diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 8c2053d3c..24b4a632a 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ require (
 	golang.org/x/sync v0.0.0-20190423024810-112230192c58
 	golang.org/x/text v0.3.2 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/time v0.0.0-20180412165947-fbb02b2291d2 // indirect
-	golang.org/x/tools v0.0.0-20191001184121-329c8d646ebe // indirect
+	golang.org/x/tools v0.0.0-20191003162220-c56b4b191e2d // indirect
 	google.golang.org/appengine v1.1.0 // indirect
 	gopkg.in/inf.v0 v0.9.1 // indirect
 	gotest.tools v2.2.0+incompatible // indirect
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index e1bf4279a..3d94963d6 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -163,6 +163,8 @@ golang.org/x/tools v0.0.0-20190926165942-a8d5d34286bd h1:L7bTtbmMojUZYEAt0OrTU0Z
 golang.org/x/tools v0.0.0-20190926165942-a8d5d34286bd/go.mod h1:b+2E5dAYhXwXZwtnZ6UAqBI28+e2cm9otk0dWdXHAEo=
 golang.org/x/tools v0.0.0-20191001184121-329c8d646ebe h1:hFr8KcN0dM0/dqbUW0KZYN+YXJeZBpBWIG9ZkMuX1vQ=
 golang.org/x/tools v0.0.0-20191001184121-329c8d646ebe/go.mod h1:b+2E5dAYhXwXZwtnZ6UAqBI28+e2cm9otk0dWdXHAEo=
+golang.org/x/tools v0.0.0-20191003162220-c56b4b191e2d h1:xzbfnqkhzcf2qHVgbBaXlaj+JlFOxT6P/oe2+yVuwBE=
+golang.org/x/tools v0.0.0-20191003162220-c56b4b191e2d/go.mod h1:b+2E5dAYhXwXZwtnZ6UAqBI28+e2cm9otk0dWdXHAEo=
 golang.org/x/xerrors v0.0.0-20190717185122-a985d3407aa7/go.mod h1:I/5z698sn9Ka8TeJc9MKroUUfqBBauWjQqLJ2OPfmY0=
 google.golang.org/appengine v1.1.0 h1:igQkv0AAhEIvTEpD5LIpAfav2eeVO9HBTjvKHVJPRSs=
 google.golang.org/appengine v1.1.0/go.mod h1:EbEs0AVv82hx2wNQdGPgUI5lhzA/G0D9YwlJXL52JkM=
diff --git a/pkg/v1/tarball/options.go b/pkg/v1/tarball/options.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..63d9c4e0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/v1/tarball/options.go
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+// Copyright 2019 Google LLC All Rights Reserved.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package tarball
+
+import (
+	v1 "github.com/google/go-containerregistry/pkg/v1"
+)
+
+// Option is a functional option for tarball operations.
+type Option func(*options) error
+
+// LayerFilter defines a function for filtering layers.
+//  True - indicates the layer should be kept,
+//  False - indicates the layer should be excluded.
+type LayerFilter func(v1.Layer) (bool, error)
+
+type options struct {
+	filter LayerFilter
+}
+
+func makeOptions(opts ...Option) (*options, error) {
+	o := &options{
+		filter: func(v1.Layer) (bool, error) {
+			return true, nil
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, option := range opts {
+		if err := option(o); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+	}
+
+	return o, nil
+}
+
+// WithLayerFilter allows omitting layers when writing a tarball.
+func WithLayerFilter(lf LayerFilter) Option {
+	return func(o *options) error {
+		o.filter = lf
+		return nil
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/v1/tarball/write.go b/pkg/v1/tarball/write.go
index 13a4a655e..fbab8ac14 100644
--- a/pkg/v1/tarball/write.go
+++ b/pkg/v1/tarball/write.go
@@ -29,41 +29,41 @@ import (
 
 // WriteToFile writes in the compressed format to a tarball, on disk.
 // This is just syntactic sugar wrapping tarball.Write with a new file.
-func WriteToFile(p string, ref name.Reference, img v1.Image) error {
+func WriteToFile(p string, ref name.Reference, img v1.Image, opt ...Option) error {
 	w, err := os.Create(p)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 	defer w.Close()
 
-	return Write(ref, img, w)
+	return Write(ref, img, w, opt...)
 }
 
 // MultiWriteToFile writes in the compressed format to a tarball, on disk.
 // This is just syntactic sugar wrapping tarball.MultiWrite with a new file.
-func MultiWriteToFile(p string, tagToImage map[name.Tag]v1.Image) error {
+func MultiWriteToFile(p string, tagToImage map[name.Tag]v1.Image, opt ...Option) error {
 	refToImage := make(map[name.Reference]v1.Image, len(tagToImage))
 	for i, d := range tagToImage {
 		refToImage[i] = d
 	}
-	return MultiRefWriteToFile(p, refToImage)
+	return MultiRefWriteToFile(p, refToImage, opt...)
 }
 
