Technical - Digital - CS6 Smart Objects

 

For those members with CS6 or later, who work in RAW and have not used smart objects, I urge you to give them a try.

If you work on a RAW file in RAW converter and then open in photoshop, any RAW adjustments that you have made are fixed. You can make further non destructive changes using Photoshop adjustment layers and the normal editing functions, but if you are not happy with the changes you originally made at the RAW conversion stage you must simply start again.

Opening an image to Photoshop from RAW converter as a smart object [hold down shift when you open the image from RAW to Photoshop] allows you at any stage to go back to the RAW converter and make further changes. A smart object will appear in Photoshop layers as a layer with a small rectangle in the bottom right corner. Double click on the smart object in Photoshop and you are immediately returned to the RAW converter where you can make further adjustments. To return to Photoshop from the RAW converter simply hit the "save" button. [In the location where the "open" button would normally be found.]

One particularly useful adjustment using smart objects is in making local changes to brightness, contrast, saturation etc using the powerful tools in RAW converter. A simple case might be getting the best from a sky while increasing foreground detail.

To do this:-

  • From the RAW converter open in Photoshop as a smart object
  • Create a new smart object copy by Layer>Smart object >Copy as new smart object. CAUTION. The keyboard shortcut Control J will not give the required result.
  • Make the bottom Smart Object and double click to be taken back to RAW converter. Make the necessary adjustments to the sky. Click "Save" to return to Photoshop.
  • Make the top Smart Object visible and reopen RAW converter as before. Make the necessary adjustments to the foreground and return to Photoshop.
  • Treat the top Smart Object as any normal layer and use a layer mask to remove the sky and reveal the adjusted sky layer below.

Further adjustments can be made at any time simply by double clicking and returning to RAW converter.

You are not limited in the number of Smart Object layers that you can have and I find 3 Smart Object layers usually sufficient.

Bruce Gray