UNDERSTANDING ARITHMETIC

Created October 30, 2003 © Copyright Moon's Designs
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Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank you.

This tutorial is written in and for PSP8.10 and assumes you have a working knowledge of PSP at an beginners level.

YOU WILL NEED:
JASC's PSP8.10 (30 day free trial) - You can get it HERE
Two Images - I am using a photograph of myself and Larry that was taken when we were in Laughlin on vacation. I am also using a graphic that I took during the 2003 Firestorm in Southern California. This photo was taken at 3:00 in the afternoon with the sun hitting on the smoke that filled the sky's from my backyard. Yes, it was a scary time - thankfully we survived without any damage, unlike so many.

Remember, my tutorials are only guidelines to help you accomplish a certain creation. Please feel free to be inventive and take whatever liberties you would like. I encourage each of you to do your "own thing" and make your creation yours!

Screenshots are resized and compressed for faster loading.

After reviewing Arithmetic in The PSP8 Classroom ~ Beginners 101 Class, I had a request from one of my students to write a tutorial on Arithmetic. This tutorial is dedicated to Shorty.

Personally just the word arithmetic didn't impress me very much or make me want to investigate it. I did not like Math in school and it really didn't like me very much. However, using Arithmetic in PSP is not as scary as it was in school.

Using Image Arithmetic in Paint Shop Pro allows you to combine two images by blending pixels between the two images to create a third image. Granted many of the effects you can get you CAN do with using layers, however there are still some effects that can't be obtained without using Arithmetic. Using arithmetic is also a lot of fun and you can get some amazing results. It will depend on the two images that you choose as to how your final image will come out. The size of image #1 determines the size of your new image.

1. Open the two images that you want to work with.

2. Click on your Image Menu to find Arithmetic.

3. When you click on Arithmetic you will have this dialog box.

4. Verify the images that you are going to use in the Image #1 and Image#2 source boxes. As I mentioned, the image in Image #1 will determine the size of the new image and below your image source boxes it will show you the size of your new image. In the example above my final image will be 210x250.

5. Next we have your function box. This is where some Math comes into play. Depending on the function that you choose the color data from the two images is combined on a pixel-by-pixel basis. From the JASC Help section below is the function and what the new color value will equal.

Function
New Color Value Equals
Add Image 1 Value Plus Image 2 Value
Subtract Image 1 Value Minus Image 2 Value
Multiply Image 1 Value Times Image 2 Value
Difference Absolute Value of Image 2 Value Minus Image 2 Value
Lightest Maximum of Image 1 Value, Image 2 Value
Darkest Minimum of Image 1 Value, Image 2 Value
Average Image 1 Value Plus Image 2 Value Divided by 2
Or Binary Or
And Binary And

Yes it can be very confusing. This is why I encourage you to experiment with the different settings until you are satisfied with your final image. If you don't like an image you can certainly close it without saving.

6. Next is the Channel panel. If you check the All channels check box it will use all of the colors in both images and your final image will be a 24-bit colored image. You can also choose specific color channels for each image to produce a greyscale image. Below are 2 examples of using the special color channels to produce a greyscale image, in the function panel I chose average.


Blue Image 1 & Green Image 2

Red in both images

When checking all channels and using Average in the function panel I now get this.

7. Next we have Divisor & Bias modifiers. Here we go with more math LOL. The modifiers are applied to the color values that are produced by what your Formula is set at and the Channel selections.

  • The Divisor number is used to divide the color values and it can reduce the effects of the other selections.
  • The Bias number shifts each color value by a fixed amount. This number is then added to the color value produced by the Formula, Channel, and Divisor selections.

To be perfectly honest with you I usually leave the Modifiers alone.

8. You can check or uncheck the Clip color values. This determines how PSP handles the final color values greater than 255 and less than 0. Again, I normally just leave this checked.

Let's see how some of these things work. Remember how I said that your final image will depend on the two graphics you are using and how the size of your final graphic will be determined by the source of Image #1? You have seen by my above examples how things turned out by using the smaller of the two graphics as my Image #1. Now let's use the "firestorm2003" larger image as Image #1 and see what happens.

Looking at this image Larry and I gained about 50 pounds! I think I'll keep it the other way around *giggle*. So keep in mind how you want your final image to look.

Here are some examples with the different functions with All Channels checked and the modifiers set at default, again it depends on which image you have chosen for your Image #1 source as to how they are going to turn out, most of the following turned out fine with the exception of subtract.


Add

Subtract (resized)

And

Multiply

Difference

Or

Darkest

Lightest


XOR

You can also create some pretty cool greyscale images using the same graphic in both Image sources and choosing different channel colors. Below is the Firestorm graphic using the Average in function.


Red in both color channels


Blue in both color channels


Green in both color channels

The possibilities of what you can come up with, using Arithmetic, is left only to YOUR imagination.

This tutorial is offered as a Bonus Tutorial at The PSP8 Classroom.

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If you would like to use this tutorial for group settings, please contact me. Just click on the above mail slot *S*
Tutorial written and created by Patti Wavinak for Moon's Designs. These Tutorials are copyrighted by law. You may LINK to them only. You may not remove any of the graphics, zip files or html within these pages to reproduce these Tutorials, without the expressed permission of Moon's Designs. These pages may not be removed from this website and sent via e-mail, nor saved, stored or archived in files in YahooGroups or other mailing list sites, nor may they be translated and placed on another site.
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