The COMPLETE Guide to Smart Objects in Photoshop

[Music] hi there this is a mission pixel-perfect and today let's go ahead and start with the trick but before that why do we need to use a smart object for non-destructive editing now what really is non-destructive editing hold that thought we'll get back to that after the trick back to the trick so here we are in Lightroom and you be assured that this is a Photoshop tutorial and it all makes sense later and we have made some changes to the image we have decreased the highlights decrease the shadows a little bit increase the clarity and the D haze now let's have a look at that before so here is the before there's this distracting poll that we removed and we recovered the highlights right little adjustments here and there now if you want to further edit it inside a Photoshop what do we usually do we right click on it and we go to edit in Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 or whatever version you're on now instead of doing that if we go ahead and click on open a smart object in Photoshop have a look what happens okay now it's opening processing in Photoshop I hope I click that properly did I I think I did let's go back to photoshop and let's see whether the image has been loaded so the image has been loaded inside a Photoshop have a look now instead of a background layer it has been loaded as a smart object and the way we can tell that is by looking at the symbol right over there have a look at this symbol it tells you that this is a smart object now have a look at this if I double click on the thumbnail or right here look what happens Camera Raw opens up now inside of Camera Raw all the same settings that we did in Lightroom shows up we decrease the highlights we decrease the shadows the white balance information everything is right there now also if you go back to the spot removal tool this one is still there so if I decrease the opacity have a look I mean you can get it back if you want to but we don't want to get it back just wanted to show this to you everything that we did in Lightroom is there so light rooms develop module and Camera Raw which both are very identical okay so I'm gonna hit cancel so you can make any changes you want so you can add adjustments do whatever you want maybe we added a curves adjustment layer and gave it some mood and maybe we added a gradient map so you can do whatever you want a little black-and-white feel to it decrease the opacity now it's totally upon you we are doing some random stuff and any time you want to go back all you have to do double click on it and for example you wanted to adjust the clarity you can do that for example you wanted to increase it hit OK and it makes those adjustments and it just boom kaboom it just makes some changes to your images that he always wanted so pretty cool isn't it so you can open RAW files as smart objects from Lightroom and also from inside a Photoshop let me tell you how so if I just close it don't save okay so let's go back to Lightroom and we'll just locate the photo so here we have Lightroom and we gonna locate that photo so right click on it and show and finder and this is not necessary for you so here is the photo if I directly open that up inside a Photoshop drag it and drop it inside a Photoshop so it's gonna open up in Adobe Camera Raw now you make the adjustments that you want probably decrease the exposure maybe decrease the highlights and all that kind of stuff now instead of clicking at open image we hold the shift key now when we hold the shift key have a look at the button the button changes to open object have a look it changes to open object when we hold the shift key so you can hold the shift key and click on open object or you can click here and check open in Photoshop as smart object hit OK it does the same thing open object and then when you hold the shift key it does just the opposite it shows you open image though I usually keep it checked off and then when I want to open it as a smart object I hold the shift key and click on open object it does the exact same thing if you are not using Lightroom all you have to do if you double click on it the same settings will show up isn't that awesome right so anytime you want to make any changes very easy to do just open as smart objects so we can say that smart objects are smart but in what other ways and to understand the concept let's peek into the pixels have a look at this photo can you see something there is actually something let's zoom in ok so imagine you have an image with 9 pixels and that's exactly what it is there all right so have a look three by three pixels 3 into 3 9 so you have an image with nine pixels and all of the pixels have different colors okay totally different colors so I have made that image for you just nine pixels all the pixels having different colors now I have one smart object or the same thing and I have one the regular raster layer so first of all let's work on the smart object turn it off let's open up the smart object if I press ctrl or command T okay for the transformation tool and then we make it smaller to four pixels have a look what happens so the color mixes and matches and you know it just makes it smaller and what happened to one two three four five pixels right there which were there well they are actually still there reserved they didn't delete it it is just hidden press ctrl or command D and let's make it big again the exact same thing shows up but it's not the case with raster right so if I just go ahead and turn off the smart object and then on the raster regularly this is not a smart