How to Blend in Photoshop: A Step-by-Step Guide

To make digital art that reflects the colors, textures and depths of real life and analog art, you must be able to mix the elements on your canvas. Fortunately, Photoshop offers numerous options for blending within your work.

Learning how to blend in Photoshop is largely about mixing colors, though you’ll also learn about light, contrast and opacity in the blending modes. When you know how to weave color and texture to suit your style and goals, you’re ready for truly advanced Photoshop editing techniques.

Get started by exploring two different ways to blend photos’ colors and other elements in Photoshop, taking your work to the next level.

Blend Colors in Any Way You Like

At this time, there’s no Photoshop blend tool, though you can achieve excellent blending effects with brushes and blend modes. Depending on your style and how the various tools affect it, you can develop custom techniques based on what works best.

Wondering how to blend two images in Photoshop to add movement, or how to blend layers in Photoshop to add texture? Perhaps you’re wondering about color correction or color grading in Photoshop. Playing with various brushes and modes will teach you a lot about tweaking layers, colors, settings and other tools for expert blending effects.

Blending colors in Photoshop is just one piece of top-notch photo editing. For a full range of possibilities, discover:

Replacing color in Photoshop
Removing objects in Photoshop
Resizing images in Photoshop

How to Blend Colors in Photoshop With the Smudge Tool

The Smudge tool functions a bit like finger painting. You can use your finger to swipe one color over another, giving a paint-like quality to your work.

1. Select the Smudge Tool

Look for the hand with an extended index finger to find the Smudge tool. You can also hold down the Blur tool to see related tools, one of which is the Smudge tool. Another option is to go into the Windows menu and search the Brushes panel.

2. Choose Your Brush

From the Options bar, select a brush tip and blend mode. Soft, round brushes are ideal for blending colors.

3. Sample All Layers

You can blur using colors from all visible layers using the Sample All Layers option, or you can deselect that option to blur colors in the active layer only.

4. Use the Foreground Color

To mix your top layer into lower layers, begin each stroke with the foreground color. You can set the program to do this by selecting the Finger Painting option. To use whatever color is under the pointer, deselect Finger Painting.

5. Smudge

Tap and hold your finger on the spot where you want to begin smudging and drag your finger to blend.

How to Blend Colors in Photoshop With the Mixer Brush Tool

As the most advanced blending tool in Photoshop, the Mixer Brush’s reservoir and pickup store colors to mix with what’s already on the canvas.

1. Select the Mixer Brush Tool

In the toolbar, look for the icon with the brush and a paint drop. If you don’t see it, click and hold down the Standard Brush and the Mixer Brush should appear.

2. Load Paint

Alt-click or Option-click on your image and the brush tip will reflect color variation in the sampled area. Use the drop-down arrow next to the color box to choose from that mixture of colors or a solid color or a pattern. You may also choose the foreground color.

3. Pick a Brush

Select a brush from the Brush Presets, perhaps a soft, round brush for smooth blending. No matter what brush you choose, you’ll be able to tweak its settings.

4. Set the Brush Options

Next to your color box, a drop-down menu gives the option to use one solid color or a pattern. Decide if you want to load the brush with a lot of paint or a little, then choose the wetness, mix and flow of the paint. You may alter those settings manually or with presets.

5. Paint

Once your brush is loaded and the options are set as you want, start painting. You can experiment with painting around the outside of your subject or mixing colors all over the background, and adjust the options to change the effects. You may also try different sizes and directions of brush strokes.

What Are the Different Blend Modes in Photoshop?

Blending colors isn’t just about the tools you use–it’s about what they do to the various elements of your work. Near the top of the layers panel, in a drop-down menu, are six blending sections. Try playing with each section to learn how it changes your image.

Normal and Dissolve blends change opacity and can give dreamy effects.
Darken, Color Burn, Linear Burn and Multiply make your image darker.
Lighten, Color Dodge, Linear Dodge and Screen make your image lighter.
Overlay, Linear Light, Hard Mix, Soft Light, Hard Light, Pin Light and Vivid Light change your contrast.
Subtract, Exclusion, Divide and Difference remove color from your image.
Color, Hue, Luminosity and Saturation add color to your image.

Edit Your Images Like a Pro With Photoshop

Editing your images is essential for incorporating the color, texture and depth that bring digital art to life. Blending is an editing technique that’s primarily about mixing colors for more realism on the digital canvas.

Although Photoshop doesn’t currently have a blending tool, its brushes and blend modes provide numerous options for blending colors and mimicking different styles of real-world painting. The more you experiment with blending options, the sooner you’ll refine the approach that best serves your art.

Skillshare is your resource for all sorts of classes on making the most of Photoshop. From learning graphic design color theory to advanced Photoshop editing techniques, you can master image editing for personal and professional projects, whether you’re a beginner or a long-time graphic designer.

Written By

Katie Mitchell

Katie lives in Michigan with her husband, kids and pets. She enjoys cooking, travel and live music.