PI blending page 5

$fractal 1$ $fractal 2$ Here I have two fractals. The first one is a lovely shape, but not all that interesting in colour or texture. The second is an interesting pattern but a bit flat. I can change all that by making the second one an object above the first one, and using merge modes. In fact, I shall have quite a number of effects to choose from, so I am only showing you two here. If you want to pursue this, right click on the fractal images and use Save Image as to capture them, and merge them in PhotoImpact yourself.

The one on the left is merge mode if darker, the one on the right merge mode difference. Both are far more interesting than either of the originals.

Here I have a picture of a bouquet of flowers, and I should like to make it look like a needlepoint picture.
If I make it an object above the needlepoint texture on the left, and use merge mode lighting, the picture on the right is the result.

Finally, we will use layer blending to make a feather. We first place the gradient colour as an object above the herringbone texture, and merge them using multiple mode.
Open the Layer Manager options box and click on Merge All. The object will vanish from the layer manager. Select a feather shaped ellipse. (left)
Click the copy button and then the paste button to make an object copy of the feather, and drag it out of the image and drop it in the workspace, away from any other images. It will appear in a window on its own. It is still an object, and will now appear in the Layer Manager.
Use Format/Dimensions and check Selected Object in the Apply to list. Set the dimension to 50 percent, and have Keep aspect ratio checked. Click OK. Sharpen the image after resizing as you did on the first page of the tutorial. Move the feather to the top of the window, and open the Layer Manager options and click on Merge all. Use the smudge tool, shape round, size four, level between half and threequarters of the way up the scale, soft edge 0, preset none, and in a series of short strokes, draw a stem to the feather (right).
Those are some examples of ways of merging objects, but the merge options are also available when you use the fill tool, and we will move on now to take a look at merging with colours and fills.