Basic Uses of Blending Modes

Blending Modes: Lighten & Contrast

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Mana1057

Hello!

This is Mana1057 and we're gonna talk about some basic to intermediate uses of Blending Modes. From Basic of the basics to Effects even to Correction Layers and Component Blending Modes.

This topic has been divided into five (5) parts; Normal, Darken, Lighten & Contrast, Effects, Component - Blending Modes.

This THIRD part is about Lighten and Contrast Blending Modes and their Basic Uses along with some basic lighting effects that you can do.

You can check out this video right here for the third part:

◊ INTRO

We use Blending Modes because it makes the computation of colors easier and that’s what Blending Modes are, they compute (Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, etc) the values of RGB, Vibrancy, Saturation and Color of the Blending LAYER and the Base Layer or Layer Below

Okay! Please look at this ball right here:

We will be using Blending Modes on these areas/parts right here for the basic Blending Modes.

For the intermediate parts, we'll talk about different uses of the Lighten and Contrast Blending modes in terms of common uses and Light rays, even to applying lights on complicated shadow parts.

Let’s start with the Lighten and Contrast Blending Mode and their uses!

◊ LIGHTEN & CONTRAST Blending Mode

Now let’s talk about the Highlights, the Center of Light, Sub Surface Scattering or basically the Blend Modes that gives a lighter and brighter results.

Lighten Blending Modes, like the name itself, this lightens the resulting image while also giving color, but whatever the color you choose, it will always produce a much vibrant and saturated color.

The ones in the BLUE boxes are our LIGHTEN Blending Modes.

Contrast Blending Modes, the ones in GREEN boxes, is like the Brightness and Contrast Tone Adjustments. They change the contrasts of the resulting image.

Let’s start with the very basic

→ Center of Light

Center of Light is like your Soft Glow; I do this to add an effect that says ‘This isn’t flat’. Like there’s an angle going on around here and the light is shining on this – but in a subtle way.

To make this, Make sure you’re on a New Layer (CTRL + Shift + N); set on Overlay > Get your Air Brush with a light color and paint the areas where the light is hitting > Get your Blending Tool (J) and spread out the colors > I use either Overlay or Soft Light.

These Blending Modes gives a Light effect in a subtle way but also gives color.

Overlay is ideal if you’re adding a Center of Light a vibrant element.

Soft Light is ideal for a very subtle effect and also when you’re trying to Lighten Black color.

→ *Sub Surface Scattering / SSS

Sub Surface Scattering is like an optional Lighting effect that you can do. This is like a harsh version of Center of Light. This is originally a 3D Light Rendering and 2D realism technique I started doing this for 2D Anime because it adds more volume and details.

You can actually achieve this if you use Glow Dodge as your Highlights, but if you want to exaggerate the lights even more or if your scene / shadow is too dark – having a supporting light could help mix up things so that it won’t look to bland.

I’ve said that SSS is a harsh version of Center of Light but they use the same Blending Mode which is Overlay. The only difference is how you apply the light. On Center Of Light, you apply and blend; like you’re making a gradient. But on SSS, you focus on an end or tip of an area and apply the color as much as possible.

To make an SSS is the same way as Center of Light, Make a New Layer; Set on Overlay > Get an Air Brush (Hard or Soft is okay) > Get a light color of your choice; Lower the Opacity to at least 40% > and just brush along the areas that you want to > Use a Blending Tool (J) just to soften the edges.

Again, this is just optional. Not really necessary but a good effect if you want to exaggerate the light source of your drawing.

→ Highlights

A common usage of the Lighten and Contrast Blending Modes are doing Highlights. These are those hard edges (sometimes we even make them soft edges) bright ‘highlights’ on our drawings.

Highlights are literally just bright strokes of hard lights and so any Lighten Blend Modes and some Contrast Blend Modes works just fine, it will just depend on what kind effect you’re looking for.

● NORMAL; just for reference, our highlight color for the example is GOLD.

Now let's go to the possible LIGHTEN Blending Modes that works for me are:

*if the image is too small; Right Click > Open in New Tab

● Screen; gives an almost white result.

● Color Dodge; gives a bright effect using the color that you choose

● Glow Dodge; is like Color Dodge but it gives more color and a good amount of contrast

● Add; gives an almost whiter color and less brighter effect

● Add Glow; stronger version of ADD, so a much less color and more brighter effect

The possible CONTRAST Blending Modes that works for me:

● Overlay and Soft Light; gives a very subtle effect.

● Hard Light; gives a very very solid color of just pure brightness.

● Vivid Light; gives a bright effect, this will blend and contrast if your layer below has luminosity

● Linear Light; works like Vivid Light but this doesn’t blend and contrast if your layer below has luminosity.

