used it for its clean lines. It may be a system font on your computer. But any font you like will be perfect.

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned what happens when you Simplify a text layer. It basically converts the font to pixels, which then allows us to modify it however we want to – but it’s no longer editable. Here’s a tip: If you think there’s any risk of needing to edit that text, make a Copy of it and make it invisible, like I’ve done here.

This next step is absolutely essential. Click on the Lock Transparent Pixels button, show in the box, so that the Gradient is applied ONLY to the text.

I want to use colours from my photo for the Gradient, so using the Color Picker (Eyedropper), I first selected a spot in the sky for a bright blue. Then I held down the ALT/OPT key and clicked the Eyedropper on the darker shadow area of the photo just above the “U”. That way, I didn’t have to switch the target swatches, Elements did it for me.

This technique’s path is much shorter than the one in our last Gradient tutorial. Click on the Gradient Tool (looks like a… dark-to-light gradient across a sheet of paper) in the Control Panel. To keep this really basic, we’ll use the default settings for the Tool. But there’s a LOT that can be done down there in the Tool Options panel to create a truly unique effect.

To duplicate the photo’s palette, with blue above and tan below, I clicked my cursor above the text and dragged a straight, vertical line to below the text. The Gradient will go in the direction you drag your cursor; I tried upper-left-to-lower-right too, just to see what it looked like. You do you! 😉

To bring the text up out of the sand, I added a slight Drop Shadow and a bit of a Bevel. That’s all there is to it!

For this sample, I went to the invisible, unSimplified text layer and put it all one a single line. Then I followed the preceding steps again to get this effect.

With the identical Shadow and Bevel, this look is much more subtle. Hmm. Which way do I like it better?

Here’s one last look at options. This time I pulled the Gradient up from below, creating a mirror version. I can’t decide!!!!

See you all in June!

Recolouring Word Art with Gradient Maps

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We’ve talked about recolouring embellishments, word art and brushes before and I’ve shown you a variety of ways to accomplish that goal. One that we haven’t ever looked at is using Gradient Maps. Today we’re only going to talk about recolouring word art, but they’re pretty powerful tools for photo effects too.

But first… what the heck is a Gradient Map? Here’s a direct quote from Essential Photoshop (it also applies to Elements): “Gradient Map is a tool in Adobe Photoshop that allows you to apply a gradient effect over an image. It works by mapping different shades of gray tones in your image to colors defined by a gradient bar. This creates an effect where the highlights and shadows are transformed into specific colors without affecting other details in the image.” Let’s see how it works. I’m going to use this title word art from Word Art World. I’ve made several copies of the word art and isolated the big words, afternoon and park, onto their own layers by Erasing everything else on that layer. I have one untouched original layer just in case I mess it up; it’s not visible. This will let me selectively recolour the words.

This is only a sample so my colour choices are arbitrary; if I was going to use this word art title on a layout, I could choose colours from my photos or from the kit I’d be using to create a cohesive look. When I think about “park”, I see grass, trees, water and light in my mind’s eye. So I think I should colour the word park green. As you can see, I’ve used the Paint Bucket Color Picker to set the foreground colour to a spring green.

Next, I toggled the Color Picker (click the X key to toggle between foreground and background) and chose a more yellow-y green. These two colours will form my Gradient.

Next I clicked on the icon that looks like a circle half blue and half gray, at the top of the Layers Panel, which is the Add Fill/Adjustment Layer button. From the drop down menu I chose Gradient Map…

See the new addition to the work space? That’s the Gradient Map adjustment panel. The colour bar shows the two shades of green I chose, gradually shifting from one value to the other. At this point the Gradient Map layer is affecting all the layers, but that’s easily fixed, so we can ignore it for now.

One easy way to adjust the Gradient Map is to simply Reverse it. Now the colour bar has the light and darker colours swapped. It’s easy to see the difference between the two screenshots. Remember that Elements has created a grayscale copy of the word and has applied the colour based on a mathematical algorithm. If you don’t love it Reversed, untick the box.

Another option is to change the Blend Mode. This will take a little experimentation to find the look I want, so I ran the list. I like the grungy look I get with Vivid Light, so that’s where I stopped.

I also tested adjusting the Opacity and decided I liked 100% best. Now I can Clip my Gradient Map to the PARK layer. Right-click on the Gradient layer then choose Create Clipping Mask. Or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD>G for PSE14 and earlier versions, CTRL/CMD>ALT/OPT>G for PSE15 and more  recent.

Now I’ll do the AFTERNOON layer. Notice that the Adjustment panel is empty. It’ll populate again once I click on the Add Adjustment Layer button.

This tool is so much fun to play with! What do you think the Gradient Map will look like for this colour combo?

Well, it’s pretty orange. Clicking on the colour bar itself opens up this adjustment panel. The sliders start out at the ends of the adjustment bar, and as you move them, you can watch the effect they have on the image. I’ve got the Reverse box ticked, but I’d still like a bit more magenta to show.

It’s very hard to see the bits of magenta that show in this screenshot, but if you’re viewing in PDF, you can Zoom in and check it out.

Now I’ve got all the layers recoloured and the Gradient Maps are all Clipped to the appropriate layers. All that’s left is to Merge the layers and add the title to a layout!

As I mentioned above, this tool is FABULOUS for adding colour to Brushes. I have some grungy alpha brushes that I played with first and other than having to put each letter on a separate layer, I loved the effect. I can’t wait to try it with alphas and other embellishments. What do you think? Would you like to see how Gradient Maps work with photos, or is that not something you’d ever do?