object and this one is alright press ctrl or command T if I make it smaller hit enter it's the exact same thing that appeared with the smart object however in this case what happened to those five pixels they are deleted that information is totally deleted now before we make it big let's make a copy of it it will make more sense to you keep in mind that this is a raster layer let's make a copy press ctrl or command J ok now if we make it big press ctrl or command D and make it big hit Enter we do not get the exact same thing what happens is all those five pixels were deleted unlike in smart object where all the five pixels were kept in reserve so smart object keeps it even if you make it smaller it just keeps it doesn't show it to you but a raster layer if you make it smaller it just deletes it it's it's careless right so have a look at what it did and this is important lesson for all of us okay so this was small one and we made it big so it didn't invent any details so have a look at this pixel right there when it was small it's the same color when you made it big it's the same color now this pixel okay this skin color type pixel when we made it bigger this pixel moved over there okay and what happened to this pixel this pixel moved over here and what happened to the middle pixel the middle pixel moved to the corner and these pixels are just average of the surrounding pixels have look at this for an example so the average of this and this pixel is here right in the middle as this one moved over there so when this one moved over there we have the average of this one and this one in the middle and we have the average of this one and this one in the middle this one is the average of the surroundings so that's how it duplicates and kind of tries to like fake the details but they cannot get back the details so that's the difference between smart object and a regular raster layers let me give you some real-world examples so that it starts making sense to you here we have a beautiful lady and we have the subject layer all right so let's zoom out quite a bit let's make a copy of the subject layer press ctrl or command J and convert this into a smart object and to do that we can right click on it and choose convert to smart object or you can also do the same thing by going to filter convert for Smart Filters it's already converted that's why it's grayed out okay now let's make the canvas a little bit bigger press C for the crop tool and we're gonna just make it bigger we're gonna clear it up and let's just make it bigger just like this okay hit Enter or return okay now let's bring the smart object now keep in mind that this is a smart object with a big M alright so let's bring it right here the right side is the smart object and the left side is there are regular last raster layer all right now if we select both of them press ctrl or come and D okay and we make both of them smaller just like this keep in mind the regular raster layer deletes the information when you don't need it so when you make it big again it doesn't have any information but the smart object keeps stuff in reserve okay now both look pixelated but wait till you commit the changes hit return or enter have a look at it have a close look at it so this was their regular raster layer and this was the smart object it retained the details now here's one more important thing that we need to consider when you make the smart object smaller press ctrl or command T and let's make it smaller okay have a look at the top have a look at the width and the height it shows you 40% okay it means that right now the smart object is 40% of its original size okay if you make it smaller it will show you it's 25% of its original size however if you make it bigger than the image actually is if you'll show you its 162 percent now if you make it huge it doesn't mean that it will just invent the details no it will only show up the details to an extent of how large the image actually is it will not invent any extra pixels so right now it is getting pixelated of course it go because the image is not large enough the original image right so if you press ctrl or command D have a look it's 500 percent of its size where ever it goes beyond 100% you will begin to lose quality alright keep that in mind let's talk about something interesting let's talk about composites have a look at this composite so here we have an image by the way do you remember this photo from the hair selection tutorial it's the same one so this is the before and this one is the after so here's the new background that we just made and we cut out the subject and placed it above the background so this is the subject and we made some adjustments the subject to make it match with that of the background now the background is pretty crowded and we want to blur the background so right now is a regular raster layer now see we go to filter blur gallery and let's say tilt-shift okay now the tool chip blur is gonna show up let's zoom out quite a bit and we can apply the blur according to the image and it blurs slowly and gradually and let's increase the blur and if you want to know more about that blur check out the video right here okay so background blur I guess I like let's zoom in and see how it's looking it's looking pretty darn um too much blurry let's go ahead and go for fifty house fifty pixels that looks much more realistic and and I'm happy with this now since it's also blurring along the walls we have to maintain the perspective as well we cannot blur it in a plane we have to keep in consideration the walls as well so we make one more point over there