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The Geeky Stuff: Advanced Blending Options

Lesson 19 from: Photoshop Mastery: Ultimate Mastery

Ben Willmore

The Geeky Stuff: Advanced Blending Options

Lesson 19 from: Photoshop Mastery: Ultimate Mastery

Ben Willmore

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Lesson Info

19. The Geeky Stuff: Advanced Blending Options

Lesson Info

The Geeky Stuff: Advanced Blending Options

In this image, I have three layers if you look at these layers one on the time we have a texture at the bottom we have a part of a texture on the edge it's set to multiply mode, which acts like ink so it's kind of printing the texture on top of itself just on the edge and then I have a layer that contains just the star. Now, in this start, I've added some layer stiles also notice layer of facts and what those are our stroke around the edge integrated let's first turn off those effects so we just have the star and the other layers, and what I'm going to do to the star is tell the star to print on top of what's underneath it so that I can see the texture through this and one way of doing that is with the top layer active, come up here and set it to multiply mode multiply mode acts like ink, so it means print this layer which contains this red shape on top of what's under it. And so if I were to print this on an ink jet printer where I print that texture first on the sheet of paper, send ...

it through an inkjet printer a second time, and on the second pass I print the star it would look like this now anything I put in that layer should print like ink on what's underneath and when you're pretty like ink there's one thing you can't do and that's brighton what's underneath because ink will always dark in this sheet of paper you're printing on but here's where things get weird if I add layer styles to this particular layer the layer styles don't act is if they're on a layer set to multiply mode look at the end result here I added a stroke on the edge which is perfectly fine and I added mainly this grady in't overlay the grady in overlay is acting kind of oddly because this layer as a whole is set to multiply mode but this area here where it's putting my grady in't overlay on top of it is not acting as if it's and multiply mode because if you're to print this as if you're putting it on an ink jet printer how much ink would you use where there's white you just know ink it all it would should be able to be see through there so this is a odd behavior that happens whenever you apply certain layer effects to a layer that has a bloody mode attached so let's look at how we can get around it I'm going to go to the bottom my layers panel click in the letters affects and I'm going to choose blending options that brings up this dialog box we've covered a lot of the stuff that's in here already let's just look at what we covered and I'll show you what we haven't and that's what we're gonna tackle right now. So up here the top we have blending mode that's just a reflection of the bloody mode that you find at the top here layers panel there's no difference you have the opacity in the fille opacity, those air just copies of the same settings that were found at the top here layers panel changing it here would simply change it at the top. Here layers pale below that we have some check boxes which tells this layer which channels that make up my image is it able to effect? We use those when we're in seeing why came out and I wanted a black only shadow remember I turned off all the others and said only affect black below that we haven't setting called mac out and we use that the other day I think it was yesterday where we could have this layer knock a hole in all the layers are underneath it, and if I said it too shallow it would on lee knock a hole through the layers that air inside of a group group looks like a folder and if I said it to deep it would knock all the way through to till it hits the background layer so we talked about all that kind of stuff skip over some check boxes here and down at the bottom with the blend, if sliders, we use those a little bit when we talked about lab mode, but we mainly used these on other days, like when I talked about compositing images on a different installment of photoshopped mass stry. So the stuff we haven't talked about in here are all these check bosses that's, what I want to get into right now. So here we have a check box called blend interior effects as group. I'm gonna turn that check box on and notice how my image changes. What that does is when it's turned off any what they call interior effects, meaning things like pattern, overlay, color over leg. Grady in't overlay, impossibly things like inner shadow, things that happen to the interior of your shape are going to be applied, but they're ignored the blending mode that this layer as a whole is in. So if it's in multiply mode, any styles applied to it that affect the interior, we're going to ignore the fact that it's a multiply mode, but if you turn on that check box, then it applies all those effects first, and then takes the result of that it looks at what bloody mode that particular layer is in, so, in general, if you ever have a layer that has a bloody motor pat attached and you start adding later styles and they ever just seemed to act weird they don't quite act the way you expect them to try train on that check box and see if it uh brings them to your expectation where they're useful there but there's other stuff in there so let's see what those other choices do let's say I have this layer and I decide I want a limit how much of it shows up? I end up grabbing a selection I select half of the star and I had a layer mask. A layer mask is usually going to only keep the area that has selected, visible and it's gonna hide everything that's not selected so I'm gonna click the layer mask I count at the bottom