Colorful Smoke Art

Starting with a simple black-and-white picture of smoke, you will be making colorful abstract images.

This key to this technique is the Difference blending mode, which I've never had much use for. With a little experimentation, it can yield some very nice color combinations.

1. Start with this close up of smoke on a black background:



2. Double-click the background layer to create a new editable layer. Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation) and use the following settings to turn the smoke blue:



3. Right-click the hue/saturation layer and click 'Merge Down' to combine the layer and color.



Now you should have one layer that looks like this:



4. Duplicate your layer (Ctrl+J) and set the blending mode of the new layer to 'Difference'. At first, this will turn the image black, but that will soon change. UPDATE: Move the new layer over to the right 50 pixels or so, and colors should appear again.



5.Add a Hue/Saturation layer to the new layer (like in step 2). Make sure 'Preview' is checked, and move the Hue slider back and forth until you like the result. Here's what I used:



Continue to complete.....