I can't tell you how many times a day i have to turn off all my layers above the layer i am working on, take a color sample with the eye dropper, and then turn all those layers back on. A simple 'current and below' option (like the clone tool) would be amazing. Please please please??
Sorry if this makes me sound like a rube, but if you have other layers visible above the current layer that you want to select a color from, how can you tell if you are sampling from the correct area, getting the correct color?
Just as a side tip for hiding all of those other layers and then making them visible again: Hold down the Alt (Option) key and click the eye/visibility icon in the layers panel. This will hide all other layers. You can then restore the visibility of these layers by again Alt (Option) clicking the eye again. This will also remember layers that were already hidden. So the second Alt (Option) click restores visibility to only those layers that it was already taken it away from. This causes a certain weakness in that if you change layer visibility after the first Alt (Option) click, you will lose the restoring behavior of the second Alt (Option) click.
If you have layers visible from above, the sample being made is a merged sample of everything visible regardless of where in your layer stack you sample. It is annoying when you have adjustment layers ABOVE the layer you need to paint on. Those adjustments do not accurately give you a sample of the data below the adjustments.
the alt key eyeball click turns off ALL the other eyeballs. I'd want it to turn ONLY the eyeballs off above the layer i am working on. Not below. then the sample wouldn't work (because all the eyeballs are off).
Brett, turning off all layers isn't what's wanted; you might have pixel layers you want in tact.
It's the adjustment layers one wants off, because if one samples with them on above, then paints below, they get a double application of said adjustments.
I wish there was an option to set the eyedropper/color sampler to read out not only the "Current layer" or "All layers", but the layers "Current & Below".
This would be really helpful because I sometimes work on images with adjustment layers on top and when I try picking a color from a layer underneath, I'll get the color of the merged result, which then again is affected by the adjustment layers on top.
The fact that sample current and below in the eyedropper/brush sampler has been overlooked by adobe for so many versions makes me feel like they take secret pleasure in making users insane. Thank you adobe for all of the other useless photoshop features, just give us this one that would make our lives better beyond belief.
The fact that I have to turn off my entire color set when I need to sample and paint on pixel layers makes me want to push my monitor off my desk.
Toggling layers on/off with option key doesn't work because I am on the touchup layer and want to sample the pixel layer below. Therefore the only obvious answer is to have current & below option for eyedropper. Why is this option on everything BUT the eyedropper?
I think what you want is an option for the Eyedropper tool like this: "Sample: This/This and below/All layers", just like in the clone tool. Photoshop CS5 has this pull down option but it lacks "This and below", I don't know why they forgot it. I give a thumbs up for this too.
And I would add also another improvement in the visibility of layers:
at the right click menu in the eye icon of the layer I would add the option "Hide all layers above this one". This is something I do very very frequently and currently you have to do it by hand and it is a real pain when you are working with 20 or more layers and you want to hide all layers above layer 10.
In previous versions I was able to sample from above layer to make changes to a lower layer. When color correcting, I'll put a square sample on a layer and try to match visually and by the numbers. I have not figured out how to do this in CS6. It has been a few versions since I was able to.
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