Lesson 3: Overlay, Soft Light, and Hard Light

Editing photos using different blending options is one of the great secrets to natural and realistic-looking composites and imagery. In ON1 Photo RAW, these options include blending modes, tone-protection sliders, and more. Throughout the All About Blending Course, you’ll learn to utilize blending options and blend modes to modify and mix layers, textures, filters, and...

Blending options are excellent modifiers for adjusting how layers, filters, and textures blend on top of one another in ON1 Photo RAW 2021. In this lesson, let’s dive into the world of blending options and modes to bring a landscape image to life.

Multiply is in the darken category of blend modes. Multiply is great for darkening images or removing white backgrounds on textures, layers, and borders. Let’s dive into the Multiply blend mode and learn how to use it in our photo editing.

Screen is in the lighten group of blend modes. As part of the lighten blend modes, Screen will produce a lighter image. It’s great for increasing exposure in specific areas or lightening dark tones. You can also use it to blend two images together into a double exposure.

Hue is part of the composite group of blend modes. The composite group of blend modes deal with protecting and modifying tone and color. With hue, we’ll modify the color of an image while protecting the saturation and luminance.

Luminosity is in the composite group of blend modes and modifies tone and luminance while protecting color. It’s an excellent choice for when you need to adjust contrast and exposure without modifying the color.

In this bonus lesson, let’s use the Difference blend mode to compare and color grade layers in our photo editing workflow.