Smart Objects

[F, Calla & Luca]

 

So taking up the gauntlet I am going to try to teach us about smart objects. I am going to do this in small bits as I go through my PS lessons on them. This will be very much like the learn one, do one, teach one method. Feel free to ask questions, just know I probably can't answer them  : ) Everyone should have SOs, as I will abbreviate them, no not significant other, since they started back in CS2. I will continue to add to the top of the discussion, if I can, posting in the discussion as I go along that there is an update above. So pick an image and start experimenting. You can use the same one throughout or try new ones as we go along.

Dave Cross describes SOs as containers, in which you can put all your other layers. This makes them editable forever as long as you don't rasterize or flatten them. He believes, as most PS experts do, that you should do non destructive editing. You then can always go back and edit that project or take pieces of it to something else you are working on. I have been doing some of this but often for reasons I have yet to understand. If you transform something to be smaller in a SO layer you can edit it back to full size, not bigger, later on without losing quality. This does not happen without SOs.  The downsides of SOs are twofold. Your files get even more humongous. And you can’t work directly on a SO as I find out anew every time I try. So open a new layer and work on that but select all layers in general for your tools. For those of you who use the doge and burn tools this won't work : ( But you can use an adjustment layer instead.  Remember any PS document with many layers can be saved as a jpeg, which flattens the layers for that save, without destroying the PS document(PDS)  you have made. You can then post the jpeg as I did below in the second picture. You need to save as a PSD later if you want to have the option of keeping your smart object and layers.

You can open all your images in PS as SOs by clicking on the blue line of text below the image in Camera Raw(ACR) and clicking the box saying Open as Smart Object. There are lots of instructions about opening things in ACR, on the web, if you need them. Then instead of saying  Open Image or something like that it says Open Object. When you are working on your image in PS you can double click on the object icon and it will take you back to ACR and you can adjust any setting you made there. Then you can click Open Object and you are back in PS with all your layers.

So here is a shot of this building I took when I went up the Hudson on a boat trip, maybe it was in Troy, NY. At any rate it was a jpeg. I brought it into Camera Raw, made some adjustments there and made it a SO. So let's all do that.

As a Smart Object

See the little logo in the right hand corner of the icon, that means it's an SO.

So let's start. If anyone know how to do all this and sees an error or something I need to improve please let me know. I love learning together. It keeps me on my toes.

UPDATE 1

Mind you These examples are not for my finesse  in selecting etc, although I am getting slowly better at some things. So I found that Camilla and Jacob wandered into my scene since I happened to have them selected onto a transparent layer in my collection. I put them in my scene by copy, paste and transform. But lo and behold I made them too small. When I went to enlarge them they became all fuzzy. Yes, they weren't a smart object.

But if I made a SO of the layer first, made them too small and realized later I could retransform them Voila. Isn't it magic?

UPDATE 2

I was in the building when Camilla and Jacob arrived and I was so happy to see them. I made myself into a smart layer and transformed it. I had made a copy of the window first. After I put myself in the window I put the copy of the window above face layer and reduced the transparency of it. I had, in fooling the other day, changed the color of some flowers. The layer mask got attached to another layer and wreaked havoc. I crashed the computer at one point, which rarely happens. All hell broke loose. But I learn as I go.

I am going to list some neat, short out there on the web for all to see,  videos here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TF8BBWhOOA

http://layersmagazine.com/work-flexible-in-photoshop-using-smart-ob...

For Camilla and those who do lots of batch work  http://vimeo.com/33540596

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

I finally was able to download Elements plus.  The SO's are under the Layers module in Elements plus.  Anyway, here is my first attempt. I know it could use some refinement but don't have the time now.  Was just happy to get it done.

 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good job. Glad you were able to get the download. Great photo of Haley.

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

Thanks F.  The picture was one that I had wanted to submit for the unmentionable last year but it had a green smudge from an extremely out of focus plant and I could not successfully be removed.

[Camilla and Darwin]

I think this is one of my favorites in this thread, I love how whimsical it is!

[F, Calla & Luca]

I seem to remember that. Great camouflage. Who knows, soon you'll be exchanging one part of Haley for another, mix and match : )

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

: )))

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

Thank you Camilla.

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

Awww man, this is beautiful! I love the color and depth!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Oh Anne, I love this one!! Tell us what you did here!! I would frame this one!!

[DJ & Chance]

Excellent.  Love the colors and textures!

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

Thanks Jen, Laurie and DJ>

@Laurie, I wish I knew.  I just played around with two pictures and the background texture.  During the unmentionable "C" discussions last year I had this picture and wanted to submit it for the unmentionable but was unable even with Camilla's help to get rid of the greenish blur. I had a vision of doing something like this but more simple so I could submit this picture but didn't have any knowledge of smart objects at the time. 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Well, I think this could be a c (I figure F won't see this) picture, but truly I would get in touch with Lynda Kamrath and have her blow it up and make a giclee from it. This is so cool. I never even thought about doing a photo like this and now I am going to try this soon. I wonder if you could put a sky texture over the original Haley photo and get rid of the greenish blur. I wish I had a photo of the one she did for me of Fudge. It is hanging in John's office.