Photoshop; Adjustment layer effect won't flatten

[McJaws]

Hello,

In Photoshop, i am using a clipped level adjustment on a layer and from what i know you are supposed to be able to make it one layer by flattening the image. Turns out the level adjustment loses it's effect once its done.

Anybody know what i am doing wrong?

Cheers,

[krisvahl]

I flattened with a clipped levels adjustment layer and it worked fine. Do you want to post more details and maybe a before/after screenshot?

[McJaws]

Sure can,

I have a noise layer with a level adjustment

Before flattening


After flattening


Let me know and thanks!

[krisvahl]

The problem is you're not viewing the document at 100%. At 25% it's giving you a false indication of the results of the adjustment layer. Before flattening, zoom into 100% and you'll see that the results are the same as the flattened version.

[krisvahl]

Also the reason you're not getting the results you want is because (I assume) the noise you're trying to adjust is pure black and white (no greys) so the adjustment of levels produces no real results (just the false results viewed unflattened at less than 100%).

To get around this just slightly blur the noise using the blur filter, this will create some greys which can then have their levels adjusted and you'll get the look that you want. Just make sure you're viewing at 100% when you do the level adjustments.

[McJaws]

Right on the money, i should have realized that.

Thanks mate!