Effect of variable absorption on the overall shape of the spectrum of Vela X-1 in the 0.5–10 keV range. Following Martínez-Núñez et al. (2014), we assume a spectral model consisting of three power-law components with the same slope, but different normalizations, each absorbed by a different absorption component. In accordance with trends seen by Martínez-Núñez et al. (2014), we then vary the total amount of absorption that the second of these power-law components experiences. The dot-dashed gray line shows the first power-law component. The dashed lines show the second power-law component, and different colors represent different absorption strengths, as indicated in the plot. The dot-dot-dashed line shows the third power-law component. The sum of the three components, i.e., the total spectrum, is shown as solid lines, and colors again represent different absorption levels for the second component.