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More Control Over Blends: Advanced Blending

 

Using Blend Modes is a great way to get the layer you’re on to interact with the layers beneath it. The only problem is you don’t have much control over these blend modes-—they either look the way you want them to, or not. They’re pretty much an “on” or “off” tool. If you’re looking for that next level of control over how layers interact with each other, you need the advanced Blending Options. These are found by double-clicking in the empty space just to the right of the layer’s name in the Layers palette. What appears onscreen looks like the Layer Style dialog (and in fact, it is), but if you look closely, you’ll see two bars with sliders at the bottom of the dialgo giving you control over how your layered images interact. Here’s another quick tip: If you hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) before you drag one of the sliders, it will split the slider in two, which gives you smoother transitions and more usable blend effects.

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RGB Flesh Tones: Getting The “Red” Out

If you’re working on an RGB image and you’ve done your basic color correction but the flesh tone in your image still seems too red (a common problem), here’s a tip to fix it fast. First, select the flesh tone areas in your image (using the Lasso tool, etc.). Add a slight feather by going under the Select menu and choosing Feather. Enter a 1-pixel feather for low-res images; 3-5 pixels for high-res images. Go under the Image menu, under Adjustments, and choose Hue/Saturation. From the Edit pop-up menu, choose Reds. Now lower the Saturation slider until your skin tones look more natural and click OK.

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