Photoshop CS3 Smart Objects

What are they?

• layers that contain image data from raster or vector images, such as Photoshop or Illustrator files.
• They preserve an image’s source content with all its original characteristics
• Can perform nondestructive editing to the layer so many Photoshop tools (e.g., brushes) cannot be used.
• layers have thumbnail in corner
• To edit an image that is saves as a smart object from Camera Raw (Shift + Open),
  • click the smart object layer
  • The layer opens in Camera Raw

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What can you do with Smart Objects?

• nondestructive transforms.
  • scale, rotate, or warp a layer without losing original image data or quality
  • transforms don’t affect the original data.
• Work with vector data, that otherwise would be rasterized in Photoshop.
• Edit one Smart Object and automatically update all its linked instances.
• The advantage of Smart Objects is that you do not keep resampling the image every time you change it, which degrades the image quality.

Smart Filters: nondestructive filtering.

• Advantage: can re-edit the filters applied to Smart Objects at any time.
• Smart Filters appear in the Layers palette below the Smart Object layer to which they are applied.
• you can adjust, remove, or hide Smart Filters
• they are nondestructive.

All Filters available as Smart Filters EXCEPT

• Extract
• Liquify
• Pattern Maker
• Vanishing Point

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adjustments similar to smart filters

Variations Command

This command not available if you opened a JPG file and created a copy of the background layer as a smart object.

You can use this command if you open a PSD file and convert a layer to a smart object, or if you open an image from Camera Raw as a smart object.

Adjusts color balance, contrast and saturation of an image by letting you adjust thumbnails of alternatives in one window, which accumulate.

This method does not perform precise color adjustments.

How to apply variations:

1. open the aquarium.psd image
2. In the Layers palette, right-click the background layer, and select Duplicate Layer on the pop-up menu
3. Right-click the background copy layer and select Convert to Smart Object on the pop-up menu
4. With the background copy smart object layer selected, click Image > Adjustments >Variations
5. The Variations window opens and provides adjustments to Shadows, Midtones, Highlights, and Saturation

   
6. The two thumbnail images at the top show the original image and the image with its currently selected adjustments (current pick), which changes as you add each adjustment.
7. Click the Show Clipping checkbox to preview areas to show the areas that are clipped (converted to pure black or pure black) by the adjustment.
8. Click each of the radio buttons in turn to adjust:
   • shadows or dark areas
   • Midtones or middle areas
   • Highlights or light areas
   • Saturation which affects the amount of each color in the image -- the colors are clipped if you adjust past the maximum saturation
9. Drag the Fine/Coarse slider to set the amount of each adjustment-- each tick on the slider doubles the amount of the adjustment.
10. Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights allow adjustments to the amounts of each color and to lighten and darken the brightness of the image.
11. To reduce the amount of any color, click its opposite color (e.g., to reduce cyan, click more red)
12. Clicking two times on any of the thumbnails makes two adjustments to the image.
13. The Saturation adjustment increases or decreases saturation of all the colors.

Shadows/Highlights Command

This command helps photos with silhouetted dark images against light background, or with images that have been washed out by flash.

It lightens and darkens an image based on the surrounding pixels in the shadows or highlights in the "local neighborhood".

The default settings are for images with problems from backlighting

How to apply Shadows/Highlights:

1. Turn off the visibility of any other adjustments to the aquarium.psd image
2. In the Layers palette, right-click the background layer, and select Duplicate Layer on the pop-up menu
3. Right-click the background copy layer you just created and select Convert to Smart Object on the pop-up menu
4. With the background copy smart object layer selected, click Image > Adjustments >Shadows / Highlights

   
5. Check the Preview checkbox to see the adjustments reflected in the image as you make them.
6. Move the Amount slider or enter a value in the Shadows or Highlights percentage text box to adjust the amount of lighting correction
   Larger values provide greater lightening of shadows or greater darkening of highlights.
7. Click Show More options to make additional adjustments
8. Tonal width controls the range of tones in the shadows or highlights that are modified.
   • smaller values restrict the adjustments to darker regions for shadow correction and lighter regions for highlight correction
   • larger values increase the range of tone that will be adjusted further into the midtones.
9. Radius controls the size of the local neighborhood around each pixel that are used to determine whether a pixel is in the shadows or highlights.
10. Color correction provides fine-tuning of colors in regions of the image that have changed.
    increase the value to saturate the colors that were dark or light -- it only affects the changed portions of the image.
11. Brightness adjusts values in a grayscale image
12. Midtone contrast adjusts contrast in midtones.
    A negative value reduces contrast
    A positive value increases contrast.
13. Black clip and white clip sets how much the shadows and highlights are clipped to the new extreme shadow (level 0) and highlight (level 255) colors in the image.

How to Turn off Smart Objects

• Right-click smart-objects layer in Layers palette.
• Click Rasterize Image
• Smart filters layer and smart-objects layer are merged and image is available for other modifications not available to smart objects.

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