help with soft light? it changes color when i use this option ( screenshot )

< http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/pinkcamel/KevinSpacey .jpg>

here is a link for a screenshot

was trying to do a "rain" effect and needed to use soft light... but when i use the soft light option, for some reason the image gets darker... and its not supposed to, because i got the rain effect tutorial from a livejournal community and have asked questions there also, because as you see there are 2 more layers of GRAY but those arent factors because ive tried soft light w/o the gray layers also... perhaps there is some sort of property-state that i need to change? Or- i dont know.

Note the change in tone of the original image ( right ) and the image when soft light was used ( left )

Thanks in advance.

here is my email if anything else

Joanne,

The top layer is in Soft Light blend mode.

The mode of underlying layers has not been specified. I assume they're in Normal blend mode. If so, only the top two layers inlfuence what you are seeing.

Change the order of these two layers so that the image is under the gray layer and in Normal mode and put the gray layer above it in Soft Light mode.

Adjust the tone of the gray layer above mid-gray to brighten the image, or below mid-gray to darken it. At exactly mid-gray the layer has no effect at all. The further it is from mid-gray, the greater the effect.

You can get the same control by using a black layer in Soft Light mode for darkening or a white layer in Soft Light mode for lightening and adjusting that layer's opacity.

Soft Light's effect is greatest in the midtones and tapers off toward the shadows and highlights.

George