- In today's video, I'm gonna show you
how to use the Blend If
sliders in Photoshop.
When combining the power
of Blend If sliders
in blending mode,
there's no better way
to blend layers to get.
Hey, everybody.
This is Charles Cabrera
helping you get started with Photoshop,
Lightroom in Photography.
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Let's get started.
So, to get to the Blend If options
there's two different ways.
You can come up here
to Layer, Layer Style,
and Blending Options,
and bring up the other
options for Blend If
or we can double-click on
the layer just like this.
We're gonna be dealing with just
these Blend If sliders down here.
Right here where it says Blend If
we're going to be dealing
with luminosity only
so we will be using the gray.
So these sliders here represent
the luminosity spectrum of the layer
and this layer right here
we're gonna be talking about first.
It's actually called, this
layer is the luminosity spectrum
of the selected layer which
is this top one right here.
So let's see what this does.
So when I move the slider
on the left for this layer,
you could see that it is already moving,
it removes the darkest part of the image.
And if I come to this right side and move
it's going to remove the
lightest part of the image.
So, lightest part is usually highlights
or lightest part of the image
and this slider over
here, the darkest part
is usually the shadows.
What you can also do is hold
the alt or the option key
and split the slider,
and it makes kind of a graduated
or feathered edge right there
so you get a smooth transition.
You can also do this
on the right-hand side.
You can see the feathering there.
Sliders control visibility
so this is just an example of
using these layer sliders
and what that can do for you.
Now for the most part
when you use Blend If,
you're going to be using
the underlying layer.
So when we work with the underlying layer
it's going to affect all the layers below.
Okay, in this example
I wanna add some colors
to the lighter parts of the sky.
So, we're gonna do that with Blend If
but first I'm going to create a new layer
and on this layer I need to paint a color.
Let's choose something that's
getting into the orange here.
Okay and with the brush,
oh, I'm gonna put my
flow around 20 and paint
just in these areas.
Okay and now I'm going to change
the blend mode to soft light,
double-click on my layer style here
and in this case I'm working
with the underlying layer
and so, I had the layer
two here above selected.
So, the underlying layer is affected
by the layer above.
So, underlying layer being layer one
so I'm gonna move the slider on the left.
And so, when I do that it's
gonna protect the shadows
and allow the effect from the layer above
to only affect the highlights.
So, I'm going to move the slider over,
move this out of the way
and we can see that it's only gonna be
in my highlights that
I am making a change.
See, okay, go back and
check my blend modes.
I think soft light or overlay,
I might like overlay.
Like all that color and I
think I'll create another layer
and I'm going to paint with another color.
Get in here, the light areas.
Just paint all over the place.
Double-click to bring
up my Blend If sliders
and again, I just want to affect
the lighter areas in the image.
Gonna split this and it's
just affecting my highlights
and I'm gonna change my blend mode.
Overlay or soft light and it's soft light.
So now maybe I wanna make the shadows
another color or a little bit darker maybe
so I'm gonna create a new layer.
And let's choose this color here
and I'm going to paint on the
darker areas just in here,
and double-click to bring
up my Blend If options.
So this time I wanna protect the shadows
and have this affect that
I just colored or painted
only apply to the shadows.
So again I'm just going
to split alt, option.
Split my slider and just
bring it to something I like.
Say OK.
So that time I moved
the slider on the right
and it protected the highlights,
and it allowed the effect
from the layer above
to only affect the shadows or
the darker parts of the image.
I'm gonna group these three layers,
there's before and there's the after
and I can change the
opacity on this whole group
if I wanna change, make it
a little bit less intense.
You never know what colors
are gonna be in the sky
but let's move on to so more examples.
In this next example I wanna show you
how you can use Blend If to
sharpen in certain areas.
Like in this case I just
wanna sharpen the rocks
and the rocks are darker
than everywhere else
so I'm actually going to be
sharpening in the shadows.
