I thought I would kick this off with a tribute to one of my favorite features: "smart objects."
Since first reading about this technique in a Scott Kelby book a few years back, I've incorporated this in my standard workflow.
Basically, I make one set of adjustments to each image using Adobe Camera Raw to optimize whatever portion of the image I want to begin with. For example, I may adjust the image to maximize a subject's face. Then, I bring it in to Photoshop as a smart object.
Make a copy as a smart object and then I have two layers that can now be adjusted independent of one another in RAW. I'll double click on the smart object to return to RAW and work on another section of the image. Let's say I want the subject's clothing a half-stop darker than their face, or I want to bring the background down a little, or I want to give the sky a different exposure than the foreground.
I make those adjustments on the second smart object and then when finished send it back to photoshop.
Now, I have two (sometimes more) layers, each optimized for a certain area of the image. It's now simply a matter of adding a mask to the top layer/layers and painting out or in the areas I want in order to create a single image.
Because I'm a real paranoid about saving steps, I'll usually preserve all these smart object layers by doing a copy and merge-layers. Ending up with a single layer that has all my adjustments (no longer a smart object) while still having all the various smart object layers in the file in case I need to go back and re-do something.
I'm wondering: Do others use smart objects and how do you use them?
Since first reading about this technique in a Scott Kelby book a few years back, I've incorporated this in my standard workflow.
Basically, I make one set of adjustments to each image using Adobe Camera Raw to optimize whatever portion of the image I want to begin with. For example, I may adjust the image to maximize a subject's face. Then, I bring it in to Photoshop as a smart object.
Make a copy as a smart object and then I have two layers that can now be adjusted independent of one another in RAW. I'll double click on the smart object to return to RAW and work on another section of the image. Let's say I want the subject's clothing a half-stop darker than their face, or I want to bring the background down a little, or I want to give the sky a different exposure than the foreground.
I make those adjustments on the second smart object and then when finished send it back to photoshop.
Now, I have two (sometimes more) layers, each optimized for a certain area of the image. It's now simply a matter of adding a mask to the top layer/layers and painting out or in the areas I want in order to create a single image.
Because I'm a real paranoid about saving steps, I'll usually preserve all these smart object layers by doing a copy and merge-layers. Ending up with a single layer that has all my adjustments (no longer a smart object) while still having all the various smart object layers in the file in case I need to go back and re-do something.
I'm wondering: Do others use smart objects and how do you use them?