The agony of flattening layers with blend modes

I'm having this problem too. I have groups of layers and want to merge some layers together to reduce complexity and edit differently.

One layer is set to blend mode COLOR

When I merge with the layer below it which has normal blend mode, it loses the look and becomes something entirely different, not what I want. 

Someone gave a solution to use SHIFT+OPTION+COMMAND+E (for mac) and that will make a copy merge, but it merged my entire document and made it a new layer, rather than just those layers I had selected. So I'm still not totally sure how to do this properly. 

Hope Photoshop can make a good solution to this issue.

I have the same problem. I have multiple layers and folders with various blend modes applied to them. I want to be able to save the final image (screenshot) as I see it on my screen, but when I merge all the layers (Ctrl +Alt + Shift + E), the image loses the effects because the layers don't apply their respective blend modes. I know the reson why, but isn't there a way to save the funal image and retain the visual effects prior to merging the layers?

I think I figured out why the blend modes don't show after merging group, did an experiment with 2 files, 1 file with the mode of "pass through" and another with the mode of "normal" the Layers in each file have the same stuff (layers and with different blend modes). The File with "normal" blend mode shows different result than the File with "pass through" blend mode. When merging the file with "pass through" blend mode will show different result from what you see before merging, while the "normal" blend mode file will merge and show the same result you see before merging. So I'm thinking it's better to set File/Folder mode to "normal" first before working on the project, hope this helps.

StrongBeaver.

All I can say is that at least I UNDERSTAND your problem. I have just encountered it myself.

You are one of the few people who has actually worded it properly, and STILL you received patronising and completely misunderstanding replies.

I am using Photoshop Elements 4.0 on a mac and when I merge layers with blending, the visual effect of the blending is lost. This is completely ridiculous: Layer blendings have no purpose if you cannot flatten the image while keeping the VISUAL EFFECT of a blending mode (NOT the blending mode itself, as some people have misinterpreted). You need to flatten an image to do almost anything with a photoshop document.

In older versions of photoshop, this was not an issue - flattening an image reproduced EXACTLY what appeared on screen.

If there is no solution to this very real problem, then Layer Blending is COMPLETELY useless, and only for show. This is a very serious problem with the program and I am surprised that it hasn't been brought up more often.

I apologise if someone did post a solution that works.

Hey,

I havent read all the replies so I might be repeating something, but, this is how I get aorund it...

1) Put everything above your group into a new Parent Group. (create a folder at the top, select all layers above your group and move them into it)

2) Put everything below your group into a new Parent Group. (create a folder at the bottom, select all layers below your group and move them into it)

**You should now have 3 groups - the one you wanna merge, one above it and one below. (and maybe a pesky background layer outside of groups)

3) Turn visibility off on the Parent groups. (and any pesky background layers)

4) Inside the group you wanna merge, create a new layer at the top.

5) With new layer selected hold ALT then click the Floating Layer Windows sub-menu/drop down thing (just below the close icon) and click megre visible.

6) That should megre the goods to one layer and retain your effects.

7)..up to you...but i usually push all the stuff below that new layer into a subgroup and name it "source".

Hope that helped.

Rob

Oh, the agony of defeat!

StrongBeaver wrote: I need to flatten a series of layers within a group, which have different blend modes.  I've tried merging group, that resorts all layers to 'normal mode', I have also tried merge visible which does the same as 'merging group', convert to smart object, same results.  I don't want to go the route of flatten image, it has worked to a degree, my photoshop file is organized how I want it and I want to strictly take the group or select those layers and merge them while keeping the blend mode in tact....

Obviously merged layers become one layer and you can't have more than one blending mode per layer. So, if I understand you correctly, when you say: you want to keep the blending mode intact, you apparently mean to keep the same appearance after the layers are merged. Well, this is impossible if the bottom layer from the group is not fully opaque where the other layers have semi-transparent pixels.

If you flatten everything with fully opaque white layer at the bottom, the appearance will be preserved. In fact you should never create images without a fully opaque layer at the bottom.

StrongBeaver wrote: Where did I ever say, that I didn't understand !?!?!?! It is clearly visible, technicalities aside that when the layers are merged that the composition resorts to 'normal' mode.

Well that's the default because it has to be some mode when you have layers with different modes. If all layers were with the same mode, it will remain after merging. If you don't like the default normal mode, change it  to whatever mode you want, but as I said, if you have semitransparent pixels this will not help and still change the appearance. Your problem is the semitransparent pixels, not the mode.

what I do not understand is why the original poster, Strongbeaver, can not accept that no matter how many layer you have, in groups or individually, with different blend modes on those layers, in groups and individually, when you flatten or merge those layers they can no longer retain the different blend modes. They are all combined into one flatten or merged layer. They are no long individual layers.

Yes the blend mode adjustments for each layer is carried over into, applied to, the final image. But that final flatten or merged image must now have a Normal blend mode. It is now one (1) Layer and you can not have multiple blend modes in one layer.

It occurs to me no one's asked you why you want to merge the layers...  Is the performance bad or something?

Don't I recall that with a group you collapse the whole thing so it doesn't take up a lot of room in your Layers panel?

-Noel

Fact is you can not merge or flatten a group of layers and have the individual layer blend modes stay. Once merged or flattened they no longer individual layers. They have an effect on the individual layers and that effect from each individual layer will be carried over into a merged or flatten layer but that new merged or flatten layer will then have a Normal blend mode. It has to, it can't have anything but one blend mode, a normal blend mode.

I would think this is true also if you took that group and made one Smart Object from them.

So the only way to preserve all the blend modes is to not merge or flatten those layers