Photoshop: Ability to exclude a layer from the eyedropper

Yes i could do this, but it's cumbersome. Also, sometimes you want to paint on layers below other layers that have different compositing modes affecting everything. You don't always want to turn them off.

You only have to turn them off for sampling the color. As soon as you've done that, you can turn them on again for painting.

BTW, having this option in the eye-dropper would not be very different. You would still need some interface to turn on/off layers before sampling.

Having to turn off the layer everytime you wish to sample the underlying colour is the problem - it slows you down. 

Say you're painting underneath a linework sketch set to multiply. If you could choose to omit the linework layer from the colour picker, then everytime you colour pick your painting layer you wouldn't need to turn off the linework, colour pick, then turn back on the linework. You could instead colour pick from the underlying painting layer while still keeping the linework visible. 

It's an efficiency feature. It would simply be faster than turning off the layers above the layer you're painting on. You don't necessarily need to see the exact colours you're picking before picking them. 

This is definitely helpful but it still isn't really what i'd like.  Basically with the way i work i end up with a bunch of layers (that aren't adjustment layers) affecting the colours underneath. Then i have my colour layers below, sometimes quite a few. The problem with the Current and Below option is that i'll still need to select a colour above my current layer but below the top colour grade layers. 

Still, thanks for taking the time. If i could just trick a layer or folder into thinking it was an adjustment layer i could set the eyedropper to ignore adjustment layers and i'd be all set!