 // MultiRefWriteToFile writes in the compressed format to a tarball, on disk.
 // This is just syntactic sugar wrapping tarball.MultiRefWrite with a new file.
-func MultiRefWriteToFile(p string, refToImage map[name.Reference]v1.Image) error {
+func MultiRefWriteToFile(p string, refToImage map[name.Reference]v1.Image, opt ...Option) error {
 	w, err := os.Create(p)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 	defer w.Close()
 
-	return MultiRefWrite(refToImage, w)
+	return MultiRefWrite(refToImage, w, opt...)
 }
 
 // Write is a wrapper to write a single image and tag to a tarball.
-func Write(ref name.Reference, img v1.Image, w io.Writer) error {
-	return MultiRefWrite(map[name.Reference]v1.Image{ref: img}, w)
+func Write(ref name.Reference, img v1.Image, w io.Writer, opt ...Option) error {
+	return MultiRefWrite(map[name.Reference]v1.Image{ref: img}, w, opt...)
 }
 
 // MultiWrite writes the contents of each image to the provided reader, in the compressed format.
@@ -71,12 +71,12 @@ func Write(ref name.Reference, img v1.Image, w io.Writer) error {
 // One manifest.json file at the top level containing information about several images.
 // One file for each layer, named after the layer's SHA.
 // One file for the config blob, named after its SHA.
-func MultiWrite(tagToImage map[name.Tag]v1.Image, w io.Writer) error {
+func MultiWrite(tagToImage map[name.Tag]v1.Image, w io.Writer, opt ...Option) error {
 	refToImage := make(map[name.Reference]v1.Image, len(tagToImage))
 	for i, d := range tagToImage {
 		refToImage[i] = d
 	}
-	return MultiRefWrite(refToImage, w)
+	return MultiRefWrite(refToImage, w, opt...)
 }
 
 // MultiRefWrite writes the contents of each image to the provided reader, in the compressed format.
@@ -84,7 +84,12 @@ func MultiWrite(tagToImage map[name.Tag]v1.Image, w io.Writer) error {
 // One manifest.json file at the top level containing information about several images.
 // One file for each layer, named after the layer's SHA.
 // One file for the config blob, named after its SHA.
-func MultiRefWrite(refToImage map[name.Reference]v1.Image, w io.Writer) error {
+func MultiRefWrite(refToImage map[name.Reference]v1.Image, w io.Writer, opt ...Option) error {
+	o, err := makeOptions(opt...)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
 	tf := tar.NewWriter(w)
 	defer tf.Close()
 
@@ -144,6 +149,15 @@ func MultiRefWrite(refToImage map[name.Reference]v1.Image, w io.Writer) error {
 			// https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/manual/html_node/Overview.html
 			layerFiles[i] = fmt.Sprintf("%s.tar.gz", hex)
 
+			// We filter late because the length of layerFiles must match the diff_ids
+			// in config file.  It is ok if the file doesn't exist when the daemon
+			// already has a given layer, since it won't try to read it.
+			if keep, err := o.filter(l); err != nil {
+				return err
+			} else if !keep {
+				continue
+			}
+
 			r, err := l.Compressed()
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
diff --git a/pkg/v1/tarball/write_test.go b/pkg/v1/tarball/write_test.go
index c6c69ea8d..5fc4560b1 100644
--- a/pkg/v1/tarball/write_test.go
+++ b/pkg/v1/tarball/write_test.go
@@ -15,8 +15,11 @@
 package tarball_test
 
 import (
+	"archive/tar"
+	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"os"
+	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp"
@@ -350,3 +353,67 @@ func getDiffIDs(t *testing.T, layers []v1.Layer) []v1.Hash {
 
 	return diffIDs
 }
+
+func TestFilteredWrite(t *testing.T) {
+	// Make a tempfile for tarball writes.
+	fp, err := ioutil.TempFile("", "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Error creating temp file.")
+	}
+	t.Log(fp.Name())
+	defer fp.Close()
+	defer os.Remove(fp.Name())
+
+	// Make a random image
+	randImage, err := random.Image(256, 8)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Error creating random image.")
+	}
+	tag, err := name.NewTag("gcr.io/foo/bar:latest", name.StrictValidation)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Error creating test tag.")
+	}
+
+	layers, err := randImage.Layers()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Layers() = %v", err)
+	}
+	rld, err := layers[0].Digest()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Digest() = %v", err)
+	}
+
+	lf := func(l v1.Layer) (bool, error) {
+		// Filter the first layer in the image.
+		if ld, err := l.Digest(); err != nil {
+			return false, err
+		} else {
+			return ld != rld, nil
+		}
+	}
+
+	if err := tarball.WriteToFile(fp.Name(), tag, randImage, tarball.WithLayerFilter(lf)); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Unexpected error writing tarball: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	f, err := os.Open(fp.Name())
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("os.Open() = %v", err)
+	}
+	defer f.Close()
+
+	tarReader := tar.NewReader(f)
+	for {
+		header, err := tarReader.Next()
+		if err == io.EOF {
+			break
+		}
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("scanning tarfile: %v", err)
+		}
+
+		if strings.Contains(header.Name, rld.Hex) {
+			t.Errorf("Saw file %v in tarball, want %v elided.", header.Name, rld)
+		}
+	}
+}