Vivid Light Blend Mode Broken?

[SStuff-GMP]

Hey there Photoshop Community!

So I am not sure which update it was, but over the last several months there has been a huge change to the vivid light blend mode algorithm. It functions completely differently than it used to. I have been searching the internet to figure out why but no one seems to be talking about it.

Vivid light no longer works with the color white. Instead of the wonderful boost to brightness and vibrancy, white just acts as if there is no blend mode at all. There are other ways to achieve this effect, but that requires the use of multiple effects layers and masks, whereas vivid light could achieve the same effects from a single layer

I’ve run into the issue where I now have to update several of my older files, but files where I use this effect have completely different color. I wanted to ask if there was a deliberate change to the vivid light blend mode or if this just happened to be an oversight. I’ve not found anywhere in the documentation that vivid light had been changed.

Here is an example of before and after this change. As you can see, Vivid light acts very differently from before.

Any thoughts on this matter are greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time in reading this and responding.

I am running Windows 7

Photoshop 2017.0.1

[davescm]

Hi

I just compared 3 versions using a gradient over an image. The gradient set to Vivid Light.

CC2017.0.1 :

CC2015.5 :

CS6 :

All seem to look the same.

There was an issue in CC2017 when certain blending modes acted differently when applied to a group as they did when applied to a layer. This was corrected in CC2017.0.1.  I just checked and the vivid light is acting the same on both group and layer.
Could it be that your original was produced in the broken version?   If not, and there is a bug, then you will need to provide additional information. The best way is to show a difference with very simple layers that can be reproduced and reported using the link below

Photoshop Family Customer Community

Dave

[Theresa J]

Can you confirm that your color settings are the same in both versions? That could change the appearance.

[SStuff-GMP]

Yes. The color settings are the same. The example that I posted is the exact same file.

I save out a PDF upon completing a project. So, what you are looking at is the previously saved PDF version as the before update, and the working PSD file as the after update.

I can provide a couple more before and afters, but I cannot recreate the original effects because I do not have access to an earlier version of Photoshop.

[davescm]

If you want to post a link to the PSD I will happily open it here, in the three versions I have installed, for comparison (CC2017.01/CC2015.5 and CS6)

Dave

[SStuff-GMP]

Thank you so much Dave.

Here is a link to a PSD file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2x1d8rYyUjgRXowcjJTRHU3TlE/view?usp=sharing

VividLight-Test.psd - Google Drive

This is a new file with the blend layer applied the way that I would normally use the Vivid Light blend mode.

(File is CYMK, for print purposes)

This is what the blend mode looks on my end "Broken"

I cannot show you how the effect is supposed to look in this example, but as you can see, any level of transparency to a solid white color acts as a "pass through" rather than actually effecting brightness and vibrancy as Vivid Light used to do. 100% white would appear as 100% white, but anything more transparent would cause the colors to pop. Similar to Overlay, but the algorithm looked and acted so much better than Overlay.

I really appreciate you taking a look at this Dave.

If anything, I just want to make sure I am not crazy, haha.

[D Fosse]

SStuff-GMP  wrote

Yes. The color settings are the same.

So, what you are looking at is the previously saved PDF version as the before update, and the working PSD file as the after update.

Exporting to PDF follows its own color management policies, independent from the Photoshop color settings. So there could still be a difference.

Of course, you'd probably notice that at the time you saved out the PDF. And this difference doesn't really look like any color space inconsistencies I can think of.

[SStuff-GMP]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/D+Fosse  wrote

Exporting to PDF follows its own color management policies, independent from the Photoshop color settings. So there could still be a difference.

Of course, you'd probably notice that at the time you saved out the PDF. And this difference doesn't really look like any color space inconsistencies I can think of.

The export to PDF exported as expected and was virtually identical to the working PSD file at the time. That is why the PDF version serves as a good example as to how much the current PSD version had changed.

The best I can come up with, as this if about Vivid light effecting transparencies of white, Solid white had never been effected. but not, transparencies of white are not either. Grouped or not, no effect is being calculated.

[davescm]

Hi

This is the result I see with your file, where the Vivid Light blending mode is applied to the group (which contains the rectangles and brushstroke). There is indeed a difference :

CC2017.0.1:

CC2015.5:

CS6

So yes there is a difference - however........

I ungrouped the reactangle/brush layers and set each of those layers to Vivid Light. I now see :

CC2017.0.1

CC2015.5

CS6

So from the above :

Only CC2017.0.1 matches when the Vivid Light is set to the group or when the rectangle/brush layers are ungrouped and Vivid Light is set to each individual rectangle/brush layers. That would lead me to think that only CC2017.0.1 is getting this right.

I'd welcome other views

Dave

[SStuff-GMP]

I'm not crazy! Well, that's a relief for my sanity at least.

Now, I had noticed that the individual layers not receiving this effects was because the opacity was being applied to the effect too.. but I have no idea how it is actually programmed.

Having the blend mode applies to the group and then having total control over every layer is extremely convenient and offered the most control with the best results.. But there is nothing we can do here? You're saying that the change is deliberate? Is there any way we could ask developers why they changed it?

Any suggestions on how to create the effect without the use of multiple effects layers?

[davescm]

Having the blend mode applies to the group and then having total control over every layer is extremely convenient and offered the most control with the best results.. But there is nothing we can do here? You're saying that the change is deliberate? Is there any way we could ask developers why they changed it?

I am a user - the same as you - so can't comment on whether it was deliberate or not

Vivid Light is supposed to color burn or color dodge  according to whether the upper layer is darker than 50% gray or lighter than 50% grey.

So I added three circles the left is 70% gray the middle 50% gray and the right 20% gray.

This is CC2017.0.1 with the circles as layers set to normal and put within the group you made (set to Vivid Light)

This is CC2017.0.1 with the circles not in a group but each set to Vivid Light

Then in CC2015 - first the grouped file

Then CC2015.5 with individual layers

Surprisingly, given the results in the previous post,  these are identical.

So I added a second set of circles with opacity reduced to 50%

CC2017.0.1 with layers group and vivid light on the group

CC2017.0.1 with individual layers - ungrouped and each set to Vivid light

CC2015.5 with layers grouped and vivid light on the group

CC2015.5 with individual layers

The older version does react differently when layers within the group have reduced opacity (CS6 was the same)

To check that out I also went back to CS2015.5 and set the group to "pass through" and the layers to Vivid light. This did give the same result as the individual layers.

I may be wrong, but my expectation would be that the appearance would be the same with the blending mode applied to each layer (bearing in mind there was transparency between each layer and the background layer) and when the blending mode was set to the group and each layer set to normal.     So CC2017.0.1 appears to show predictable (correct??) behaviour.

Dave

[davescm]

Any suggestions on how to create the effect without the use of multiple effects layers?

If you need to use those older files , the easiest way is to use the CC desktop app and install an older version e.g. CC2015.5 to run alongside the CC2017 version (you can have several versions on one PC). That way you don't have to alter the files at all.

Dave

[SStuff-GMP]

And thank you so much for your time in testing out these files. I truly appreciate this.