Photoshop Creative

I have a question regarding the Dissolve Blend Mode on PSE 4. In my photo, Painted Whale,
http://www.prestophoto.com/photos/image/855921/19834, I created the outer frame by bluring the background, created a gradient map adjustment layer above it using a green gradient. I then changed the blend mode of the gradient adjustment layer to dissolve. I then changed the opacity of that adjustment layer to about 50%. This gave me a very interesting frame, but I could not get the JPEG photo to look the same, no matter what I tried. Just saving the photo as a JPEG, I got the photo that is posted in my gallery, which is still quite pleasing, but different than how the psd file appears on screen. I tried merging all layers (Ctrl / Alt / Shift + E), but the effect changed in the same way. Also tried to merge only the adjustment layer and the blured photo below, but again the same change took place. As I said, the final effect is OK, but not what I was expecting based on the psd file.
Does anyone have any tutorials explaining how to use the dissolve mode so that what you see is what you get?
Joe

No tut for you, but just finished playing. I'm wondering if the change is due to the fact that psd & tiff save with a transparent background, while jpeg saves with a white background?.

Hi Joe,

I did some playing around in PSE6 and searching the web, but couldn't come up with a solution. I found one post that said if you use 'merge visible' instead of 'flatten image' you would have a better result. But, I tried that and the result was the same. I did find a post over on the Village (by Wendy, I think) that says results are inconsistent when using Blend Modes and merging/flattening an image. That sure seems true because in my testing I used a simple CTRL+ E to 'merge down' and results looked OK. But then when I repeatly pressed the undo/redo buttons to compare the results the results were again inconsistent.

If I do find something, I will let you know.

By the way, love your photos -- all of them!

Linda, I guess I don't see how the background would make a difference, but it is an interesting observation.

Amy, I also tried merge visible and flatten image, but I got the same effect either way; it appears from the findings of others that this may just be the nature of the beast. I'll keep playing to see if I can understand this more.

Thanks you for the comments on my images, I am pleased that you like them.

Joe