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Confession #1:
O.K. I admit it. For over a year I failed repeatedly to find useful uses for the Difference layer blend mode during numerous flails at generating Photo-art.
Out of some sense of misplaced obligation I’d give Difference (as well as Exclusion) a try each time I clicked through the blend mode menu, hoping that "this time" would be different and I would finally get pleasing results. It never happened.
Over time Difference fell into the same category as obnoxious and misunderstood inlaws: While it’s politically correct to be civil towards them in public and acknowlege they might be useful to others, there’s no law forbidding aggressive avoidance.
Confession #2:
Although I’d probably read no less than 20 articles, chapters and tutorials on blend modes, when I got to the discussion on Difference my eyes would usually cross and/or I’d go to sleep while trying to absorb how and why I would (or could) ever use Difference. Based on enlightening passages such as the following, can you blame me for getting the nods?
THE DIFFERENCE AND EXCLUSION BLEND MODES
The Difference blend mode subtracts a layer's colors from the underlying layer to produce a pretty dramatic effect. The Exclusion blend mode produces similar effects but to a lesser degree.
Yeah, right.
The Light Finally Comes On - Sort Of
The other day an image created in this thread by our site founder and fearless leader, Doug Nelson, helped turn on the lightbulb for me… not from the perspective of finally comprehending how Difference works from a technical and mathematical perspective, but how I might experiment with it differently.
The attachment is another hack of my Mom, bless her heart, against which my “new Difference experiments” were performed. The key layer, I believe, is “B” (blend=Difference), against which I ran the BuzzPro plugin using the watercolor.stk preset. The (inverted) “difference” between the B and the A layers is what gives the image its base unique (and kind of sketchy) character.
I also tried running individual and combinations of filters like Colored Pencil, Angled Strokes, Dry Brush, Fresco, Watercolor, Sumi and the other usual Photoshop arty filter suspects against layer B with varying (and sometimes pleasing) results. Your mileage will very.
A little farther up the stack is another "difference pair" of layers, (E and F), used to further add character.
Lastly I tried using the Move Tool and the arrow keys to “offset” a filtered or textured layer B slightly from layer A, thereby creating additional interesting “differences” between corresponding pixels on each layer.
Trying to add some "color" to this concoction just didn't pan out, so I stuck with unsaturated.
Thank you, Doug, for helping me see the light and find closure to the burning question, “What’s the Difference with Difference?”
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Retouch Pro members . . .
OK. Your turn.
If you have examples of images in which you used the Difference layer blend mode or general comments on circumstances in which you finde the Difference blend useful, please share them. There is no expiration on updating this thead.
Don't feel like example images or pearls of wisdom necessarly need to be Photo-art centric.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
I had a REALLY FUN today. Hope you did too!
~DannyR~
O.K. I admit it. For over a year I failed repeatedly to find useful uses for the Difference layer blend mode during numerous flails at generating Photo-art.
Out of some sense of misplaced obligation I’d give Difference (as well as Exclusion) a try each time I clicked through the blend mode menu, hoping that "this time" would be different and I would finally get pleasing results. It never happened.
Over time Difference fell into the same category as obnoxious and misunderstood inlaws: While it’s politically correct to be civil towards them in public and acknowlege they might be useful to others, there’s no law forbidding aggressive avoidance.
Confession #2:
Although I’d probably read no less than 20 articles, chapters and tutorials on blend modes, when I got to the discussion on Difference my eyes would usually cross and/or I’d go to sleep while trying to absorb how and why I would (or could) ever use Difference. Based on enlightening passages such as the following, can you blame me for getting the nods?
THE DIFFERENCE AND EXCLUSION BLEND MODES
The Difference blend mode subtracts a layer's colors from the underlying layer to produce a pretty dramatic effect. The Exclusion blend mode produces similar effects but to a lesser degree.
Yeah, right.
The Light Finally Comes On - Sort Of
The other day an image created in this thread by our site founder and fearless leader, Doug Nelson, helped turn on the lightbulb for me… not from the perspective of finally comprehending how Difference works from a technical and mathematical perspective, but how I might experiment with it differently.
The attachment is another hack of my Mom, bless her heart, against which my “new Difference experiments” were performed. The key layer, I believe, is “B” (blend=Difference), against which I ran the BuzzPro plugin using the watercolor.stk preset. The (inverted) “difference” between the B and the A layers is what gives the image its base unique (and kind of sketchy) character.
I also tried running individual and combinations of filters like Colored Pencil, Angled Strokes, Dry Brush, Fresco, Watercolor, Sumi and the other usual Photoshop arty filter suspects against layer B with varying (and sometimes pleasing) results. Your mileage will very.
A little farther up the stack is another "difference pair" of layers, (E and F), used to further add character.
Lastly I tried using the Move Tool and the arrow keys to “offset” a filtered or textured layer B slightly from layer A, thereby creating additional interesting “differences” between corresponding pixels on each layer.
Trying to add some "color" to this concoction just didn't pan out, so I stuck with unsaturated.
Thank you, Doug, for helping me see the light and find closure to the burning question, “What’s the Difference with Difference?”
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Retouch Pro members . . .
OK. Your turn.
If you have examples of images in which you used the Difference layer blend mode or general comments on circumstances in which you finde the Difference blend useful, please share them. There is no expiration on updating this thead.
Don't feel like example images or pearls of wisdom necessarly need to be Photo-art centric.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
I had a REALLY FUN today. Hope you did too!
~DannyR~
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