anyways, you can close this now, i figured it out!

Darn well, unreal 4 uses soft light blend mode, it would be a great addition to shaderforge

Soft Light

Darkens or lightens the colors, depending on the blend color. The effect is similar to shining a diffused spotlight on the image. If the blend color (light source) is lighter than 50% gray, the image is lightened as if it were dodged. If the blend color is darker than 50% gray, the image is darkened as if it were burned in. Painting with pure black or white produces a distinctly darker or lighter area, but does not result in pure black or white.

Is there a way i can do this in shaderforge from a grey scale image?

I just saw your related post -- soft light is complex and expensive

is it easy to implement? I'm not a coder but is it something i could derive by looking at the other blend filters?