A Tip I picked up on Photoshop

[dje]

I went to an Adobe presentaion the other day on CS6 (which "rocks" by the way, according to the Adobe people). To be honest, it was largely a waste of time for me as there was only about 1/2 an hour on Photoshop. However I did pick up one little thing I wasn't aware of in relation to CS5 as well as CS6 (and possible earlier versions also).

Now I'm sure there are some knowledgable people out there who already know this so I seek your indulgence ! But I thought it was worth sharing with others whose level of expertise in PS is more in line with mine.

My normal workflow is to open the RAW file in ACR, make some adjustments, then click "Open Image" to bring it up in PS for further editing. Howvever on occasions, I have got to the stage in PS where I wished I had done a few more things in ACR. The only way to do this (I thought) was to open up the RAW file in ACR, make the extra adjustments, then Open Image and start again in PS on a new PSD.

However, after your initial ACR adjustments, if you hold the Shift key down, the Open Image box changes to Open Object. Clicking on this then opens up the image in PS but as a Smart Object. Then later in the PS processing, if you right click on the Smart Object and select "Edit Contents", this opens up the image again in ACR where you can do further adjustments. When you are finished, click OK and you are back in PS with the ACR modied image.

Note however that this process falls down if you want to do certain types of edits in PS (eg Cloning or Spot Healing - these require the Smart Object image to be rasterised and it is no longer a Smart Object.

Hope this of some interest to others.

Dave

[Polar01]

Dave: instead it you want to say clone, instead, highlight that layer and any layers above, then "Alt, Ctrl,Shift,E" that 4 fingers, this is merge visible what this do is it will merge the layers highlighted, into a new layer, placed above the hightlighted layers, but not flatten as to lose them. I launch almost all my images for raw as smart objects as I have it check off to do and when I need to say clone I merge visible. One problem is your files can get quite large if you, at times have two or three copies of the smart object in your image say one is worked for foreground and another layer is for sky.

Cheers:

Allan

[Geoff F]

A frequently use a similar system, Dave, for creating mock HDR effects by editing a Raw file in two different ways then combining them using masks. Not true HDR but it often saves the day when the subject involves motion etc and isn't suitable for multiple shots.

Transfer the first edit, like you suggest, as a Smart Object. Right click the layer and select New object via copy. Double click on the new copy thumbnail image which returns you to ACR for a second edit. Click OK when ready to transfer the second edit to your main editing window.

Edit and combine as normal layers and masks.

[dje]

Allan and Geoff

Thanks for that extra information. I must try these things out.

Dave