of my layers panel and half the star should go away when I do that. But watch what happens to the layer style house now you see the layer style called stroke that sat in the black line around the edge and you see how it changed where it showed up so that instead of thinking that there's a star on this layer it thinks that there's only half a star it changes where that layer styles affected the same thing would happen if I come in here and use something like evelyn boss let's say I come in and tell it to come in here, bring up the size a little bit, bring up the depth, click okay? It thinks that it's no longer a star instead is only half well. Sometimes I want the layer effects to be applied and be done with that and then have it mask it so the mask doesn't change where the effects show up. Instead, it just takes the end result of applying those styles and hides it as a whole. So to do that I go to the letters fx, I go up here to blending options and there's a choice in here called laywer mask hides the facts. If you turn that on the position of your layer, styles will be determined by the contents of that layer, ignoring the layer mask, and then afterwards the layer mask will hide whatever the end result looks like let's see what it looks like? Why turn on there so now? Those layer styles extend all the way around to the original shape of what's in that layer, and only after those layer styles have been finalized doesn't think about the mask to say, hide some of this because oftentimes I have something like a drop shadow or something, and I start masking away in the drop shadow changes where it showing up on it just causes some issues when I have a mask and so often times they need to come in there go to blending options in its layer mask hides effects now you could also do the same thing using a vector mask of vector mask is when you use something like the shape tool or the pen tool to limit where layer shows up and if you're familiar with using a vector mask, you would simply turn on this check box instead to have the same behavior, then there's something else I could do, which I think is rather odd and I rarely need to do but it's just good to know what the option does in case it ever is appropriate for what you're doing and that is if I go back into the same dialogue box there's a somewhat odd option and it's called transparency shapes layer transparency shapes later and I'm like yeah okay if that's turned on, then the layer styles that you apply to your picture it just looks it hey, where does this layer stop? Where does it start looking like a checkerboard in my layers panel and it thanks that that transition from solid to transparent is where the edge of the layer is and that's where the layer style should therefore go but I can have it completely ignore where this is instead look at a mask and put the layer style around the edge of the mask that's here and I do that by turning off transparency, shapes layer and I might not have it set up right thiss worked when I was doing it before I got that going well, I might not have it set up right here, but I've had it before where the layer style would then conform to the shape of the mask itself. Not sure what's not doing it now, but it's an option that I don't use very often whatsoever but transparency shaped layer is what you'd have to turn off then it means ignore where the edge of the transparency is and instead look at the mask uh other things that are in there let's, get rid of this mask, delete there's one other option in order to see that other options I'm gonna have to put something on a layer above I'm just going to create a layer above maybe put some paint on it get some stripes in here anything that goes across if I want to limit where this shows up, I can hold down the option key alton windows and click on the horizontal line that divides this layer from what's underneath. It was just a horizontal line sitting there right here in if I option click on it that's going to make it so the lines that I put on the fur that layer only show up where the uh the shape is if I come in here to blending options, there is a choice related to that. And it is called blend clipped layers as group in that. If you ever notice layer styles applying in odd ways, when you have things clipped, that's, the option you want to go to. I don't have a great example image for those two, but just know that if you ever have two things clip together like that, and things that ever act a little bit odd, you're going to have to look for that option.

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Ratings and Reviews

RDM Photography
 

I have always enjoyed watching any of Mr Willmore's courses, engaging and entertaining with a gentle professionalism, with a good pace of delivery for the target audience. What I so enjoy is that the underlying theory is 'correct' with obvious care and understanding of the terms used and this speaks volumes as to the instructor's commitment. I have always learnt something from these courses and this was no exception.

Jose A De Leon
 

This is by far the best investment I've made. Ben is a qreat teacher. I watch repeatedly the videos over and over until the concepts become second nature. Since I bought the complete bundle, I can go back when ever I want and watch again. My Photoshop skills have improved exponentially. I'm extremely happy I made this purchase.

Lemmi Kann
 

I just started to get familiar with Photoshop and know the basic. After watching just first three lessons I am totaly blown away - I can see how much far I can go with editing my photos, what possibilities I have. I edited some of my photos and they look way better now! Ben Willmore is excellent lector and I encourage the beginners to buy this class too. It's easy to understand and follow if you already know what is layer and mask.

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