Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
5
In your
ps1201_work.psd
file, select the Butterfly 3 layer, and using the Move tool ( ), drag it to the
center of the image window. Choose Edit > Free Transform, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Win-
dows) or Command+T (Mac OS). Press and hold the Shift key while dragging any corner anchor point.
Scale the butterfly to approximately 20 percent. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to commit
the change. Reposition the butterfly to the upper-right corner.
This is a large image. If you cannot see the edges of the Butterfly 3 smart object, type
20
into the W
and H text boxes in the Options bar at the top of the workspace.
6
Choose Image > Adjustments. Note that virtually all the options are grayed out. This is because image
adjustments, such as Levels and Curves, are destructive by nature and cannot be applied to Smart Ob-
jects. Release the mouse without making a choice. In a few steps, you will look at an alternative meth-
od for adjusting the appearance of this layer.
7
Click the Brush tool ( ). Position your cursor over the image. Don't click, but notice that the Non-edit-
able icon ( ) appears. You cannot paint on this layer because that would be destructive.
So, what if you need to modify the layer? Perhaps you want to selectively dodge and burn parts of the
image or use image adjustment commands. You have two choices when working with Smart Objects:
•
Edit the original in its own separate window.
•
Rasterize the Smart Object layer before using common editing tools.
For this example, you will rasterize the Smart Object. Using the term
rasterize
is a bit confusing in this
instance. The image is already a raster image (composed of pixels), but the term refers to the step of
un-
smarting
your image and putting the original pixels back into the
ps1201_work.psd
image.
8
Select the Blur tool ( ) from the Tools panel. Click anywhere on the butterfly; a warning dialog box ap-
pears, informing you that the layer will be rasterized. Click OK to rasterize the image.
Click OK to rasterize the layer.
9
Using the Zoom tool ( ), zoom in closer to the butterfly, and click and drag the Blur tool several times
over the edges of the butterfly to see the blur effect. You are now able to edit the image because it has
been converted to pixels. However, it has also lost its Smart Object status.
All the editing tools, such as Dodge, Burn, Clone Stamp, and Eraser, are destructive and therefore
not usable when a Smart Object layer is active.
Ideally, everything in Photoshop should be as non-destructive as possible. Depending on your object-
ives, you will need to determine when you can accept the consequences of rasterizing a Smart Object.
However, you should also know the alternatives.