and we rotate it okay just like this and we move it right there and we do the same thing 50 there as well 50 here as well we rotate it we move it there and we do something like this okay this looks pretty realistic and I love it and I'm gonna hit okay all right so it's gonna process and it's gonna take a while because this is a heavy filter but here's an essential thing to learn for all of us have a look at what it did with the photo it blurted it looks fine it looks amazing now what if you want to change the blur well we cannot really do this right now we have actually cooked it to the image this area is a little bit too sharp this area as well we need to adjust that but we can do anything we have to go back and start all over again so instead of doing that on a regular layer let's go back let's convert it into a smart object now this time let's do it this way go to filter convert for Smart Filters hit OK alright it's gonna take a while now this is a smart object now watch if I go to filter and if I apply the blur gallery again it's already there okay because we applied previously it will apply the same settings right here okay so we have all the three points okay if I want to increase it from here I can do that let's keep it 50 and this time let's move it a little bit to the right okay do the same with this one move it a little bit to the left okay I'm happy with this and probably I'll select that and go 60 okay and then hit okay now it's gonna take a while again but have a look at the magic have a look at whatever happens whenever you add an adjustment or a filter to a smart object it's gonna add it as a smart filter so have a look if you click on that arrow it shows up as smart filters and if you double click on the blur gallery all the same settings show up you can move it the way you want it you can make changes to the values it's gonna be amazing just hit OK even if you apply regular adjustments like curves or hue/saturation it works there as well have a look if you go to image adjustments and then let's say curves and let's increase the contrast a little bit just like so this is just for showing you and if you hit ok have a look curse has been added here as well and he can turn it off you can also turn it on if you want to it's gonna take a while because it's again gonna render the blur gallery and then the curves yes it's a little bit slow because this is a humongous huge image have a look at the size but if you turn it on it gives you the power of non destruction okay whatever you call it with the blur the shallow depth-of-field looks so much more better now speaking of composites have a look at the composite again what if you went ahead and added a couple more adjustment layers like curves and probably changed the background a little bit and did some changes maybe added a little bit yellow to the shadows went to the blues and decrease the blues in the shadows just a little bit maybe increase the blues and the highlights and made a couple changes here and there maybe you added a hue/saturation adjustment layer let's go ahead and add a hue/saturation adjustment layer just above the background and you tried to decrease it or increase the saturation a little bit just a little bit okay and this is something I'm doing just for showing you something alright you did that and inside of that mask I think this area is getting a little too saturated so take a brush and probably paint that area in black or maybe let's go ahead and create one more hue/saturation adjustment layer and maybe let's decrease the saturation of couple areas which are distracting okay now inside of that mask press ctrl or command I with the mask selected with the brush with the foreground color white and just paint on this area make sure the flow is hundred-percent and then you're gonna just make it black and white and you made a couple of adjustments just for the background and we have already made some adjustments for the subject now this can get a little messy what if you want to keep it non-destructive at the same time you want just one layer and you don't want to merge it he hurts what you can do smart objects have an amazing feature of grouping have a look at this if I select all the layers which relates to the background all the layers which comprise the background so the new background is selected hold the shift key click on the topmost layer which comprises the background which is a part of the background okay so these are the four layers for the background now if we right click on it and click convert to smart object have a look what happens all of them will combine together to become just to fine layer and even with the subject we have this one as a subject and we have this one has a subject this one has a subject as well so we select all three of them right-click on it and convert to smart object now all of them are subjects now you can name it subject and you can name this background new background it's actually new BG alright cool now you might be thinking what if I want to make a change to the curves adjustment layer we can if you double click on the thumbnail another document opens up and that document has everything that we grouped have a look we have the curves we have the subject layer with every detail inside of it it's just like another Photoshop document same let's click on don't save same with the new BG if I just double click on the thumbnail another document just shows up ok so if I want to make any change for example you just opened let's say curves and let's make a drastic change right here and if I just make the shadows a very light made it