The base layer is made up of hue, saturation, and luminosity.
However, when you switch the blending mode of the Solid Fill layer
from Normal to Color, the two layers rearrange their "DNA."
The blending layer contributes the hue and saturation only.
The base layer contributes luminosity only—B&W.
The three parts needed for a photograph are all there, but they're
coming from more than one layer.
| Blending Layer |
Hue + Saturation |
 |
| Base Layer |
Luminosity |
 |
Summary
As long as you've got hue, saturation, and luminosity, you've got
a color photograph.
The three parts can come from one layer, or from several layers.
Color Blending Mode Tutorial
Here's how to do the above.
A Solid Fill layer was used, filled with green (80,115,75).
The blending mode of the layer is changed from Normal to Color.
In the resulting photograph, the color and saturation are being contributed
by the Solid Fill layer, and the luminosity, by the base layer.
Here's the Layers palette.
Again, the Color Fill layer's blending mode is Color.
The blending mode of the Background copy layer and Background layer
is Normal.
Original
With a Solid Fill Layer
Filled with Green (80,115,75)
Set to the Color Blending Mode
Opacity
You can change the opacity of the blending layer, the Solid Fill
layer, to adjust the effect.
With a Green (80,115,75)Solid Fill Layer
Set to the Color Blending Mode
Same As the Above Photograph
But the Opacity is 50%
Selection
You can select part of the photograph, and then can remove the green
tint from the selection with a brush, creating a mask.
In the Solid Fill layer, you can see the completed mask.
Here's the masked photograph.
Let's look at the other H-S-L blending modes.
