Perfect Blend

page two
This page is going to take forever to load because I’ve put so many pictures on it, but I don’t have enough text to require another page.
     The first series of picture below show a group of pale blue daisies. As with the first example, you need to start with four duplicate layers, and set each layer’s Blend If options using the same values as previously given from bottom to topmost layer.
     Those settings for the This Layer slider would be 30/40 and 60/70 for the bottom copied layer. For the second from the bottom, use 60/70 and 90/100. For the second from the top, use 90/100 and 120/130. The top layer should be set to 120/130 and 140/150 (or if you want to use my mistaken settings, 130/140 and 160/170). Don’t forget to set the layer opacity for all four layers to 50 %.
     The Levels adjustment settings that I used for the blue daisies were (center Input Value), 0.28 (top layer), 2.15 (second from top), 0.44 (third from top), and 0.75 (bottom copied layer).
     Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with a Radius of 2.5 to each of the four layers. If you are working with a higher resolution picture than my 72 ppi Web image, use a blur Radius of 5 pixels (or more).
     Blend modes for the layers from top to bottom were Multiply, Exclusion, Vivid Light and Overlay. As with the first example, there are no right or wrong settings. Use what you like.
     For the next picture—of a meadow in autumn—prepare your four duplicate layers the same as with the first two examples (same Blend If/This Layer settings and don’t forget to use 50 % opacity). I used center Input Levels settings of 1.23 (top layer), 0.47 (second from top), 0.34 (third from top), and 0.62 (bottom copied layer).
     Blend modes, top to bottom, were Hard Light, Linear Dodge, Linear Light, and Soft Light. It’s much trickier doing a busy picture like this. It’s easier to see and judge what you’re getting with pictures that have large blocks of similar coloring.

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Perfect Blend pdf
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Meadow in Fall picture after Levels, blurring and blending.

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Copyright © 2004 by Jay Arraich.
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All photographs copyright © 2004 by Jay Arraich
jay@arraich.com