crazy and if I save it if I just collapse it press ctrl or command S or you can also go to file and then save it's the same thing it's saving right now okay now if you go to file and then save it will do the same thing right now it's create out because we just saved it okay if we go back to this image have a look the background is updated so that's a great way to do it let's go back press ctrl or command Z or Zed or whatever you however you pronounce it so grouping and the ability to adjust smart object in whole new documents opens up immense number of possibilities for us let me illustrate that for you so here we have an image of a billboard let's go ahead and create a rectangle for the billboard alright so click on the rectangle tool right here okay and let's make a rectangle that you think would be fit for the billboard something around that okay now let's fill it with grey 50% gray doesn't really matter what you finished with but I usually choose gray so that it kind of gives me much more idea when we replace that it's just neutral and everything goes perfectly on that and make sure you type in the hex code eight zero eight zero eight zero and hit okay so it's a great rectangle that's all there is okay let's collapse that now let's adjust it to the billboard now before we do any of this do the rectangle or right-click on the rectangle and click convert to smart object it's gonna be fun press ctrl or command D okay and why do you drag the points hold the command key or the control key and place the points on the four corners of the billboard just like so okay now let's zoom in and let's just place it carefully the exact same point just like so let's do it on the other side it's very important that we stay careful okay that looks pretty good as well let's move to the fourth point and I guess this is perfect all right hit enter or written when you're ready okay to make it more realistic let's go ahead and create one more new layer take the brush make sure the foreground color is white press X to toggle between the foreground and the background and make the brush super big very big okay and just a DAB make sure the opacity and flow is hundred and you have selected the soft round brush okay just dab like that it gives it a much more realistic effect of the billboard now we want the shine just on the billboard so what do we do we hold the Alt key or the option key and then click on the line between these two it creates a clipping mask now this is too much let's decrease the opacity let's go for somewhere around 64 is fine now have a look at this you can replace this rectangle with anything you want you just created a mock-up congratulations now you can save this as a PSD so I'm gonna go file save it's already saved for me so I'm gonna click on save now anytime you want anything on the Billboard you can easily do it just double click on the thumbnail right here okay and then have a look if I replace this with any image let's go ahead and choose something like this this lady right there okay and we're gonna make her big and we're gonna create a soap advertisement let's hide the eyes we don't need the eyes we want the skin okay because this is a soap advertisement I'm gonna move it move her to the left a little bit and let's write something and you'll see some magic and this is amazing let's write say let's choose the font baby's bold let's write in P IX and then let's choose light soap that means you're gonna sell so very soon very very soon looks pretty cool right and we can be a good so brand now let's hold the alt or option click and drag to make a copy of it and let's write our caption or what do you say our call to action what is the word for that our mode moto moto keep creating that has nothing to do with the soap but I don't know just you know crazy alright now let's change the font of this one - let's say Gilroy it's one of my favorite forms light okay and then let's add some space to it so click on this and let's add some space let's see 75 yes 75 looks good or let's say hundred eight hundred is great now let's collapse it move to press ctrl or command D and let's just adjust it the way we want I'm gonna keep it like that let's stay aligned keep creating looks pretty cool looks awesome and we're gonna keep it just like that now don't judge my typography but it's just an example all right press ctrl or command S or you can go to file and then save now when we get back to that have a look at this fix soap is on the Billboard keep creating it's awesome isn't it now have a look the perspective is maintained the perspective of the billboard is maintained in the text and on the subject so because we converted it into a smart object and then we adjusted the point it totally fits in alright you can replace it with whatever you like and this has become your mock-up so what we learned here is that we can use smart objects as placeholders and those placeholders can be used as mock-ups by the way to know more about mock-ups watch this video right here so this is the brand-new Design Week newsletter from pigs imperfect this is hot new fresh amazing by the way it's fake I just created it for a reason I wanted to show you a mistake that I do time and again and I don't want you to do it have a look at this first of all I have made some guides which you can make it go away by pressing ctrl or command semicolon to hide the guides press that to show the guides again and everything is aligned properly and that's the thing we do in good design okay so you can place a smart object by dragging and dropping it so we can place it this JPEG by dragging and dropping