Mastering Blend Modes with Nigel French

Near the top of the Layers panel in Photoshop there is a dropdown menu. Normal, Dissolve, Darken, Multiply, Colour Burn, and on it goes for another twenty or so. Most of us have clicked through that list, watched the picture change in ways we did not expect, and quietly gone back to Normal.

Others among us have settled on two or three that usually work. Multiply to darken, Screen to lighten, Soft Light when something needs a bit more punch. We reach for them out of habit, and when they do something odd we shrug and reduce the opacity until it looks acceptable.

Nigel French is going to walk us through the whole thing properly.

This is a new session, written for us, and it works from first principles right through to the corners most people never reach. The idea running through it is that you do not have to memorise the list. Once you understand how Photoshop is actually combining the pixels on one layer with the pixels underneath, you can look at that menu and make a sensible choice first time, every time, and know why it worked.

It is practical and demonstration-led throughout. Nigel works through real images rather than diagrams.

What we will cover

The foundations

• What blend modes actually do. How Photoshop combines pixels between layers and a simple mental model for choosing the right mode without a long list to remember.

• The ones worth knowing. Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light and Colour and how each behaves in real situations.

Putting them to work

• Adding texture. Bringing another surface into an image so it sits there convincingly.

• Light and glow. Building light into a photograph rather than lifting the whole thing.

• Contrast and colour. Two of the most common jobs, done in a way you can repeat.

• Better composites. Getting elements to belong to each other.

How it fits with everything else

• Opacity and Fill. Two sliders that look like they do the same job, and the blend modes that treat them differently.

• Masks, adjustment layers and selections. Where the real control is and where most of the guesswork disappears.

• A look at Blend If. Tucked away in the Layer Style dialog and skipped by almost everyone. It lets you decide which tones a layer affects.

Who this is for

Both ends of the experience spectrum!

• If you are new to blend modes, this is the session that explains them from the beginning. You will not need to have used any of them before and nothing here assumes you know the jargon.

• If you already use them, this is the walkthrough that fills in the gaps. Most of us learned blend modes by picking up a technique here and a technique there, which is why the results are sometimes excellent and sometimes baffling. Nigel replaces that with an understanding of the mechanism, so you can predict what a mode will do before you click it, work faster, and stop reaching for the opacity slider to rescue things.

What you will need

Photoshop or similar editing app which uses blend modes., if you want to try things afterwards. Nigel is demonstrating throughout, so you are very welcome to sit and watch on the night and have a go later with the recording.

About Nigel

Nigel French is a graphic designer, photographer and design teacher based in Lewes, in East Sussex. He has recorded more than fifty courses for LinkedIn Learning, and he speaks regularly at Adobe MAX, CreativePro and the Photoshop Virtual Summit.

He has also written a shelf of books on the subject, including InDesign Type, The Type Project Book and the Photoshop Visual QuickStart Guide.

In his own words, he has been working as a graphic designer and taking photographs since the last century.

See more of his work: nigelfrench.com · Instagram @nigelfrenchphoto

From Mark

Nigel has been presenting for us since 2023 and he is one of the people I always enjoy having on Camversation. He has taught us masking, mono conversions, Smart Objects, type effects and how to get Lightroom and Photoshop working together properly. It has been too long since the last one! We caught up at the Photoshow this year and had to organise some new dates.

What I like about the way Nigel teaches is that he never asks you to take anything on trust. He shows you what is happening underneath, and then the technique makes sense on its own. I will admit I am in the second group above. I use a handful of blend modes regularly and I could not properly explain to you why any of them work. Nigel has a way of taking something you already do and showing you the mechanism behind it, and I always come away quicker at it.

Also coming from Nigel

He is back on Wednesday 9 December with Design History in Plain Sight, on photographing ghost type and vernacular lettering. Details nearer the time.

Tickets

Three options. Each one adds a single thing to the one before it, and every one of them gets you the same evening.

£6, the session and the recording.

Join us live on Monday night and ask questions as Nigel works. The recording will be on the website within 24 hours, and you have it for four weeks.

£12, and Nigel's guide to keep.

Everything above, plus the written guide to the blend modes he covers. Unlike the recording, it does not expire. It is yours.

£18, and a full year to watch.

Everything above, with a year of access to the recording instead of four weeks.

Blend modes are one of the few subjects where something you can keep really earns its place. Nobody remembers what Colour Burn actually does to a layer six months later. You look it up. That is the thinking behind both of the upper options: the guide to read, and a year to go back to the demonstrations rather than a month.

Choose on how much of it you want to keep afterwards.