Some Blending Modes might not work such as;

● Lighten; will only keep the color of whatever is the lightest. Technically will work like NORMAL.

● Pin Light; is an extreme Brightening blending mode that removes the mid-tones of the result.

● Hard Mix; will only produce White, Black, RGB, and CMY. This could get messy because you can get patches of colors depending on the colors of the Layer Below.

● Lighter Color; technically Lighten but stronger.

Still it will depends, you might find a use for them! Please try out the other Blending Modes and you might find a use for them!

Making Highlights is pretty easy, just grab a round brush; Air Brush or even a Pen Brush – G Pen works as well > and just pick a color you want, my go to’s are usually WHITE, GOLD and PEACH colors > and just use whatever Lighten or Contrast Blending Mode that works for you.

My suggestion for Highlights are Glow Dodge, Add and Add Glow, and Overlay.

o Glow Dodge is perfect if you want to maintain the color of choice while still giving a bright color and contrast.

o Add and Add Glow is like a subtle effect of Glow Dodge, less color more brightness.

o Overlay is good when I’m doing ‘matte’ finish.

→ *Outline Glow

This is also Optional; this is actually part of the topic on the Shadows; Core Shadows. Outline glow is basically Center of Light. On this topic, I’ll discuss how to place complicated shape of Center of Light.

To make this is pretty easy, I’ve made a sample on the Core Shadow part but what if we have a complicated shadow, like leaves.

I will be using this image for the example; it already has a Core Shadow, and I will add lights to it:

First, choose your Cast Shadow Layer with the leaves > Right Click > Selection from Layer > Create Selection

Now that it’s selected > Make a New layer; Set on Glow Dodge > Make sure your Foreground is a light color > Go to EDIT > Outline Selection

My preferred options are :

Draw on Border (basically Draws on CENTER)
Line width 4 (because this is a small illustration)
Disable Draw on canvas Edge (because I don’t want the edges of the canvas to be outlined)

Click OK when done > Deselect Selection (CTRL + D) > Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > Blurred around 30-50% > Lower the Opacity if too bright

And there we go; we started quite dark, now we have lights

→ Light Rays

Light rays are like streaks of light coming from a certain light source; sometimes from a light bulb, most of the time it’s the sun, and so on.

To make this is pretty simple Make a New Layer (CTRL + Shift + N); set it on Glow Dodge > Get an Air Brush; get a color of choice depending on what kind of light source you have > and just stroke From the light source – going down

*I’m choosing Glow Dodge because I love the Brightness + Contrast effect it has, but feel free to use whatever LIGHTEN Blending Mode you want.

To make it look more ‘natural’, Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur

• Adjust the Angle depending on your light source

• For the Blur Effect/Strength - something around 20-40% works best for me.

See, simple right? We started with no light rays, and now we have some~

→ RGB Rays

This works also with the “RGB” light rays that I’ve been seeing on some artists on Instagram.

The “RGB” light rays are good for interior settings with outdoor lighting, jewelry, and other shiny things that are getting refracted by light.

Examples are here:

To make these, make sure you’re on a New Layer (CTRL + Shift + N); set on NORMAL for now > Get an Air Brush; set the color to RED, make sure your Opacity is 100% > Make some small strokes > Now Lock those Alpha Channel.

Once that it’s locked, get the other RGB colors; Green, and Blue > You will basically ‘repaint’ the rays that you did; get your Air Brush and paint the top of the Rays RED, middle is GREEN, and the top tip is BLUE > Once done, Unlock the Alpha Channel

Then Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur

Change the settings according to what suits you best.

And just change the Blending Layer to Glow Dodge

→ Applying Stock Image with Dark background

This isn't part of the video but this is just a quick topic about applying a stock image with dark background, we'll be using a Lens Flare that I made in Photoshop.

I used the 50-300mm Zoom.

First prepare your drawing > Copy the Lens Flare / Stock Image to the drawing

Position it however you want > then just change the Blending Mode to whatever LIGHTEN Blending Mode that you want; I'll be using Screen on the example

*if the image is too small; Right Click > Open in New Tab

Every LIGHTEN Blending Mode will work here because the purpose of LIGHTEN Blending Modes are to lighten so naturally, they will ignore Black and they will make Black colors transparent.

You can position the stock image wherever you want, you can even use Gaussian Blur on them if the flares are too sharp, use Hue and Saturation if you don't like the color.

I changed the position of the Lens Flare and placed it above, on the top of the Light Rays.

And that's it. The visibility of any image once turned into any LIGHTEN Blending will depend on how originally vibrant and saturated it was.

Just remember that 100% BLACK will be invisible or transparent once turned into any LIGHTEN Blending Mode