Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Comparative Blending Modes

The next two modes are very similar to each other. In general, they compare the active layer to the underlying image, looking for areas that are identical in both. Those areas appear as black, while all nonmatching areas show up as shades of gray or color. The closer the nonmatching areas are to being black in the end result, the more similar the areas are to the underlying image. In these modes, white on the active layer will invert whatever appears on the underlying image, but black on the active layer will not change the underlying image.