Flatten image changes layer effects. How can I view my whole canvas accurately?

[hunter1801]

Really frustrated with this problem. Been working on my bands logo that has 2 layers on it. One has layer effects on it (inner and outer glow). When I flatten the image, it changed the way that it looked. Found out that it just "looks" like it changes because my canvas wasn't at 100%. I have to zoom out to about 25% to be able to see the whole image and work on it.

Is there any way to accurately see my whole image on the canvas and what the layer effects will actually look like? The way it works now, I have no idea how the image will change once I flatten it. Being zoomed out makes what I'm actually viewing on the screen to be wrong it seems.

I attached 2 images, (Both are at 25%) the first one is what I'm looking at on screen BEFORE I flatten the image. This is what I want my actual image to look like. The second is AFTER I flatten the image. Notice the inner/outer glow gets smaller. I tried to just increase the size of the glows to compensate once I flatten it since I noticed that they were basically just shrinking. This doesn't really work though and I lose the noise effect on the white outer glow.

How am I supposed to work on the image and see what it looks like as a whole if zooming out doesn't show what the image will ACTUALLY look like? :banghead:

 

[Steve]

I'm not sure what's happening, it shouldn't change but my question is why are you flattening the PSD.

If you're done with the image and it's just the way you want is save the PSD then save to JPG.
You keep the layers because it allows you to make additional change in the future if you want to.

If you need to have all the images merged for the next step in your editing then (Stamp Visible) Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E.
This merges all layers but keeps the originals, just in case.

 

[hunter1801]

Well I don't flatten then save. I keep the original with the layers so I can go back and edit if I need to. Saving to JPEG basically flattens the image anyways though right? I don't technically have to flatten them all myself before I save them, but when I save the file to another format, it's going to anyways.

The problem is still there regardless of whether I manually flatten or not. I'm looking at it just the way I want it (when I'm at 25% zoom to see the whole image) but if I save it to a jpg or anything else it looks different.

If I "Save As", select JPEG, and hit save, it will change even before it actually saves the file. On the JPEG options screen, it is already changed to look different.

The problem is that the image on screen isn't accurate to what your image actually looks like unless you are at 100%. So even if I'm done editing and I want to save what I'm looking at, it isn't really what the image is going to look like.

Edit: If someone needs it, I can link the actual Photoshop file if you want to see if the same thing happens to you.

 

[Steve]

Edit: If someone needs it, I can link the actual Photoshop file if you want to see if the same thing happens to you.

Definitely, or you can post it here.

 

[hunter1801]

View attachment logo1.psd

Here is the file

 

[Steve]

I don't know.
Anything I do, flatten, merge, whatever, viewed at 50% or below visibly changes the FX.
Below 100% the image isn't accurately displayed.

Viewed at 100% there is no apparent change.
You're right to be sticking with magnifications of 100, 75, 50, 25%.
Doing that is suppose to be more accurate, but not here.

 

[hunter1801]

Someone at the Adobe forums answered with this. Not too sure what all of it means since I'm pretty basic when it comes to Photoshop, but I guess there is really no way to view it accurately other than at 100%?

"As they say in software development: "Design limitation". It's how PS uses the current zoom level to access the relevant cahce tiles and how blending order is different for life layer effects. Your glow is not getting smaller, on the flattened version it is just being interpolated differently with the neighboring pixels to produce more levels of grey, making your dithering noise disappear if not zoomed 100%. You really cannot do much about it but work at 100% all the time. Still, it doesn't really make sense you even use the noise - any scaling operation no matter whether in PS or another program would just the same obliterate your noise due to the interpolation, anyways."

 

[Steve]

I heard something similar about avoiding in between magnifications and sticking with numbers that go evenly into 100.
The answer you got sounds like the explanation I heard in a Deke McClelland video.

I'm glad you figured it out.