Using blend modes and opacity
When using a tool in Edit, at the top there is a blend mode and opacity tools. These tools give you creative control and let you combine the two to create a new image. You can apply blend modes and opacity to an entire image or to a selected part of an image.
Opacity
The Opacity slider changes the opacity of the edited image. It gives you control of how much of the edit should be visible on the image.
Blend modes
The ability to control how the edits and the image merge, means that other blend modes besides opacity can be used to affect the final image.
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Normal |
Pixels in the edited image are combined with those in the original. Only opacity affects this blend. |
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Screen |
Combines the edited image color with the inverse of the original photo color, resulting in a color that is the same or lighter. |
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Multiply |
Combines the edited image color with the original photo to produce a darker color. Multiplying any color with black produces black; multiplying any color with white leaves the color unchanged. |
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Dodge |
Combines the edited image color with the original pixels in the photo to produce a lighter color. |
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Burn |
Combines the edited image color with the original pixels in the photo to produce a darker color. |
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Overlay |
Preserves the shadows and highlights of the lower layers while applying either Multiply or Screen blend mode based on the original image area’s color values. |
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Difference |
Subtracts the edited image color from the color of the original photo. Any white in the edited image produces a true negative of the color in the image, while black produces no effect. |
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Darken |
Applies pixels in the edited image that are darker than the original image. Pixels in the edited image that are lighter than the original image disappear (based on RGB values). |
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Lighten |
Applies pixels in the edited image that are lighter than the original image. Pixels in the edited image that are darker than the original image disappear (based on RGB values). |
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Hard Light |
Adds strong highlights or shadows by applying Multiply or Screen based on the original image area’s color values. |
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Soft Light |
Adds soft highlights or shadows by darkening or lightening based on the original image area’s color values. |
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Hue |
Applies the hue value of colors in the edited image to the color of the original image areas. |
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Saturation |
Applies the saturation value of colors in the edited image to the color of the original image areas. |
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Color |
Applies the hue and saturation of the edited image to the image. This blend does not affect the luminance of the original image. |
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Luminosity |
Applies the lightness value of colors in the edited image to the color of the original image areas. |
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Dissolve |
Applies some pixels from the edited image layer onto the original image, resulting in specks of color. The Opacity slider controls the amount of speckling. |
The blend mode and opacity controls apply to many of the editing tools and special effects filters. When it does not make sense to have these controls, they are omitted. The blend mode and opacity controls are not on the following tools: Crop, Resize, Rotate, Flip, Text, Red Eye Reduction, Repair Tool, Selections.
See also:
- About blend modes