it from the finder or the Explorer and it opens up a smart object given that you have set it in the Preferences that way so let's go and delete this if I go to preferences on a Windows that would be edit and then preferences on a Mac that would be Photoshop CC and then preferences now inside of Preferences if we go to general have a look at this always create smart object when placing if you check it it will be created as smart object when you place it just hit OK now we can also do it the other way by going to file place embedded ok it does the exact same thing so I'm gonna just open up this JPEG and place it exact same thing right let's resize it - according to the guide all right so I'm gonna place it right there this is not very accurate and maybe snapping is off but anyway it doesn't matter alright this is ok I'm happy with this let's make the guide go away by pressing ctrl or command semicolon now what if I want to make a sunrise or a Sun tint kind of thing over there so this is a smart object we have learnt about it if we just double click on the thumbnail and open it up let's go ahead and do it let's create a gradient and let's choose the color on the left hand side let's choose a yellow something like this on the right hand side as it fades away make sure the opacity at the top makes sure the opacity is 0 as it fades away and the color is let's choose a red color as it fades away it looks pretty good hit OK hit OK again and change the style from linear to radio and we can move it anywhere we want and just hit OK and change the blend mode to something like let's see color dodge this is too much right let's decrease the fill it decreases the projection and just like a Sun it looks pretty great alright let's keep it that way and we can double click on it and we can move it if we want to so I'm gonna place it right there it looks pretty good hit OK now if I just try to save it if I go to file save it will show you an error it basically says that this image was a JPEG when you imported it and JPEG files cannot have layers so what you need to do you need to flatten everything you need to merge everything and then save it so that it can save as a JPEG but we don't want that we want the layers we want it to be non-destructive right so what do we do first of all just hit OK just dismiss this and then save it as a PSD separately so we go to file save as and we save it as a PSD let's save it in the tutorial folder and I'm gonna save it as man son crazy stuff just click Save hit OK and close it right ok now all we need to do here is that we totally want to replace it we don't want that JPEG as the source of the smart object you want to replace the source so we right-click on it and choose replace contents it's gonna be here replace contents and we're gonna go to the tutorial folder and mansun and place it and it's gonna be there and anytime you want to adjust it you can double click on it you have it non-destructive if we want it to save that as a JPEG that would be flattened and we won't have the ability to be able to adjust that later right so keep in mind that PSD is the way to go no JPEGs when it comes to attaching smart objects unless of course you don't want to go in and adjust it so if you don't need to go in and adjust the images you don't need to it but otherwise if you want to keep it totally non-destructive this is the way to go put some pressure to your memory which option did we select to open the smart object into our image what was that option file right and then place embedded focus on the word place embedded so all of the smart objects that we added up until now either by dragging or dropping or by converting it into smart object or by going to file place embedded all of them are embedded smart objects now there's one more kind of smart object and that is linked smart object so there are basically two kinds embedded and linked so think of embedded and linked as Wi-Fi and mobile data so you have a mobile data right you have your mobile data which comes from the service provider or whatever there is Vodafone or you know their eyes on or whatever AT&T or whatever so they have their own internet connection and you have it on your phone it's your personal thing and then you have a Wi-Fi now Wi-Fi is something everybody in your house uses it's linked if the Wi-Fi data runs out which is these days it's basically unlimited but if the Wi-Fi shuts down it shuts down for everybody if the Wi-Fi speed increases it increases for everybody but on your personal phone 4G if it data plan runs out it just runs out for you right unless you're giving a hotspot so it's embedded this internet connection is embedded to your phone and the Wi-Fi is linked you can use it any changes to the link will change it for everybody using that Wi-Fi make sense no let me make it sense for you by the way this is the design of an ongoing series I'm doing on Instagram called Photoshop shortcut of the day so if you're not following me on Instagram follow right here right so we want to place the pixel perfect logo at the top so we have it in a PSD format so I'm gonna go to my finder I'm gonna place this logo right here okay now this is embedded which means that if I save this PSD right now it's gonna be embedded with that PSD it's gonna be with that PSD this smart object has nothing to do with anything else any other VSD this is embedded now let's talk about linked let me open up another PSD okay so I'm gonna open up this Instagram dot PSD okay let's open this up okay pretty good now let's open it in another tab all right so we have both the tabs open and in this I