Blend Modes & Opacity

Topics covered in this Photoshop tutorial:

Blend Modes, Opacity, Placing & Editing Smart Objects

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, you’ll blend a photo into a background using blend modes and opacity, as well as learn more about using and editing smart objects.

Importing a Fog Photo

1. Go to File > Open.

2. Navigate into the Photoshop Class folder and:

   • If you completed the previous exercise open the file you made:
     yourname-Man on trees.psd
   • If you did not complete the previous exercise, open a file we’re prepared for you: 2B Man on trees.psd
3. Choose View > Fit on Screen.
4. Go to File > Place Embedded.
5. From the Photoshop Class folder, double–click on the file 2B Fog.jpg.
6. Now you’ll see the photo with some resize handles. Double-click on image to accept the current size.

7. In the Layers panel:

   • Notice that the content you just placed has been automatically placed onto a new layer named 2B Fog (the name of the file you placed).
   • Double–click directly on the name 2B Fog and rename it fog.
   • Hit Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) to apply.

8. Near the top left of the Layers panel, click on the menu that says Normal and:

   Hover over the first 3 blend modes in the Lighten section (do not click on them, just hover and watch the preview in the image):

   • Lighten
   • Screen
   • Color Dodge

   Each of these will blend the fog into the underlying layers in a slightly different way, but they all do it by only lightening the underlying layers. That’s why the black disappears (black would only dark, so it becomes invisible).

9. We like Lighten best, so choose that.

10. The fog is too obvious, so let’s make it more subtle by making it more transparent (see-through). At the top of the Layers panel set Opacity to 40%.

    TIP: With a layer selected, you can hit the number 4 key to set it to 40% (any number will set the corresponding opacity, so 6 = 60% and 0 = 100%).

Editing the “Fog”

Our “fog” is really an image of outer space, which looks like fog. Unfortunately there’s a planet visible at the bottom of the man’s back! Let’s remove that.

1. In the Layers panel, double-click on the fog layer’s thumbnail (the icon to the left of the layer name) to edit the smart object.

2. You should now be viewing the original fog image.

   In the Layers panel, the Background layer is already selected. To duplicate the layer press Cmd–J (Mac) or Ctrl–J (Windows).

3. In the Tools panel choose the Spot Healing Brush tool . You may have to click and hold on the Healing Brush tool to choose it.
4. Hover your cursor over the planet in the middle bottom of the photo.
5. Use the [ or ] keys until the brush is slightly larger than the planet.
6. Click once and the planet should be removed!

7. We must save our work before returning to our original file, so go into the File menu and choose Save.

   • You’ll get a warning that you can’t save. Why? This fog image was a JPEG that we placed into our other file, so Photoshop kept it in that file format. JPEG files do NOT support multiple layers, therefore we’re going to have to flatten our layers into a single layer to be able to save.
   • Click OK.
8. Go to Layer > Flatten Image.

9. Do File > Save.

   In the JPEG Options that appear, drag the Quality slider all the way to the right (large file) and click OK.

10. Do a File > Close.

    You should now be back in the original image and see the planet has been removed.

11. We’re done with this final composite image, so you can save and close it (it’s already a Photoshop file so it will maintain the layers).