Can I remove transparent pixels from a layer with a different blending mode in Photoshop cc14?

Question

If I have a layer with a white background and I want to remove it, I can often just change the blending mode to Screen or Overlay and it ends up exactly the way I want it. However, I often want a different blending mode for the remaining visible pixels. Of course I could just select the area I want, but it takes a long time to achieve the exact same effect, especially when using overlay.

So I was wondering if there's a simple way to keep the layer exactly as it looks with a blend mode, even when converting it back to Normal? Hope that made sense

Answer 1

I am not sure if I understand what you mean. If you want to make all the white pixels transparent, you can use layer styles.

1. Double-click the icon of the layer. The Layer Style window will open.
2. In Blending options>Blend if>This layer, option-drag* the white slider all the way to the left:

These sliders determine the range of brightness values that the layer will be visible in. You can read more about that here: Specify a tonal range for blending layers.

When you click OK, only the dark pixels will be visible. You can select any blending mode you want.

*This is on a mac. On different operating systems, you may have to use other keys than option.