My GPS Camera Phone

Yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday featured an abstract negative image created with two other images, both negative to fit the theme. This technique is nothing new on this blog, but it’s fun and a great way to produce something completely different than the original images. Today, I’ll show you how easy it is to make a cool abstract of your own.

The source images were nothing special, but the negative effect gave them an interesting quality and feel. Additionally, they were two totally different things. One is the light diffuser in the elevator I take to my office every day:

and the other is a shot of a cool poster I got in the mail from Veer (which hangs on the wall behind my desk):

Combining these two images works for me because the grid pattern combines nicely with the graphic design of the poster. As Fred pointed out in the comments, it looked like a glass-brick wall. The white on the edge of the diffuser also gave me the idea of a fading edge without having to use any Photoshop tools. Now that the idea is there, let’s get to putting the two images together.

Step 1: Open the source images in the photo editing tool of your choice. I used Photoshop CS2 for this process.

Step 2: Drag the poster layer over to the diffuser image. Click and hold the poster image, drag it over to the diffuser image and then release. This should create a new layer in the diffuser image, hopefully above the background layer. If the new poster layer ends up below the diffuser layer for some reason, move it up above the diffuser layer.

Step 3: Close the poster image. You won’t be needing it anymore.

Step 4: Change the blending mode on the poster layer to Lighten. This will allow the diffuser layer below to come through.

Step 5: Duplicate the background layer and move it above the poster layer. Now you’ve got an image of the diffuser again, with none of the underlying layers showing through. At this point, the layer order should be diffuser, poster, diffuser.

Step 6: With the top layer selected, go to the Edit menu, then Transform and Rotate 180°. Now you’ve got the same image but flipped over. Let’s get the bottom layers to shine through.

Step 7: With the top layer still selected, change the blending mode to Screen. The bottom layers should now be visible, blended nicely with the top layer. Almost done.

Step 8: Rotate and crop the image. To rotate the entire canvas, go to the Image menu, select Rotate Canvas, then 90° CCW. Once rotated, crop the image with the crop tool to eliminate the squareness it now has due to the white sides. I also wanted to frame the word “fancy” in the middle of the image, so the crop I chose eliminated some of the top and bottom noise, focusing more on the center. The light edges lead the eye to the center more, now that the height has been taken down through cropping.

Step 9: Save the image. To save an optimized image for the web, select the file menu, then Save for Web. Personally, I like to save at about 60-90 quality, depending on the file size and quality. It’s up to you.

Step 10: Sit back and enjoy your new image!

Dan posted a negative image of a moth on his blog. You should go check it out. But will he try blending two images together? I guess we’ll have to wait. Until then, give it a shot yourself and post a link to your image in the comments.

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• Wordless Wednesday 31: Negative Week, Day 3 (12)
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