The 8 Special Blending Modes In Photoshop

In this video, I’m going to show you how Photoshop’s 8 special Blending Modes work.

These 8 special Blend Modes behave differently when Fill is adjusted, compared to when Opacity is adjusted.

This means that for these 8 blend modes, 20 % fill, will look different than 20% opacity. For all of the other blend modes, Opacity looks the same as Fill.

The 8 special blending modes also blend differently when you un-check the “Transparency Shapes Layer” checkbox in the Advanced Blending under the Layer Style Window. Using this technique with Linear Dodge (add) will help you create lights and flares.

The blending modes that are members of this special group are Color Burn, Linear Burn, Color Dodge, Linear Dodge (Add), Vivid Light, Linear Light, Hard Mix, and Difference.

If you want to know more about blending modes, and how they all work, then don’t forget to watch my Photoshop tutorial on blending modes. I cover each blending mode and explain how they work.