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Double click any of the filter names (highlighted in red) to re-open their editing options A list of all your smart filters appears under the smart object in Photoshop, and you can double click any of their names to re-open the filter dialog. Instead, if you convert a layer to a smart object before applying any filters, they become “smart filters” instead. I routinely use the Camera Raw filter to make global adjustments in Photoshop, and I’ll also use filters like sharpening, noise reduction, and Gaussian blur on occasion.īut what happens if you apply a filter and only realize later that you went a bit too far? You might have to delete the layer and start over, which can be a serious problem if you’ve done a number of other edits to that layer in the meantime.
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Photoshop’s filter tools are a huge help for photography, especially now that the Camera Raw dialog has been added as a filter option in the newer versions of Photoshop. (You can see a longer list of what they do, including some niche uses, on Adobe’s website.) Here are the ones that are the most important for photographers to know: 1. There are tons of reasons to use smart objects in Photoshop, and I’m going to limit this article to the three that I consider the most useful for photography. The “Open” button in Camera Raw changes to “Open Object” (highlighted in red in this image) when you hold down the Shift key Benefits of Smart Objects for Photographers After you’ve opened a raw file in Adobe Camera Raw and finished your edits, just hold down the Shift key, and you’ll see that the “Open” button at the bottom of Camera Raw changes to “Open Object.” Click it, and the photo you’ve been editing will open directly as a smart object for further editing in Photoshop. You can also convert a layer to a smart object directly from Adobe Camera Raw, which I highly recommend.
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Photoshop then lets you choose how the component layers within the smart object blend together just go to Photoshop’s top menu > Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode, and you’ll see a number of options. Shift + click (or Ctrl/Cmd + click) to select the layers you want, right click, and select “Convert to Smart Object.” The layers will merge into a single smart object layer. You can also create a smart object out of multiple layers. You simply right click on the layer in question and select “Convert to Smart Object.”
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How to Create Smart Objects in PhotoshopĬonverting a layer to a smart object is very easy in Photoshop. First, though, let’s look at the different ways to make a smart object. The nondestructive character of smart objects goes beyond just resizing layers, as I’ll show in a moment. If you do the same process to a layer that has been converted to a smart object, you can shrink and resize the layer to your heart’s content, and it remains just as sharp: Resizing a smart object in Photoshop Trying to enlarge it back to the original size will give you a blurry image: Resizing an ordinary layer in Photoshop If you use Photoshop’s transform tool to shrink an ordinary layer, it will turn into a low resolution version of itself. Let me demonstrate how a smart object differs from an ordinary layer. Any edits that you apply to a smart object can be undone or revisited they’re never baked permanently into the layer.
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