The Color vs Luminosity Blend Mode in Photoshop

Two of My Favorite Blend Modes Explained!

The most common questions I receive about Photoshop always deal with Blend Modes. They are extremely helpful, but I gotta be honest, when I first started using them I just cycled through them till I found something that looked good. While that is a fine approach, my workflow was hardly predictable, and I'd spend more time looking at blend modes than editing my images. Years ago I found Adobes Help site that gave me a list of all the blend modes, what they did, and how to use them. I suggest you look at them too!

Today's tutorial is not about all of the blend modes, but two very distinct ones, Color and Luminosity. While they both do opposites to your image, they are related in many ways. Let's take a Curves Adjustment for example. Modify a curve set to RGB, with a blend mode of Normal, and your result will be a tweak to the Tone and Color of all the underlying data. However, if you switch that blend mode to Color, it will strip the tonal data from it and if you decide to go with Luminosity, it will remove the Color data.

With these blend modes, you can protect the tones or colors in your image and have more predictable results every time you use them. Here is what Adobe says about the Color and Luminosity Blend Modes:

Color
Creates a result color with the luminance of the base color and the hue and saturation of the blend color.

Luminosity
Creates a result color with the hue and saturation of the base color and the luminance of the blend color.

By description, they are the exact opposite, but these descriptions don't do us a favor regarding understanding them either. In layman's terms:

The Color Blend Mode will apply the selected layers colors to the underlying layers but allow the tones of those layers to show through.
The Luminosity Blend Mode will use the selected layers tones to the underlying layers without altering the underlying layers colors.
With me? If not, no worries. In today's free tutorial I will show you how I use these two blend modes with Gradient Maps and Curves adjustment layers. By the time you are done watching it, you will have it down pat, or your money back :)

[neetataskar]

Fantastic video giving info about two blend modes and how they can be used to achieve the final result. Really helpful. Thank you for sharing..

[jimgill]

I learn more about the intricacies of Photoshop from you than from any book I've read on the program. Thanks Blake.

[WhiteSpaceToronto]

I keep coming back to this video. It's a great reminder. Well done Blake.

[TheTrekkerDave]

Great video. I have been using the Luminosity blend mode, but this video really made the usage of both blend modes a lot more clear.

[gasoowannab]

Great explanation! Haven't had someone explain something so well on youtube!

[WilsonPhotography]

This is cool. Every time I’ve experimented with those modes I got really messed up results so I just stopped trying them. I’ll definitely being playing with them again.

[mohsinfareed]

Thanks very much . This is the first time I really understand and appropriately use these Blend Modes. Thanks . Great man

[MrRhythmeen]

Fot the first time I understand how these two blend modes work! Many thanks for this easy to understand video!

[NealeZingle]

Thanks Blake, another great tutorial. Knowing when to best use each blend mode will really help fine control of editing my landscapes. Lots of practice ahead.
Appreciate all your work!
Neale

[williamcampbell]

Excellent job, Blake. Conceptually difficult to understand initially, but your explanation and demonstrations really make it clear. Greetings from a neighbor to the south in Springfield, MO.

[richarddavis]

Excellent. Very well explained. Easy to understand. Thanks.

[randydietmeyer]

By adding a funky gradient map and changing the blend mode to Color -and for even more control, press Ctrl+Alt+2 for a luminosity mask just before doing that, and you basically have Topaz ReStyle (a program that Ben Kenobi may describe as being "too clumsy and random"), except now with all the fine Blending and masking controls that Photoshop provides.

[ArvindTelkar]

Thanks for explaining color and luminosity blend modes

[acelane]

That was a better and understanding video of Blending Mode as I relearn my past Thank you for all you have inspire many professional photographers and younger learning the way of photography.

[scottfwalter]

I like the new opening.  Pretty slick.

[Randyrocker]

This information became really valuable to me and thank you for it arriving at just the right time. It's now got me meta thinking.

[dunnymonster]

Very useful video and clearly explained. As you say, often you want to adjust your tone curve to only affect luminosity without changing the base colour. In LR that isn't possible, as you brighten or darken your overall image in tone curve by default you inadvertently end up adjusting colour too. This method is excellent, I'll definately be adding it to my future post editing, thanks 😃

[wrzlbrnth]

Great job Blake, I use the CIE LAB color space for the same reason as it separates color from luminosity directly

[akishaha]

Thanks for this simple explanation...concept is crystal clear now 👍

[dominicstrong]

Thank you very much Blake, awesome breakdown!