How to Blend the Colors When Combining Two Photos
Blending colors when combining two photos is crucial to making the photo look realistic. The process is fairly simple for the user, but it requires a certain level of software development to pull it off. Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't put this kind of technology into MS Paint. Image editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop and GIMP, a freeware alternative, can handle the task. Most software with the capability to combine photos will use similar if not the same terminology for the basic processes.
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Instructions
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Open each of the images that you want to combine. Copy and paste them onto separate layers in a new document. Set the first layer to about "50%" opacity. This will give a rough outline of what the two photos will look like combined. Most likely, this is not the effect you want as far as blending your colors. In some cases, it may be, but you likely will have to select a blending mode.
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Examine each of the blending modes. They can look quite intimidating at first, but they usually are grouped into "families." Each family represents a similar command that the program uses when creating the final output.
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Use the "Normal" mode to place the pictures on top of each other. "Normal" is usually grouped with "Dissolve," which selectively removes pixels as opacity decreases. This is the first effect you will create, but it likely will not satisfy your needs.
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Try the "Multiply" family next. It involves using some calculations to create a blend. "Multiply" takes a number of factors from the metadata in the photo and multiples them (value, hue, saturation), while "Divide" does the opposite. "Overlay" and "Screen" are less extreme versions of these two modes.
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Switch to the "Burn and Dodge" family if the "Multiply" family does not work. This family focuses on combining value and, to a certain extent, hue. It comes from the film terms "burn and dodge" while printing a photo. Burn is an area where more light is placed on the print during exposure, and dodge is when less light is used to expose the print. "Hard Light" and "Soft Light" are tenuously related to "Burn and Dodge" and, as such, are grouped together. They combine the value with a different algorithm. "Grain Extract" and "Grain Merge" are the last modes in this family, and they are the digital equivalents of "Burn and Dodge," focusing on the way the computer reproduces an image instead of the way a photo reproduces an image.
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Move on to the "Addition" group if the "Burn and Dodge" family wasn't working. This family uses the same metadata as the "Multiply" family, but by addition and subtraction instead of multiplication and division. "Subtraction" and "Addition" are obvious, and "Difference" is a different form of subtraction. While "Subtraction" takes all of a certain value out of the layer below, "Difference" shows the actual difference between layers. "Darken" and "Lighten" affect only the darkest and lightest part of the two images.
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Use the final grouping only for fine-tuning. It focuses on changing only one element of the photo on the layer below. This grouping can replace the value, saturation, hue or color of the layer below. This is normally done by addition. Depending on the effect, these options will blend the colors the "best," but they don't work well for two vastly different images.
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Select the blending mode that best represents your purpose. Change the opacity until it looks the way you intend it to look. You also may want to change the levels on one or both layers so that the hue, saturation and value are similar in each photo.
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Tips & Warnings
Experiment with all the blending modes. Some of them have surprising properties that may end up providing what you want.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
