Combining Blends

Many blend modes can be used by themselves as simple effects or tools, but they can also be combined in several ways, or used temporarily as a foundation for another effect.

A common approach is to stack layers with different blend modes. An example of this is the Orton, or soft-glow effect.

This effect uses three layers (bottom to top): Normal, Screen, and Lighten or Overlay (2.4). The two blended layers are given a special treatment in addition to the mode change. The first layer is duplicated then blurred to the point where almost all detail is lost, and only major areas of color remain. This layer is duplicated, and desaturated for the top layer. Because the first layer retains color, the Screen blend gives some overlapping color and softness. The Overlay layer acts as a Dodge and Burn layer, selectively brightening or darkening the same color areas. Opacity is lowered to give more control over the effect (2.5).