Blend modes in photoshop are a wonderful thing that can do so much for a photo. The best thing is that you can use them as a quick fix for editing the density of a photo or for adding extra depth.

I thought I’d do a quick run through of a few different techniques using just the blend modes, layers and maybe season with a filter. All these techniques take moments to do but are very rewarding.

Using the blend modes to adjust density

Making a photo lighter

Step 1

Duplicate the background layer

Step 2

Change the layer blend mode to screen

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Of course you need to remember, each photo needs to be adjusted case by case. Some photos you can leave the opacity of the screen layer at 100%, some photos need the screen layer opacity reduced. But never the less this is a very quick and effective editing technique.

Making a photo darker

Step 1

Duplicate the background layer

Step 2

Change the layer blend mode to multiply.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

As you can see this photo would still need further work to correct the yellow colour cast, but that’s a tutorial for another day

Of course you need to remember, each photo needs to be adjusted case by case. Some photos you can leave the opacity of the multiply layer at 100%, some photos need the mulitply layer opacity reduced. But again, this is a very quick and effective editing technique.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of editing with blend modes - creating different effects just using blend modes, gaussian blur and the blend if sliders.

The new look Brendan B Photography website has been rolled out!!

Not much has changed for those of you have visited the site previously, except it has become more polished and sleek. It still features the same easy to navigate menu and gallery, and the mailto link has been upgraded to a contact form, which of course thanks the user for taking the time to send an email.

The new Peninsula Hapkido website has been rolled out!!

There isn’t much content yet, just a home page and a contact page, but its slowly filling up with more content soon :)The form has also been updated to thank the person that submitted it, which is quickly becoming an AllyKatDesign trademark for  contact forms.

Its good to see the new layout up and running finally!

Stay tuned for more updates.

I just recently ordered some new business cards and thought that I would go for something a little different.

I went to www.moo.com and ordered their mini cards.

I uploaded the above 7 different designs and put my details on the back of the card. Also couldn’t resist the little moo business card holder so I added that to my cart too.

Expecting to wait up to two weeks for the cards that were coming from the UK I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived in just over a week! I am extremely impressed with the quality of this company’s customer service! Its just the little things that make them fantastic, like little stickers on the packaging that say Yay! and Oooh Hello, we hope you like your new moo mini card holder. It does all feel very personalised.

It might also be the fact that I have had problems ordering from os companies (that shall remain nameless!) and have been disappointed with their printing quality, customer service and how long it takes for delivery.

I have already recommended moo to clients and I definitely have no qualms recommending it again!

Yay! I love moo!

I have finally upgraded to Photoshop CS3 after hearing so many good things and having another photographer friend telling me over and over again that it is sooo much better than CS2 which is what I have been using.

And it is so much better! With CS3 I found that I really didn’t have to think too much when it came to editing my photos as it pretty much did all the calculations for me. For example, when applying the channel mixer adjustment layer, photoshop already had done the calculations for me! Granted I must admit that the default was a little on the flat side, but all it took was a small tweak and it was all good!

What really amazed me, was how much better camera raw has become! As you can see in the example, I took a pretty average shot at the following settings:

Shutter speed: 1 sec

F-Stop: 5.6

ISO:200

Focal Length: 4.5

White balance: Auto

I opened the image in camera raw and began to play with it. As in the previous version, I was able to tweak the temperature, tint, exposure, brightness and contrast, but now I could also adjust the fill light, recovery, the blacks, clarity and vibrancy of the image. So my so so image of the wonderful Miss Eva, became a gorgeous image of her.

It did make me think that really, you don’t need to know how to take a good photo any more. Bad exposure? Doesn’t matter - photoshop can fix it!

It does make me a little sad as the art of good photography is just going down the toilet. Why do you need to know about exposure, f stops and white balance when photoshop can do it all for you?

My parting words to all the budding photographers out there will be: Still learn the basics as there is only so much photoshop can do for you.

I thought it was high time to move with the times and give my visitors a little more when they visit my site, so I have integrated a blog that will be filled with random thoughts about software, coding, new work that’s coming and just stuff.

There will be different tutorials available as well in the future.

So enjoy the new look