already have this added logo so I'm gonna remove it okay so we don't have logo in any one of them now what if I do this what if I go to my finder and place it in any one of them okay or you can open it separately as well okay and you can just keep it right there now open up the properties let's close the finder we don't need it or minimize it this is the properties if you cannot see the properties here go to windows and then properties now inside of properties we can convert this one to linked so click on convert to linked it's gonna allow you to save it as a PSD and pick some perfect logo one let's save it okay now this is linked and you can tell this by this link logo okay now if you open that up if you open the Pixum perfect logo one let's open this thing up here okay so let's open it up and another tab and let's make this tab a little adjusted okay so here we have the logo right down here now if I open this one you can also place this go by going to file place linked and we can choose the one that we added we on the smart object pics in perfect logo one let's place it right there so it's placed in the second one as well now have a look at this if I want to change text or do anything here so if I click on T and if I change anything pics imperfect or if I change the color to say black or blue or yellow so let's change it to bright yellow hit OK and then if I just go ahead and save it file save both of them update amazing isn't it if I move it to the right save both of them update now it cuts because the canvas just ends so we can press C and we can just extend it if you want to and it will appear again press ctrl or command s to save it and there you go it appears again so this is the magic of linked smart object now you could have placed the pics imperfect logo directly as well by let's just go back let's just delete everything we do any of that let's delete this on here let's go ahead and open that let's delete this on here and let's open this one and let's delete this here as well I'm just moving it where is that thing okay there it is okay cool we could have done it this way as well we could have gone to file place linked and then placed pics in perfect logo or logo ones that we created later place I just did this because I wanted to show you you can convert smart object from embedded to linked as well so placed it this one as well file place linked and then you would click this one place and I'm gonna place it right here now wait I'm gonna show you one more trick so if you now open file open fix imperfect logo PSD let's open that up and if you make any changes to that let's adjust it okay if you make any changes here maybe you want to make the logo a little smaller or bigger or maybe you want to remove the blacks from the logo so double-click on the right-hand side and take the darks away of this large just like this and hit OK and then save it see the blacks of the logo went away so that's an amazing thing that we can do however what if you don't want it to be linked now what if you want to change the font or the logo size only in this one only in Institute and not in this one but both are linked right easy you can convert linked to embed it as well so let's select this one and then open up the properties with the smart object selected and this is the properties or you can go to windows and then properties and click on embed so it's embedded now so anytime you want to make any change if you double click on it it will open up another document and I can make any change here I want I want to convert it to light and I just want to save it file save it's not updating on that one because that one has linked and this one has embedded so if I close it and if I ctrl or command 0 have a look it's there again easy right so you have embedded linked and we can also link the embedded back to the first example I want to show you something really interesting remember that we opened it up as a smart object right have a look this is a smart object from Lightroom or directly into Photoshop from Camera Raw and we can go back anytime we double click on the thumbnail and we can go back to that right now there's one thing about this we should always keep in mind the smart object will use the same source no matter how many copies you make so if you make a copy of this by pressing ctrl or command J and in that copy you want to just double click on the thumbnail anyone else say let's say decrease the exposure alright and you're doing it for the highlights maybe you'll mask in the highlights something like that and just hit OK the problem is where it prepares the smart object see the exposure has gone down on both of them because both are using the same source so instead of going that way we can do this let's delete this right click on it whenever there's a smart object and you want the second one to be unique write it on it and select new smart object via copy so it creates a new smart object you click on that one now any double-click on it now when you go to Camera Raw now if you decrease the exposure it ok as it prepares the smart object you will see the change is only made on this one I can mask in the sky do whatever you want but this can be used to your advantage as well so this is a blank image let's go ahead and put a black background so solid color black hit OK and let's type something with the type tool let's type in luxury and let's double click on it and change the font double click on the D to select it what's happening ok then change it to extra bold and then I'm gonna make it a little bigger ok and now place it in the center now let's convert this