Blending modes tutorial: need help

Richard

This is a little embarrassing. I volunteered to write tutorials for hue and saturation blending modes because I had never used either one and figured that it would be a good way to learn how they work. OK, so I now understand them technically. But I can't come up with examples of real world use of either one. Seems like they might be useful to graphic designers in certain highly specific situations...:scratch:scratch. If you have used either one--or can think of a problem that either of them could solve--could you please point me in the right direction? PM or just reply to this thread.

Thanks.

edgework

rsinmadrid wrote:

This is a little embarrassing. I volunteered to write tutorials for hue and saturation blending modes because I had never used either one and figured that it would be a good way to learn how they work. OK, so I now understand them technically. But I can't come up with examples of real world use of either one. Seems like they might be useful to graphic designers in certain highly specific situations...scratch. If you have used either one--or can think of a problem that either of them could solve--could you please point me in the right direction? PM or just reply to this thread.

Thanks.

This may not be 100% accurate from a mathematical perspective (as regards the calculations performed on each pixel to determine its ultimate color for each blending operation), but rule of thumb is that the color mode combines both hue and saturation, the other crucial element being luminosity which also has its own blending mode.

I find hue to be more useful than saturation. Sometimes a tone is placed in a layer set to color mode to affect the underlying colors, but it will alter the saturation levels as well. For example, you might want to push skin tone a little to the red side, but you don't want them turning fire-engine red. In that event, setting your layer to hue mode will accomplish the job with a lot more finesse.

I'm not sure what use saturation mode would be good for, though it's interesting to put different colors into a saturation layer and observe how the underlying image is affected. But there's little to be accomplished with either could not as easily (or more easily) be achieved with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

pathfinder

rsinmadrid wrote:

This is a little embarrassing. I volunteered to write tutorials for hue and saturation blending modes because I had never used either one and figured that it would be a good way to learn how they work. OK, so I now understand them technically. But I can't come up with examples of real world use of either one. Seems like they might be useful to graphic designers in certain highly specific situations...scratch. If you have used either one--or can think of a problem that either of them could solve--could you please point me in the right direction? PM or just reply to this thread.

Thanks.

RS,

I have never used Hue or Saturation Blending modes so I will be interested in you presentation.

Just off the top of of my head, I think using Hue in blending modes might be used to change to color of a selected element in an image from red to green or blue when combined with a mask of some sort, perhaps. Like to change a shirt from blue to green.



I don't think blending layers with hue and saturation are used globally, as much as locally, in editing an image. Just my two cents worth.

Richard

edgework wrote:

This may not be 100% accurate from a mathematical perspective (as regards the calculations performed on each pixel to determine its ultimate color for each blending operation), but rule of thumb is that the color mode combines both hue and saturation, the other crucial element being luminosity which also has its own blending mode.

I find hue to be more useful than saturation. Sometimes a tone is placed in a layer set to color mode to affect the underlying colors, but it will alter the saturation levels as well. For example, you might want to push skin tone a little to the red side, but you don't want them turning fire-engine red. In that event, setting your layer to hue mode will accomplish the job with a lot more finesse.

I'm not sure what use saturation mode would be good for, though it's interesting to put different colors into a saturation layer and observe how the underlying image is affected. But there's little to be accomplished with either could not as easily (or more easily) be achieved with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

Right. Hue mode preserves the saturation of the base layer while color mode does not. So if you want to change the color of a flower, for example, you will preserve more of the subtle variations if you use hue mode. Another case is if you want to create a monotone using a fill layer. Color mode will cause the saturation to be uniform, which may not give you as good a result.

As for saturation, the only thing I have been able to discover so far is that you can use it to equalize the saturation of a selected area. If you have several spots that are over-saturated next to other areas that are not, you can select the whole area, sample the properly saturated point, then apply a fill layer in saturation mode to that area. This will lower the saturation of the parts that are over-saturated without desaturating the rest--though it will simultaneously increase the saturation of anything that is less saturated than the sample. I must say, I have never felt the need for this, but then my experience is limited.

Thanks for the response.

Richard

pathfinder wrote:

RS,

I have never used Hue or Saturation Blending modes so I will be interested in you presentation.

Just off the top of of my head, I think using Hue in blending modes might be used to change to color of a selected element in an image from red to green or blue when combined with a mask of some sort, perhaps. Like to change a shirt from blue to green.



I don't think blending layers with hue and saturation are used globally, as much as locally, in editing an image. Just my two cents worth.

Thanks, Pathfinder. Hue mode actually has some advantages over color mode, depending on what you are trying to do. See above note from Edgework and my response. Saturation mode seems less useful to me, though I will do my best to demonstrate how it works. Having worked through the theory, I can now see that I should have been using hue mode rather than color in some manipulations I have done in the past, but I'll be damned if I can find a case where saturation mode would have worked better than the hue/sat adjustment or the sponge tool in saturation mode.

DavidTO

Richard,

You done good.

Richard

DavidTO wrote:

Richard,

You done good.

Thanks, David. Nothing like trying to explain something to force you to learn it.

Regards,

wxwax

rsinmadrid wrote:

Thanks, David. Nothing like trying to explain something to force you to learn it.

Regards,

BTDT