Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Difference Mode

This mode works exactly as just described. Let's use it to create some homemade lightning. Start with a new document that contains a white background. Next, create a new layer, and reset your foreground and background colors by typing D; then choose Filter > Render Clouds, and set the layer containing the clouds to Difference mode. Now choose a large, soft-edged brush, and paint with black on the bottom layer. You should end up with a cloudy-looking image that has black areas around the edges of the area where you've painted (Figure 13.100). Now it's time to transform those black areas into lightning. We'll start the process by inverting the image to make black areas white. Do this by clicking on the topmost layer and then choosing ...