Jason suggested in the comments of my last PhotoShop post that I should discuss blend modes and adjustment layers next. I’d hate for anyone to think that I don’t listen.

I’ll use another of my Patoka Lake photos as an example. Here’s the original.

To start with, I’ll briefly discuss blending modes. I’m not an expert on the subject, but I feel comfortable giving an overview. The purpose of blending modes is to alter the way that partially transparent layers interact with layers below them. The normal mode is just that, normal transparency. The other modes aren’t that simple. Not only are they transparent, but they affect the way this transparency is displayed. Lighten for instance compares overlapping colors and chooses the lightest color. It does this for each different color independently, thus in one instance it might use the front color, in another the back. Darken as you might guess does he opposite. Multiply uses the background color and multiplies it times the foreground color. This can do wonders to increase the depth of a flat image if done properly.

Each mode does something a little different. I’d recommend experimentation to see how they work. For my example I took the original picture, duplicated the layer, made a few subtle edits, and set the layer mode to multiply with a 38% opacity. I used a layer mask to keep the altered layer from darkening the shoreline, but let the multiplication effect change the rest. Notice how the color range is richer than the original?

While the change isn’t significant, you can see the potential there.

Now for adjustment layers. Again I’ll use the original image at the top as an example. Lets start with the premise that I wasn’t satisfied with the color range of the photo. I could adjust the color and saturation by working directly with the original image, but why take that risk? Instead, I use one of a number of adjustment layers. This allows me to change the hue and saturation, brightness and contrast, or a number of other attributes without risk to the original image. (Despite this safety margin, always save a copy of the original) The benefit of using adjustment layers is that it is selective. Adjustment layers use a layer mask to control where the adjustments are made. So I can make part of the photo more green and saturated, while using a second adjustment layer to make other parts lighter and less saturated.

That’s not the only benefit though. There is a bonus. Unlike adjustments directly to the primary layer, adjustment layers can be modified again later. Don’t like the hue, change it later. Don’t like the adjustment layer at all, delete it.

Most people think of PhotoShop as a huge and powerful tool, which in some ways it is. The real mastery of it though, isn’t in using it as a graphical sledgehammer. It’s in using it as a feather touch brush. Blending modes and adjustment layers are part of that feather touch. They allow the subtlest of changes, the finest of transitions. Don’t try to do too much at once. You don’t have to do everything with one layer. Add a second, or a third. Add seventeen. Use the tool as it’s meant to be used. Use the feather, not the hammer.