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How to have a blending layer with transparency not to mix with another one?


J

jist

Active Member
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Hithere,

Each of these three 'people' have there own layer, with their own transparency setting.
As you can see, where the medium man and small man overlap, the image gets darker.

3.PNG

Is there a way to set 'overrule' or 'dominance' (lost for correct words here) to the layer with the medium man, so it will look like this:


4.PNG
 

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Hello, you wrote it ; layer transparency, you have to set opacity to 100%

Edit : and yellow has to be transparent or masked,
 
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One way would be to sample the resulting colours and set each layer to its respective colour and return the opacity back to 100%.

Regards.
MrToM.
 
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peta62 said:
Hello, you wrote it ; layer transparency, you have to set opacity to 100%

Edit : and yellow has to be transparent or masked,
Click to expand...

Ok, guys, I posted in this newbie section for a reason.

If I set opacity for 'medium man' to 100, he turns black and will loose the lightness that it has currently.
 
I see, so just mask the "wrong" part.

Edit - posting *.psd may be the fastest communication.
Edit 2 - or using "blend if" instead of masking
 
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Like I said....you need to set the pixels on each layer to the final 'colour' you want and keep the opacity @ 100%.

You cannot use any form of transparency....be that via the layer opacity or a mask.

1. Use the 'Eyedropper' tool to sample the colour of the 'Middle' man. (That's as it stands now...as your posted image)
2. Select the 'Middle man' layer and CTRL + CLICK the THUMBNAIL of that layer.
3. FILL the selection with the sampled 'Foreground' colour.
4. Set the opacity of the layer back to 100%
5. Repeat for the other layer.

The result should be the same but without ANY layer having ANY transparency and thus removing the problem.

Regards.
MrToM.
 
I was guessing that maybe there was an option to have the 'small man' layer only displaying parts of it's picture where the above layers are 100% transparent. So clipping all parts of that image where any layer above it has non-transparent pixels.
(sample psd attached)
 

Attachments

MrToM said:
MrToM.
Click to expand...

Thnx Tom, I'll try that out later.
(going out now)

The reason I was hoping for some easier 'dominance', 'overruling', 'clipping' setting, is that then I could keep the transparency layers as intact as possible for succeeding and repetitive actions with those layers.
 
Ah...right...in that case do as peta62 suggested and apply a layer mask to each one.

1. Rearrange your layers so the 'Left' man is on the bottom...not strictly needed but still.
2. CTRL click the 'Left' man to create a marquee.
3. Select the next layer up...the 'Middle' man.
4. Invert the selection and add a layer mask.
5. Repeat for the other layer.

transparency_issue_MT_01.png

You lose some of the layer this way but if thats ok then it will do the job.....but if you move the layers after you'll have to redo the masks.

View attachment three men_MT_01.psd

Regards.
MrToM.
 
Hi jist
There are always many ways to achieve the same objective.
Here is yet another not involving Blend Ifs, special blend modes or masks.

ADDED EDIT - Leveraging the psd file from peta62 (hope that's OK)

Set background color (does not have to be a true "Background Layer")
Put all the people layers in a group with the furthest person at the bottom, then the middle, then the closest.
Set all people Layers in their Layer Style panel to "knockout" with dropdown set to "shallow"
Then just set the Fill Opacity of each person Layer as desired.
Done

The above could be done with no grouping by having the knockout set to deep yet the background must be a true "Background" Layer.

Just another way to do the same thing

John Wheeler

View attachment Easy three people.psd



Screen Shot 2016-01-03 at 11.15.03 AM.png
 
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@thebestcpu , after trying your method (based on your written instruction) it wouldn't work. Then I looked at your screenshot, and I saw that you had set the general blending to 100% opacity. Also, I only had to do the middle person.
 
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Hi IamSam
I may have confused things by indicating I leveraged @peta64 psd file. I only leveraged the people part of the Layer and nothing of the Layer Style (they were reset) just so I would not have to start from scratch. Then I reordered the Layers, set the knockout setting, and then just used the Fill opacity.

I used an approach with the knockout and also using the Fill Opacity (and not using the plain Opacity at all on any Layer). This allows independent Fill opacity blending of each Layer (whether 2, 3,4, 5 etc) including the closest person Layer without any additional special instructions of using regular opacity. So was going for a simplified and more general solution.

For reference for those that don't know, the knockout allows the Layer to reach down and use a lower Layer as the direct Fill background to an upper Layer. If the background Layer is 0% transparent, then each of the Fill Opacity adjusted people Layers acts as Solid Layer, so one just needs the furthest back person as the lowest Layer, and the the next furthest back as the next Layer, etc. Since each person Layer is seen as solid, there is no transparency interaction with succeeding Layers. Each person Layer just overlays the next.

The approach I showed not only allows independent setting of the adjustment of the background color with each person Layer, one can also independently change the background color to an arbitrary setting and not have to go back and readjust any Blend IF settings. I have seen the knockout feature rarely used (limited capability) yet it does come in handy once in while.

Hope that clears things up (or did I just muddy the waters? :) )
 
thebestcpu said:
Hi @IamSam
Hope that clears things up (or did I just muddy the waters? :) )
Click to expand...

I was confused in the beginning, but now I have your solution working, and I think it is a very good one!
Also nice to see that the guru's here found my little challenge interesting themselves.
That makes me not feel too silly myself.

Thanks again everybody!
 
thebestcpu - of course it is OK to use it, that is the purpose of this forum to help each other and share. I am just wondering whether OP's psd would not have been better for you.
 
thebestcpu said:
Hope that clears things up (or did I just muddy the waters?
Click to expand...
That clears it up. I was using the original file posted by jist.
 


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