So I'm gonna make a copy
of this layer, Command + J,
and I am going to sharpen this layer
with the Other, High Pass.
And I'm going to keep radius spot 1.3,
I want a lot of sharpening
and I'm going to come
down here to linear light,
change my blend mode.
And I'm gonna zoom in here so you see
those rocks have a lot of sharpening.
But then again, so does everything else,
it sharpened the whole image.
It sharpened the water.
Sharpened the sky, maybe
introduced some noise in the sky.
And so, we're gonna get rid of that.
I'm gonna double-click.
Now remember we have a layer here
that we did a sharpening,
and our slider here on the right-hand side
is going to protect our lighter areas.
So, all the sharpening that comes down
is not going to be affected
in the lighter areas
and it's gonna stay in the shadows.
I'm gonna start by splitting my slider
and bringing this over.
And so now, let's check this out.
If I click on and off,
I am just affecting my
shadows or the rocks
and I do not see sharpening
in the water or anywhere else.
You need the lighter areas.
So, that is how we basically
sharpened selectively
in the shadows.
Again, we brought over just the sliders
and protected the lighter areas,
and just this area right here
and the underlying layer is
where the sharpening is visible.
I'm going to add more
highlights and shadows
so let's create a new layer
and let's start with the highlights.
I'm gonna paint with white
in the highlight areas here.
And I'm not being particularly careful
because Blend If is gonna take
care of everything for us.
And bring up the Blend If,
double-click on the layer
and we are going to come over here to the
and protect the shadows.
So, I'm gonna take this
slider over to the right
and I'm going to split the
slider with the alt or option
and adjust this 'til I
see that I am liking it.
And I'm gonna change the
blend mode to soft light.
And say OK.
Now, that's too much, I
can just use my opacity
and there we've increased the highlights.
So let's go for the shadows now.
I'm gonna create a new layer.
I'm going to change my
brush so I paint with black
and on that layer I'm going to paint
black where there are shadows.
And again, you don't
have to be super careful
because you've got Blend If
that's gonna help you just make this
black show up in the shadows.
Double-click on the layer
to bring up the layer style.
And here we go, let's
go from the right side
and we're gonna protect
the highlights this time.
And I'm going to press alt or option
and split the slider,
and bring this over.
I'm gonna change the
blend mode to soft light.
Bring the slider over some more.
And say OK and you could
see that I've changed
some of those highlights
and the shadows, so
there's the highlights.
Here's the shadow.
If I need to change anything
I might make that a
little bit darker there.
Say OK.
Again, if I think that's too much
I can change my opacity on my shadow layer
but there we go and I'm gonna
group these two together,
and here is the before, here's the after.
A great use of Blend If
for dodge and burning.
Okay, so now let's have a little fun
with this Blend If stuff.
Let's add some clouds to the sky here.
I'm gonna make a new layer here
or copy of the background layer.
Command + J, I'm gonna turn
this background layer off.
We're going to remove the
blue out of the highlights.
We've been using the
underlying layer sliders
but this one we're going to use this layer
which is the current
layer that is highlighted.
So we're going to use the blue channel
and we're going to move the slider,
and slowly but surely
as we remove the blue from the highlights,
the sky is gone.
And as you can see there's
other areas here that
were selected and some of the
highlights came out of there
but we're gonna take care of that later.
Gonna say OK.
Now let's bring in a sky.
I've got that right here.
You can bring that in, there is our sky.
Now we're gonna do is we're going to
remove all the areas where
we see the sky coming in
through the background layer.
Gonna make a copy of the background layer
and I'm gonna put that above the sky layer
and put a layer mask.
Alt, option and click my layer mask.
And now I'm gonna paint with white
on that layer mask on the mountains.
And so just like that,
we used the Blend If to bring in a sky
where we have complete blue sky
and now we have clouds.
So now question of the day,
did you already know
about the Blend If sliders
and if so, what's your
favorite use of Blend If?
Let me know in the comments below.
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