The Magic Of Inversion

I find it fascinating that simply inverting an image can yield a derivative image that can stand alone as a second piece of artwork. What is an inversion, and how does it work? Let me demonstrate, and then perhaps you might want to try it out on some of your own work.

The image below is a two-shot multiple exposure of a tile wall with black and white tiles (the blue toning was added in processing). Both of the exposures were ICMs (intentional camera movements while the shutter was open), with one exposure’s movement being left to right and the other exposure’s movement being up and down. The in-camera Lighten blend mode was used to blend the two exposures.

I quite liked this result and titled it “Choose Your Dreams Carefully” as each darker square reminded me of a hallway with a door at the end with endless possible outcomes depending on what hallway and door you choose to enter (check out Apple TV’s “Dark Matter” as inspiration for this idea).

“Choose Your Dreams Carefully” © Howard Grill

On a whim, I decide to see what the inverted image would look like. An inversion is when you change the color of each pixel to the color that lays 180 degrees opposite to it on the color wheel. So, white becomes black, red becomes cyan, green becomes magenta, and blue becomes yellow (have a look at your color wheel).

In fact, making this conversion in Photoshop is quite easy. Simply make a copy of your image, flatten it, make sure the background layer (now the only layer there is) of the image is highlighted, and in Windows, press CTL-i (I assume on Mac it’s CMD-i). There, you’ve inverted your image. In the case of my image, the inversion is as seen below (full disclosure, I also flipped it upside down, as I thought it looked better that way).

© Howard Grill

Although all that I have done is to invert the colors, the feel of the image is quite different. It has gone from open and airy to very claustrophobic feeling (at least to me). It has also taken on a more three-dimensional feel and a metallic sheen. The inverted and non-inverted images have very different feels to them.

Inverting is easy to do and worth trying out, particularly with abstract imagery. Which of the two images do you prefer?

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