About Blending Modes - Adobe 29180155 - Photoshop Elements 4.0 Tutorial

About blending modes

Blending modes control how pixels in an image are affected by a painting or editing tool. It's helpful to think in terms of the following colors when
visualizing a blending mode's effect:
The base color is the original color in the image.
The blend color is the color applied by the painting or editing tool.
The result color is the color resulting from the blend.
The Multiply blending mode (top), Screen blending mode (center), and Luminosity blending mode (bottom) applied to the starfish layer.
You can choose any of the following blending modes from the Mode menu in the Tool Options bar:
Normal Edits or paints each pixel to make it the result color. This is the default mode. (Normal mode is called Threshold when you're working with
an image in bitmap or indexed-color mode.)
Dissolve Edits or paints each pixel to make it the result color. However, the result color is a random replacement of the pixels with the base color
or the blend color, depending on the opacity at any pixel location. This mode works best with the brush tool and a large brush.
Behind Edits or paints only on the transparent part of a layer. This mode works only on layers with Lock Transparency deselected, and is
analogous to painting on the back of transparent areas on a sheet of glass.
Clear Edits or paints each pixel and makes it transparent. You must be on a layer with Lock Transparency deselected in the Layers panel to use
this mode.
Darken Looks at the color information in each channel and selects the base or blend color—whichever is darker—as the result color. Pixels
lighter than the blend color are replaced, and pixels darker than the blend color do not change.
Multiply Looks at the color information in each channel and multiplies the base color by the blend color. The result color is always a darker color.
Multiplying any color by black produces black. Multiplying any color by white leaves the color unchanged. When you're painting with a color other
than black or white, successive strokes with a painting tool produce progressively darker colors. The effect is similar to drawing on the image with
multiple felt-tipped pens.
Color Burn Looks at the color information in each channel and darkens the base color to reflect the blend color. Blending with white produces no
change.
Linear Burn Looks at the color information in each channel and darkens the base color to reflect the blend color by decreasing the brightness.
Blending with white produces no change.
Darker Color Compares the total of all channel values for the blend and base color and displays the lower value color. Darker Color does not
produce a third color, which can result from the Darken blend, because it chooses the lowest channel values from both the base and the blend
color to create the result color.
Lighten Looks at the color information in each channel and selects the base or blend color—whichever is lighter—as the result color. Pixels
darker than the blend color are replaced, and pixels lighter than the blend color do not change.
Screen Looks at each channel's color information and multiplies the inverse of the blend and base colors. The result color is always a lighter
color. Screening with black leaves the color unchanged. Screening with white produces white. The effect is similar to projecting multiple
photographic slides on top of each other.
Color Dodge Looks at the color information in each channel and brightens the base color to reflect the blend color. Blending with black produces
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