Mind-Blowing “Blend If” Photoshop Trick That You Don’t Know – 90-Second Tip
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This blend if trick in Photoshop turns the pixels that Blend If hides into real transparency, so your blend survives any later adjustment.
Blend If is a set of sliders in the Layer Style dialog. It hides pixels on a layer based on their brightness or color, with no mask and no erasing.
This page covers one specific trick: converting the blended layer to a Smart Object. If you want the whole feature explained, every slider and every use, read the complete guide to Blend If in Photoshop first.
The trick solves a problem every Blend If user runs into. You hide the sky, you adjust the layer, and the sky comes back.
It is for anyone who needs to keep editing a layer after blending it.
The video uses Photoshop CC 2018, and the trick works the same way in the latest version.
Key Takeaways
- Blend If hides pixels by reading their color and luminosity. Change either one and the blend changes with it.
- The layer thumbnail tells the truth. After a Blend If sky replacement, the sky is still in the thumbnail, because the pixels are hidden, not gone.
- Right-click the layer and choose Convert to Smart Object. The thumbnail now shows real transparency where the sky was.
- Once the layer is a Smart Object, an adjustment cannot bring the sky back, because the hidden pixels are no longer there to reveal.
Table of contents
What You Will Learn
- How Blend If hides a sky through the Blue channel
- Why an adjustment makes the hidden sky reappear
- How a Smart Object locks the blend in place for good
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop CC 2018 or the latest version
- A photo with a blue sky you want to replace
- A new sky image, placed on a layer below the photo
Step 1: Hide the Sky with Blend If
This is the sky replacement from the 7-minute Blend If guide, in short form. If you already have a blended layer, skip to Step 2.
Keep your photo on the layer above the new sky. Double-click an empty part of the photo layer to open the Layer Style dialog. The Blend If sliders sit at the bottom of the Blending Options.
Set the Blend If dropdown to Blue. A blue sky is the brightest part of the blue channel, so that channel separates it from the rest of the photo better than Gray does.
On the This Layer slider, drag the white point to the left. The brightest blue pixels disappear and the new sky comes through, even in the difficult areas between leaves and branches.
Tip: Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and click the white point to split it in two. Separate the two halves to create a smoother transition between the photo and the new sky.
Step 2: Why the Blend If Sky Comes Back
Here is the catch. Sooner or later you need to adjust that layer, and the moment you do, the old sky comes back.
Blend If uses color and luminosity to create the blend. When an adjustment changes those values, the blend changes too. Pixels that were bright enough in the blue channel to hide a moment ago may no longer pass the test, so they show up again.
Look at the layer thumbnail in the Layers panel. The sky is still there. Blend If never removed those pixels. It only stopped drawing them.
Step 3: The Blend If Trick in Photoshop, Convert to a Smart Object
Right-click the layer that carries the blend and choose Convert to Smart Object.
Now look at the layer thumbnail again. There is actual transparency where the sky used to be, shown as the checkerboard.
Make an adjustment to the layer now, and the sky stays gone. The pixels are truly hidden.
This blend if trick in Photoshop works because of how a Smart Object is built. It wraps the layer and its layer style into a container, and Photoshop renders that container as a finished result. The hidden sky is not part of that result, so there are no sky pixels left for an adjustment to reveal.
Note: The original layer, with its Blend If sliders, still lives inside the Smart Object. Double-click the Smart Object thumbnail to open its contents if you ever need to change the sliders, then save to update the blend.
When to Use This Blend If Trick
Reach for it whenever a Blend If layer needs more editing after the blend is done. Sky replacements are the classic case, because the photo usually needs a color or brightness tweak to match the new sky.
Convert after you are happy with the slider positions. The Smart Object locks in whatever the blend looks like at that moment.
Note: Photoshop 2021 and later also has a dedicated Sky Replacement feature under the Edit menu. It handles many photos in one click, and the Sky Replacement tutorial shows how. Blend If still gives you full manual control, and this trick still applies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Blend If hides pixels by their color and luminosity values. When you adjust the layer, those values change, so different pixels pass the test and the sky reappears. Convert the layer to a Smart Object to lock the blend in place.
It wraps the layer and its layer style into a Smart Object. The outer layer shows the rendered result, so the pixels Blend If hid become real transparency. An adjustment applied afterward cannot reveal them.
No. The original layer and its Blend If sliders are kept inside the Smart Object. Double-click the Smart Object thumbnail to open its contents and edit them.
The Blue channel. A blue sky is the brightest part of that channel, so dragging the This Layer white point to the left hides the sky before anything else.
Keep Your Blend If Blends Permanent
One right-click turns a fragile Blend If result into real transparency that survives every adjustment you make afterward.
Watch the 90-second video above to see the sky vanish from the thumbnail in real time.
If this blend if trick in Photoshop was new to you, comment on the video and say so.
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Next, read the complete guide to Blend If in Photoshop to master every slider.
YES!!!!!!!!!!
No I didn’t know. Yes, your tutorials are immensely helpful and well done in every sense. Thank you very much for the time and effort to create and for sharing them.
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Nice, I have a lot of photo editing where I need to replace the sky and this is going to save me so much time and frustration! thanks!
You’re welcome!
You are a genius. Where have you been all of my life. All of your videos are amazing and I am saving so much time.
Thank you, Steve!