Threshold for Photocopy/Pop Art Effect Won't Apply

[hearmeshimmer]

Hello,

I frequently use Threshold to create photocopy/pop art type effects. Occasionally I will run into images or situations where I can't get the effect to save/apply when saving file, or "printing" file to a new layer via Shift+Option+Command+E. I am an intermediate user, so I may be missing something obvious. 

Here's the look I want to achieve, before applying it to a new layer:

Then, after I hit Shift+Option+Command, here's what I get on the new layer:

There are more mid-tones and black showing.
I've tried placing a Solid White Background as the first layer instead, but result is the same.

Thanks for the help!

Photoshop 24.01.1 on M1 Mac OSX

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Could you please post screenshots taken at View > 100% with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Options Bar, …) visible from before and after merging? 

[PECourtejoie · Accepted solution]

Yes, I think that @hearmeshimmer is seeing an approximative image pyramid at 12.5%. For WYSIWYG, switch to 100% view. (you could go to Window>Arrange>New window for [document name] and set it to 100% to have a "preview" at 100% view while you work on the fit to view on the other window.)

[c.pfaffenbichler]

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Yes, I think that @hearmeshimmer is seeing an approximative image pyramid at 12.5%. 

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I wonder how many threads have been started because of a version of this issue … 

[Earth Oliver]

I wonder how many more decades we'll need to wait before this is resolved?

[Earth Oliver]

what i don't understand is why the rendering of the flattened layer can be accurate, but the preview of the threshold is not? Why are we still in the 90s here?

[PECourtejoie]

Is it less accurate in order to speed up the rendering ?

[Earth Oliver]

I imagine the last time that was an issue was late 20th century? Just like all the old filters without previews...

[PECourtejoie]

Should we bug it and tag the team that worked on the 16 bits accurate previews? 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

And one could totally circumvent the issue if the Cache Level 1-bug would be fixed … 

[D Fosse]

what i don't understand is why the rendering of the flattened layer can be accurate, but the preview of the threshold is not? Why are we still in the 90s here?

By @Earth Oliver

It's because the preview isn't calculated on the full pixel data. It's calculated on the downsampled screen version, and you can imagine what downsampling does to noise-like pixel structure in the original. When you flatten/commit, the full pixel data are calculated, and so it appears correctly.

This is what's known as the Image Pyramid, appearing as "Cache Levels" in Preferences. The real bug here is that you can't set cache levels to 1, which would force a full-image calculation of the preview at all zoom ratios. You could previously do that, but no more. It's been requested so many times that most of us have just given up.

Not a problem as long as you understand this, but a nuisance just the same. Todays hardware should be a ble to handle this. Well, some laptops maybe not, but it's a preference, after all.

[PECourtejoie · Accepted solution]

Hello, @hearmeshimmer @does it work as expected at 100% magnification ?

[hearmeshimmer]

@Earth Oliver @PECourtejoie @c.pfaffenbichler Thank you very much for your responses. You were all completely correct. Quite strange, but this is more more manageable than it being a file type issue, which is where my head was going. Thanks for helping a novice.

[PECourtejoie]

Super!
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