Linear Burn on layer, Difference on gradient overlay

[xoru]

Hi there everyone,

I'm working with photoshop on a little abstract nonsense, and I have a layer which contains a few blocks. The blocks are blue-ish in color, and I added a gradient overlay with a rainbow gradient. The blending mode for the overlay is difference, the blending mode for the layer is linear burn.

Now my expectation is that the blocks on the black background will turn dark, because of the linear burn; however they turn bright in color. When I merge the layer before applying the linear burn mode and apply linear burn on the merged layer, it does work as I expected.

I'm confused, why does the Linear Burn mode on the layer act differently when the gradient overlay effect is on the layer? Is there an order in which blending modes are applied within the layer? This might be a stupid question, but I don't see where the Linear Burn blending mode does not result in a darker color. See images attached

Thanks,

Bas

When not merged, Linear Burn applied to a layer with a Gradient Overlay with the Difference blending mode

When the same layer is merged (after Linear Burn was changed to Normal), and Linear Burn is applied to the merged layer

[xoru · Accepted solution]

Hi all,

I think I understand now and I feel rather stupid for asking. Something I didn't know about the blending in Photoshop when overlay effects are added, is that it first blends the layer onto the background and then blends the overlay effects onto the layers visible mask. Now I know, it had me confused, but it's actually quite logical to me.

Consider it solved.

Thanks,

Bas