Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual

322 Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual

Blending and

Smudging

Blending and Smudging

In Elements, you can control how the color you add to your image blends with the

colors that are already there. This section takes a look at blending in two different

ways—using the Smudge tool to literally mix elements of your image together, and

using blend modes to determine how the colors you paint change what’s already in

your image. Blend modes are almost limitless in how you can use them to manipu-

late your images.

Blend Modes

Blend modes control how the color you add when you paint reacts with the exist-

ing pixels in your image—whether you just add color (Normal mode), make the

existing color darker (Multiply mode), or change the saturation (Saturation mode).

Many uses for the blend modes are more advanced and beyond the scope of this

book (and would make the book over a thousand pages long). But Figure 12-15

shows a few examples of how simply changing the brush blend mode can radically

change your result.

Figure 12-15:

This photo shows the

effect of some of the

different blend modes

when used with the

Brush tool. The same

color was used for every

one of the vertical

stripes—you can see how

different the result is

from just changing the

mode.

From left to right, the

modes are: Normal,

Color Burn, Color Dodge,

Vivid Light, Difference,

and Saturation.

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Chapter 12: ...