Blend Modes

[Manfred M]

There speaks the competent photographer who has visualised the final image at the time of taking the shot and utilised their physical equipment to captuture it proficiently.

Speak to any good photographer and they will say very much the same thing. We see the final image in our mind's eye and shoot in a way that allows us to do so. Part of the reason is that experienced photographers have developed a style that they are comfortable with and generally have a set workflow starting at capture and going right through post-processing.

I remember one relatively new photographer asking me when they would know that they had become a good photographer. My answer was something along the lines of "putting your camera to your eye and taking a picture and saying to yourself "that was the image I meant to take" and doing so consistently".

[Rufus]

Donald's original post has prompted me to find out more and this video is a very good systematic review of the various blend modes and explains rather well how they inter-relate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsukMXtEYFQ

And for a more practical approach on the uses of selected blend modes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mibCkK1nDpI

[Donald]

Donald's original post has prompted me to find out more and this video is a very good systematic review of the various blend modes and explains rather well how they inter-relate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsukMXtEYFQ

And for a more practical approach on the uses of selected blend modes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mibCkK1nDpI

Wonderful. If my post has encouraged even one person to strive for more knowledge and how to apply it, then the post has been a success.

[Manfred M]

Wonderful. If my post has encouraged even one person to strive for more knowledge and how to apply it, then the post has been a success.

Next challenge Donald is the Blend If function...

[Donald]

Next challenge Donald is the Blend If function...

I don't think I'll ever need that. But never say never.

[Manfred M]

I don't think I'll ever need that. But never say never.

Works really well in output sharpening for prints if you want to keep the highlights and shadow details from looking over sharpened.

[Donald]

Works really well in output sharpening for prints if you want to keep the highlights and shadow details from looking over sharpened.

Right. I'll try it tomorrow (it's getting late here) and see how it goes.

[xpatUSA]

Originally Posted by xpatUSA OK, I'll get my coat ...

I think you misunderstood me. That is an expression to say that there are many ways of achieving the same thing.

I am well aware what the expression means! In context, I took it to mean "so what?", i.e. a complete disinterest in any method other than this 'Linear Light Blend Mode'. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I came back for my hat ...

[Donald]

I don't think I'll ever need that. But never say never.

Regarding 'Blend If', it's a case of 'Now eat your words, MacKenzie'.

Thank you for bringing this back to my attention, Manfred. Just studied a tutorial (PHLearn), learned how to use it properly and applied it to an image. What a wonderfully powerful means of dodging & burning with subtlety. I had an image that was a row of trees disappearing into a shadowed background, except the shadow wasn't black enough. It is now.

Every day is (or should be) a learning day.

[Manfred M]

Donald - this is how I use the Blend If functionality all the time; Output Sharpening

The human visual system has "trouble" with sharpened highlights and shadows, so when I output sharpen, I use Blend If to not sharpen the extreme shadow and highlight areas and then feather in the sharpening to the mid-tones.

After I have sized the image for print, I put a new layer at the very top of the stack in Photoshop. I do my sharpening (using USM) and set the Blend Mode to luminosity and Opacity to 80% (I do vary the opacity when I fine tune my sharpening). I apply a "Blend If" to this layer. I put a shadow cut off at around 20 and a white cutoff around 240. I transition the shadows to 40 and the highlights to 220. That brings the textures out in the print beautifully.

[Antonio Correia]

Another great Manfred's tip !

[Antonio Correia]

Manfred, I have done something different which also gave me some good results. Instead of creating a new layer which increases the file size, I created a Curves Adjustment and played with it. Have a look please. Thank you.
Perhaps this is not the best photo for this...

[DanK]

This is a great thread. I have already learned a good bit, and it has prompted me to pursue some additional things in other sources.

Unlike some people, I find it tremendously helpful to understand how the tools work because it helps me figure out which to use and how to use them. I like to learn a bit about that before I explore them concretely. However, I think there is a limit to the information available for blend modes. Or, to be more precise, there are limits to what I have been able to find.

Ted wrote:

I guess this must be different to simply adjusting Levels or Contrast or Curves?

Yes and no. For simplicity, assume that a curve is set so the inflection point is at 50%. Then tones below that are darkened and tones above that are lightened. if you read Adobe's short descriptions of blending modes, that simple statement is true of a bunch of them. They obviously differ in HOW they do this--e.g., the shape of the curve, or other "moderator variable," that is, other factors that influence how strong the effect is.

I suspect I would use a larger number of blend modes if I understood the differences within groups better than I do.

[Manfred M]

Manfred, I have done something different which also gave me some good results. Instead of creating a new layer which increases the file size, I created a Curves Adjustment and played with it. Have a look please. Thank you.
Perhaps this is not the best photo for this...

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to show here Antonio. The curve you show impacts mid-range contrast and your Blend If approach seems to cut back the highlights a little. Output sharpening deals with micro-contrast (I use the Unsharp Mask).

In output sharpening, I never save the sharpening layer as it is 100% dependent of the output size and output medium. I will generally throw away the sharpening layer after I have output the image because I am unlikely to use exactly the same paper type and paper size if I print again and it only takes a few minutes to redo the output sharpening, if I decide to redo an image.

The other thing that I did not show in my example is that output sharpening is targeted and I don't generally sharpen either the sky or water. I will cut back the sharpening in some areas of the image, for instance high frequency areas like grass or leaves and in the case of portraits, human skin and hair.

[Antonio Correia]

Manfred, I am missing something...
I am following the thread and trying to learn.
Thank you for your lines !