into a smart object if you or right-click on it and convert to smart object this is now a smart object keep in mind you can still change the text now let's make a copy of the smart object press ctrl or command J ctrl or command T and we can invert it just like this make it a little longer and this is just a reflection kind of thing and decrease the opacity to 20% something like that let's create a mask and inside the mask with the gradient from white to black we're gonna make something like this and let's keep it something like that that looks pretty good let's increase the opacity 35 is good this looks amazing now what if you want to change the text keep in mind both are using the same source for the text so if we change only one of them the reflection will change as well you don't have to do the reflection separately again so if we just double click on it and type in something interesting let's double click on the T let's type in familiar with this if you go to file and save see amazing right now if you want to type something longer double click on it and if you don't want to type something like comfort but it exceeds it in that case you would have to just increase the canvas size press C and then just increase it just like this hit Enter or return press ctrl or command S and get back its it will do the job as you can see it's cut out on the left and a little bit on the top you might have to go back and we might have to extend it from the top and from the left hit enter press ctrl or command S let's get back everything looks great but at this point of time you know the reflection looks a little awkward because we cut too much so let's see and do it properly press ctrl or command s now it's perfect so when you have two or more instances of the same thing in your design if you change one and all of them will change provided it's a smart object that can be advantageous if you want it to be unique you know what to do just right-click on it and choose new smart object via copy but in this case we wanted it to be the same so all of these examples point to one thing we should always use smart objects when we can but why when we can why not all time here's why when it comes to altering pixel data Smart Objects just don't work for example you want to make a change to a particular set of pixels you want to just stretch it or you want to burn it or you want to paint on it or you want to modify it Smart Objects just won't work let me illustrate this for you coming back to this example if I just zoom in and if I select a particular area with the rectangular marquee tool and press ctrl or command T it just doesn't do anything or let's say we choose the eraser tool or this much too for that matter it just won't let you do it will show you an error this smart object must be rasterized before proceeding okay edit contents will no longer be available right so do you want to rasterize the smart object you don't want to do it so you cannot do any kind of pixel data alteration for example you want to paint on it so let's select the paint you know brush to Microsoft Paint have you ever used it I've made the brush humongous look huge if you paint it it will show you the same error and if you hit OK it will rasterize it which means that you won't be able to change the contents of it for example if we hit OK it's rasterize if you double click on it it just opens up the layer Styles dialog box and you cannot change the text it's gone if you rasterize it the non-destructive abilities go away keep in mind things like removing blemishes won't work with smart object if you're doing it on the singler even if you are doing it on a separate layer you just painting you can combine them and group them into smart object but that just doesn't make sense so when it comes to editing and when it comes to doing something without any alteration of pixel data like painting or erasing you can definitely use smart objects coming back to the very first question why use a smart object for non-destructive editing now what is non-destructive editing in all of the examples that we did we could go back and change the properties of smart objects and the ability to be able to change the properties later and after fact at any point of time is called non-destructive an image is non-destructive if we can change the properties later so if it was a regular raster layer and you put the blur to 65 you cannot go back and change the blur to zero or 12 for that matter but if that was a smart object and he applied Gaussian blur you can change the valleys later hence it is non-destructive hope this video made sense to you and if it did make sure to give us a like and also don't forget to subscribe and not just subscribe or ring the bell so that you my friend don't miss any other feature tip trick or tutorial I would like to take this moment to thank all these nice and amazing people for supporting this channel on patreon and helping keep pigs in perfect free for everybody for ever thank you for all your support thank you for watching I'll see you guys on the next one till then stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating [Music]

Channel: PiXimperfect

Views: 147,903

Keywords: smart object photoshop, photoshop tutorial, adobe, open as smart object, adobe camera raw, resolution, smart filters, raster, mockup, replace contents, embedded smart object, linked smart object, non-destructive editing, graphic design, compositing, blur the background, photo editing, piximperfect, unmesh dinda

Id: 3YkIzg2CUFQ

Length: 43min 22sec (2602 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 07 2018