Merging Blended Layers

[Nomadski]

If i have a layer and duplicate it a couple of times to make different blending changes, then try and merge the 3 layers together it doesn't keep the different blend modes intact, as the merged image immediately changes from before. I don't want to flatten the whole image (as there are more layers that i want to keep separate).

Is there a way of combining these 3 layers only while keeping the blend changes ive made intact? I could always keep the 3 layers, but am wanting my PSD to be as neat as possible without having unnecessary layers cluttering up the document.

Any help would be mosyt appreciated.

[sic.sick6]

i do not kno if i understood u fully therre... but i'll try to help out anyways... this may not be wut u wanted but heres wut u do..

1 - make an empty layer
2 - hide all layers except the ones u want to merge
3 - with the new empty layer selected in the layers panel press ctrl+shift+alt+E

is that wut u wanted?

EDIT: wait... u want 3 layers merged? and also want the blendin options to stay? the result of the blendin wud be there.. but it cant be editable afterwards... i dont think wut ur askin is possible... maybe it is... wait for someone with more experience to drop by...

[Tesseract]

As far as I know it's not possible, but what you *CAN* do is put them all into a group. You know, select 'em then drag 'em onto that little icon that looks like a folder...

[MartinBabies]

What you are asking for is only possible by putting them in a group, like Tesseract said. But that is kinda limited. Probably not what you're after. But if you could throw away the blending modes and stuff, then the good old empty layer merge works.

[Nomadski]

Ah k it seems its not realy possible. I want to keep the blending modes intact but flatten the 3 layers that im no longer going to edit, to save some space and also to then do layer masking with the one layer instead of 3. If i just merge the layers the blending modes seem to dissapear as the resulting image is different.

I will just try grouping, but not sure how that helps me then add layer masks, guess ill try doing it to the whole group?

Well thanks for the suggestions.

[Henry]

what you could do is:
take them into a new document
new layer
apply image
drag it back to the other document