Question on Blending Options

[C9Mouse]

I have a question that's been bugging me for a while now. Whenever I set up a new design I always have one or more layers with different Blend Options (i.e., Soft Light, Overlay, etc.).

My question is, does anyone know how to merge all layers and still keep the Blend Ops for each layer?

[Psmeg]

Hi,

Do you mean you want to be able to blend all the layers into one layer but also keep the individual layers so you could go back and re-edit them?

If so, create a new layer and ensure it is above all the layers you want to merge. Turn off the visibility of all layers you do NOT want merged. No activate the newly created empty layer and while holding the ALT key down press the layer pop-out menu (little arrow in the top right corner of the palette). You will need to keep the left mouse button held down or the menu will disappear.

From the menu choose, merge visible. That will compress or flaten all the currently visible layers onto the newly created blank layer. The good thing is, that it leaves all the original layers intact. You can now turn their visibility off and if you need to edit them at a later date, u can do so.

I hope this makes sense. If not, lmk and I'll do a little tut on it on my site/forum.

Hope this helps.

Psmeg

[C9Mouse]

Nope, not what I was after, but dang, PS.......I'm gonna file that one away in the 'ol PS Files.......thanks.

What I have, for example, is a file with eight layers altogether. One layer has Soft Light and another Overlay. What I am wondering is how I can merge all the layers and still preserve the two blending ops on those two layers.

[CADTutor]

Hmm...

Well, if you merge all layers, you end up with just one layer. Since the blending modes apply to layers, you will always lose the ability to modify these if the layers are merged. However, when you do merge, the blend effect is retained. So the merged image will look just the same as the layered image with the various blending modes.

Your question is a little confusing but I think I got it.

[C9Mouse]

I had a friend suggest using Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to take a snapshot of all layers, which saves the blending options and doesn't merge everything together so I loose it.

It's been a puzzle to me for a while now about this blending problem. The method I just mentioned seems to work best. Now I can take a snapshot of all the layers and still preserve the blending options.

To try an explain what I am doing a little, so maybe you can understand......I have a picture of clouds and I duplicated the layer. I resized the picture on the bottom layer and then I chose Overlay for the top layer and Soft Light for the one below it. My background layer (the bottom most layer) is light blue, and it gives a nice, soft transition.

When I tried merging all these layers I lost the effect I had when they were just layers. Taking a snapshot of all the layers seems to have fixed this problem.

I was a little hesitant using the snapshot method, since it bypasses the Merge All Layers command, but there's really no other way to achieve what I'm after.

Thanks for helping. I appreciate it.

-- C9