Python Pillow - ImageChops.difference() Function

The PIL.ImageChops.difference function computes the absolute value of the pixel-by-pixel difference between two images. It returns a new image where each pixel represents the absolute value of the difference between the corresponding pixels in the input images.

The operation is defined as followes −

$$\mathrm{out\:=\:abs(image1\:-\:image2)}$$

Syntax

Following is the syntax of the function −

PIL.ImageChops.difference(image1, image2)

Parameters

Here are the details of this function parameters −

• image1 − The first input image.

• image2 − The second input image.

Return Value

The return type of this function is an Image.

Examples

Example 1

In this example, we will use the getpixel() function to observe the resultant pixel values after applying the ImageChops.difference() function on two input images.

from PIL import Image, ImageChops
import numpy as np

# Create two random RGB images
image1 = Image.fromarray(np.array([(235, 64, 3), (255, 0, 0), (255, 255, 0), (255, 255, 255), (164, 0, 3)]), mode="RGB")
print("Pixel values of image1 at (0, 0):", image1.getpixel((0, 0)))

image2 = Image.fromarray(np.array([(25, 14, 3), (25, 222, 0), (255, 155, 0), (255, 55, 100), (180, 0, 78)]), mode="RGB")
print("Pixel values of image2 at (0, 0):", image2.getpixel((0, 0)))

# Compute the absolute pixel-wise difference between the two images
result = ImageChops.difference(image1, image2)
print("Pixel value in result at (0, 0) after difference:", result.getpixel((0, 0)))

Output

Pixel values of image1 at (0, 0): (235, 0, 0)
Pixel values of image2 at (0, 0): (25, 0, 0)
Pixel value in result at (0, 0) after difference: (210, 0, 0)

Example 2

In this examples, the ImageChops.difference() function is used to compute the absolute pixel-wise difference between two JPEG images (image1 and image2).

from PIL import Image, ImageChops
import numpy as np

# Open two image files
image1 = Image.open('Images/butterfly.jpg')
image2 = Image.open('Images/flowers.jpg')

# Compute the absolute pixel-wise difference between the two images
result = ImageChops.difference(image1, image2)

# Display the input and resulting images
image1.show()
image2.show()
result.show()

Output

Input Image 1

Input Image 2

Output Image

Example 3

In this example, the ImageChops.difference() function is used on two JPEG image files to compute the absolute pixel-wise difference between the two images.

from PIL import Image, ImageChops

# Open two image files
image1 = Image.open('Images/pillow-logo.png')
image2 = Image.open('Images/test_img.png')

# Compute the absolute pixel-wise difference between the two images
result = ImageChops.difference(image1, image2)

# Display the input and resulting images
image1.show()
image2.show()
result.show()

# Print the pixel values at a specific location (e.g., (100, 100))
print("Pixel value in image1 at (100, 100):", image1.getpixel((100, 100)))
print("Pixel value in image2 at (100, 100):", image2.getpixel((100, 100)))
print("Pixel value in result at (100, 100) after difference:", result.getpixel((100, 100)))

Output

Input Image 1

Input Image 2

Output Image

Pixel value in image1 at (100, 100): (183, 84, 131, 255)
Pixel value in image2 at (100, 100): (174, 65, 9, 255)
Pixel value in result at (100, 100) after difference: (9, 19, 122, 0)