CS2: Layer Properties Problem!!!

Hi and thanks for reading and hopefully replying.

I have been using PS since it came out and never encountered this problem untill now when I participated in my first map challange. I am sure there is a simple solution for it, just something I never grasped about layers...hmmm.

Here is the problem: I have 6 layers and all have different blending options. Now, when I flatten the image or save as .jpg or something else, it somehow discardes all but one blending option, giving the flattened pic a different look (that of just one blending option)....strange.

Well, it never occured to me before as I usually never had to work with more than 2 layers...lol.

I overcame the problem for now by making partial screenshots and put them back together (how silly).

Anyway, I am sure I am doing something wrong, but what?

Thanks for any help.

Regards
Benarius

I noticed this too when I was working on a large image that only shows at like 33.6% zoom. It appears to look totally different when layered as it does when flattened. If you zoom in to 100% or more and then flatten, you see no difference at all. So it appears, to me, that layer styles are magnified when zooming out for some reason...I guess so that we don't forget that they're there :) This really drove me nuts when trying to figure out an outer glow for rivers on my old continent style. It seemed really dark when zoomed out but when I zoomed in it looked fine or disappeared. Why it does this I have no idea...hence I don't do outer glows for anything except text...I use an airbrush instead. Cut to the chase...it's sort of an optical illusion persistent in the zooming...it looks fine at full size.

Yep, it's been driving me nuts the last few hours. I checked now. Zoomed in and out looking at it in both versions. When zoomed out it's fine. When zoomed in it changes badly. I actually thought I did test that possibility, but I guess one can get confused very quickly in PS...lol. Most jobs I do are colour corrections and some text art for web pages. Never made a 1000 by 1000 pixels or double that much giving me a 60-100MB file...lol. Always learn something new.

Thanks heaps.

Regards
Benarius

P.S. Come to think off. How does one get around that the thumbnail looks actually completly different than the large map. Oh, well. Gotta live with it I guess.

I haven't tried this yet but it's my first thought...rasterize the layer. Create a new layer, link it to the layer you're working on (with the layer styles), move this new layer underneath the working layer, click on the working layer, then merge down. This removes the layer style and turns the layer into a raster chunk but also removes the blend mode of the style (like an outer glow set to screen). So just reset the blend mode of the layer to what was the blend mode of the style.

If you have varying blend modes on varying styles you will need each separate style on it's own rasterized layer and this may chew huge holes into your memory (depending on the size and color complexity of the pixels on the layer) and defeats the purpose of styles in the first place (instead of having all of these numerous layers they get composited into one layer, more layers = more memory hogging). The one problem with styles such as outer glow and outer bevel is that they will go out over the ocean when you don't want them to (as in when using a dark green outer glow or a down outer bevel for a river valley). So in this case rasterizing that part of a style can let you go back and erase the parts covering the ocean.

Long story short -- turn off those annoying style parts until you need them, like at the end. :) You can turn off a layer style by poking out the eye in the layer palette, style sub palette as in the screenshot.

I was also going to suggest you try linking the layers before you 'flatten' not sure if it will make a difference or not.

I had this problem on a photograph I was manipulating. I had about 6 layers each with various blend modes and layer styles and when I merged them, the merged result looked nothing like the 6 layers before they were merged.

So I went google hunting and the best thread explaining what was going on was this one.

I've also seen a number of suggested workarounds on the web, but I tried them all and none of them worked for me. So what I did in the end was merge the layers one by one to isolate the layer that was givng the problem. I changed the blend mode in that one layer so something that was very similar (but not quite the same) and it merged fine.

If you google: merge layer blend mode problems

It brings up references to this problem on a number of boards. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's a real pain. (Only ever happened to me the once).

Thanks for all your replies.

I am glad it's not just my problem...lol. (sarcasm)

Your link also shows it's a problem people get into lots of discussions and fights to realy solve this. I will try all the above mentioned solution and see what works best. Will let you know then.


Regards
Benarius

how big is your psd file? maybe I can take a shot at solving it

Yeah it really gets people flaming each other on those threads.

Thanks for your intrest in this problem. I guess it's common when using large size images or layers. I beleive the problem wouldn't exist on small files as it never occured to me before I started doing large maps.

Left is what I get when working with the file using about 10 layers. Right is the result after flattening or saving as .jpg. That's a huge difference in tones and details. These are at 25% display. When looking at a section at 100%, both look identical. So my question is: how can I create a .jpg that looks exacly as my original. I mean what's the point doing color balance and contrast when it all gets messed up again.

Thanks for your help and input.

Regards

Benarius

EDIT: please look at next page for something I missed completely, the left which I work on actually will look like the flattened. Confused, yet?