Photoshop’s layer blend modes offer you infinite possibilities to create new and interesting looks. Just like layer effects in Photoshop, blending modes are easy to apply with just one click. But how do you add blending options to multiple layers at the same time? That’s what you’ll learn in this tutorial. There are two ways for how to add blending options to multiple layers in Photoshop, and both require you to just follow TWO EASY STEPS!
How do you add blending options to multiple layers in Photoshop?
After showing you recently how to apply a layer style to multiple layers in Photoshop and how to copy effects from one layer to another in Photoshop, I am today showing you today how you can add Blending Options to multiple layers in Photoshop.
As you surely know, Photoshop’s layer blend modes are a brilliant way to create the most various looks with just a couple clicks.
The altogether 27 layer blend modes (! 😵) along with opacity and fill settings offer you a never-ending resource of effects that you can apply to your images.
Related: → How To Use Blending Modes In Photoshop
It’s just like Photoshop’s layer styles. They both are an easy and fun way to achieve stunning effects that otherwise wouldn’t be possible to create.
Grab your FREE Photoshop Blend Modes Cheat Sheet
To make it easier for you to remember all the different blending modes and what they do, I’ve prepared a FREE 22-pages Photoshop Blend Modes Cheat Sheet for you that you can download in the Freebie Library.
I’m sure you already know how to add blending options to a single layer. So why would you want to add blending options to multiple layers in Photoshop?
Well, let’s say you have a number of layers that you want to add the same blend mode to. So instead of going to each and every layer and choosing the particular blend mode (and maybe also adjusting opacity and fill), you can add the blending mode to all of the layers at the same time… plus opacity and fill, if you wish.
That’s a huuuge time saver! You’ll see what I mean in a minute.
For this tutorial, I’ll be working with an underwater scene that I’ve quickly put together.
There are a couple of layers with water bubbles and splashes that I want to set to the Screen blending mode to make them look like actual bubbles and splashes…
Below you see the final result of what my image looks like with the blending mode added to the multiple bubble layers.
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Background is a free resource provided by Frostbo on DeviantArt. Thanks a lot for that!
There are two ways how you can add blending options to multiple layers in Photoshop. They are both quick and easy and require you to just follow these 2 steps:
How to add blending options to multiple layers in Photoshop
Here is what my image looks like before. I’ve added eight water bubble layers on top of the background. But it doesn’t look ok, though.
There are too many black and dark tones within the bubbles, so they do not blend in well and look like real water bubbles. Let’s fix that!
STEP 1: Select the layers to add the blending options to
To add blending options to multiple layers in Photoshop, you first of all need to select the layers that you want to apply the blending modes to.
Click on the top layer in your Layers Panel, hold the Shift key, and then click on the bottom layer you want to add a blending mode to.
This selects the first and the last layer, plus all layers in between.
STEP 2: Choose the desired blending option from the menu
With your layers selected, now click on the Blending Mode menu at the top left on your Layers Panel.
From there, choose the blending option that you want to add to the layers.
That was already it. See how easy it is to add blending options to multiple layers in Photoshop!
If you wish, you can also adjust the Opacity and Fill settings for all the layers. Simply keep the layers selected and tweak the Opacity and/or Fill sliders until you’re happy with the result.
All the selected layers will then have the same Blending Mode, the same Opacity, and the same Fill value!
How to add blending options to multiple layers in a group
The second way to add blending options to multiple layers is by placing all the layers into a group.
This allows you to quickly change blending mode, opacity and fill of all the layers within the group, without having to select the layers again each time you want to make a modification to them.
Plus, you can easily add effects to all the layers in the group by just applying them once to the group itself!
How do you add effects to multiple layers in Photoshop?
STEP 1: Place the layers to add the blending options to in a group
There are two ways you can create a new group.
First off, you need to select all the layers that you want to place in the group by holding Shift and then making your selection.
With the layers selected, you can now click on the Layers Panel Menu icon (the little arrow next to the four lines) in the top right corner of the layers panel.
From there, choose ‘New Group from Layers‘ from the pop-up menu.
The second way is to drag the selected layers down to the Folder icon at the bottom of your layers panel.
This will create a new group from the layers, too.
You can type in a new name for the group, or just keep the default name.
STEP 2: Apply the desired blending options to the group
With the layers placed into a group, you can now choose the blending mode from the drop-down menu.
Once you’ve selected a blending mode for the group, it will be automatically applied to all the layers within the group.
Even though the blend mode of each layer within the group will remain set to Normal, you can see that the look of the grouped layers is changing, as you’re changing the group’s blend mode.
If you want to change the Opacity and Fill settings of the layers, modify them directly on the group, and your changes will automatically apply to all layers within the group!
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Grab your free Photoshop Blend Modes Cheat Sheet
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I hope that this tutorial on how to add blending options to multiple layers in Photoshop was helpful. If you found any value in it, please feel free to share it with other artists so they can also learn from it!
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