A New Way of Reducing Stars in Photoshop

[HughP]

I must be doing something wrong! I have followed the steps and my image is vastly improved with less stars, but when I save it is as I have done nothing!

I have the Starless image at the bottom, my original in the middle with  and a copy above that with blend set to Pin Light. I then reduce the opacity of the middle layer to 60% and save.

 It seems to me that unless the opacity of the top layer (Pin Light) is reduced then that layer will be the resulting image. I was taught to look on layers as sheets of glass that you look down on, each layer then alters the layer below. 

The process certainly works and I like the result, just need to find a way to save it.

[wornish]

19 hours ago, HughP said:

I must be doing something wrong! I have followed the steps and my image is vastly improved with less stars, but when I save it is as I have done nothing!

I have the Starless image at the bottom, my original in the middle with  and a copy above that with blend set to Pin Light. I then reduce the opacity of the middle layer to 60% and save.

 It seems to me that unless the opacity of the top layer (Pin Light) is reduced then that layer will be the resulting image. I was taught to look on layers as sheets of glass that you look down on, each layer then alters the layer below. 

The process certainly works and I like the result, just need to find a way to save it.

Its probably because you only have the ORIG Norm layer selected when you save the image.  

Make sure all three layers are selected then Flatten the image to a single layer.   ( Top Menu :  Layer - Flatten Image)

Then save the image.

[HughP]

Dave, thanks for the reply. No matter what I do, flatten, merge, select all 3 layers the result is still the same. I'm convinced if you have an image layer above another it must have reduced opacity or it will 'block' anything under it. I have all 3 layers active (the eyes on the left) the middle one selected in blue is just the layer that is active for adjustment. But I have tried or suggestion but still no joy. Thank you for reply though the thread being a bit old I did not expect a reply! The result in 3 layers has made such a difference to my North American Nebula image it is worth trying to find a way.

Cheers Hugh

[Xiga]

25 minutes ago, HughP said:

Dave, thanks for the reply. No matter what I do, flatten, merge, select all 3 layers the result is still the same. I'm convinced if you have an image layer above another it must have reduced opacity or it will 'block' anything under it. I have all 3 layers active (the eyes on the left) the middle one selected in blue is just the layer that is active for adjustment. But I have tried or suggestion but still no joy. Thank you for reply though the thread being a bit old I did not expect a reply! The result in 3 layers has made such a difference to my North American Nebula image it is worth trying to find a way.

Cheers Hugh

Hi Hugh

I'm not on my computer right now, so I can't check exactly what's going wrong for you, but here is a workaround that should work .

Instead of flattening the image, select the top layer and then do a 'Stamp Visible'. I think the shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. This effectively makes a copy of what you see on the screen (which is a product of multiple layers) and copies it into a new layer. Then you can just delete all the layers below.

Stamp Visible is so useful in many ways. I'd be lost without it .

Hope that helps 😃

Edited September 1, 2019 by Xiga

[Stub Mandrel]

45 minutes ago, HughP said:

Dave, thanks for the reply. No matter what I do, flatten, merge, select all 3 layers the result is still the same. I'm convinced if you have an image layer above another it must have reduced opacity or it will 'block' anything under it. I have all 3 layers active (the eyes on the left) the middle one selected in blue is just the layer that is active for adjustment. But I have tried or suggestion but still no joy. Thank you for reply though the thread being a bit old I did not expect a reply! The result in 3 layers has made such a difference to my North American Nebula image it is worth trying to find a way.

Cheers Hugh

Pin light only blocks light that is brighter than 50%, that's how this filter works. Saving should prompt you to 'flatten image?' which merges the layers. Otherwise it saves the layers separately and if you view in something other than PS you may only see one layer.

Flatten your image and save a copy for looking at, you may also want to save a copy with layers for future  modification but this eats up disk space.

[HughP]

4 hours ago, Xiga said:

Hi Hugh

I'm not on my computer right now, so I can't check exactly what's going wrong for you, but here is a workaround that should work .

Instead of flattening the image, select the top layer and then do a 'Stamp Visible'. I think the shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. This effectively makes a copy of what you see on the screen (which is a product of multiple layers) and copies it into a new layer. Then you can just delete all the layers below.

Stamp Visible is so useful in many ways. I'd be lost without it .

Hope that helps 😃

That's a really interesting shortcut, but it still does not reproduce the view on screen of the 3 layers. The middle layer seems to be ignored. I can see that it has uses. Thanks.

[HughP]

4 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Pin light only blocks light that is brighter than 50%, that's how this filter works. Saving should prompt you to 'flatten image?' which merges the layers. Otherwise it saves the layers separately and if you view in something other than PS you may only see one layer.

Flatten your image and save a copy for looking at, you may also want to save a copy with layers for future  modification but this eats up disk space.

Arh that makes perfect sense. I knew that it should have some 'transparency'in the top layer. I usually save with layers either PSD or Tif. Then flatten. I'm now just wondering if it may be because I'm using PS5.1     I will be updating later this month to subscription.

[Stub Mandrel]

28 minutes ago, HughP said:

Arh that makes perfect sense. I knew that it should have some 'transparency'in the top layer. I usually save with layers either PSD or Tif. Then flatten. I'm now just wondering if it may be because I'm using PS5.1     I will be updating later this month to subscription.

Yes, a layered Tiff saved in PS won't always display as you expect in other programs. I usually save a 16-bit TIFF as my 'archive copy' and use Astra Image (it compresses better than my old version of PS) to save an 8-bit compressed PNG for the web etc.