Adobe Photoshop CS4 Digital Classroom
10
Before starting, make sure that your tools and panels are consistent by resetting your preferences.
See “Resetting Adobe Photoshop CS4 preferences” on page 3.
You will work with several fi les from the ps10lessons folder in this lesson. Make sure that you have loaded the pslessons folder onto your hard drive from the supplied DVD. See “Loading lesson fi les” on page 5.
See Lesson 10 in action!
Use the accompanying video to gain a better understanding of how to use some of the features shown in this lesson. The video tutorial for this lesson can be found on the included DVD.
Creating a composition using Smart Objects
1 Choose File > Browse to open Adobe Bridge, or select the Launch Bridge button ( ) in the Application bar. Navigate to the ps10lessons folder, then double-click on the image named ps1001.psd to open it in Photoshop. Alternatively, you can choose to right-click (Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac OS) and select Open with Photoshop CS4.
2 Choose File > Save As; the Save As dialog box appears. Navigate to the ps10lessons folder. In the Name text fi eld, type ps1001_work, leave the format as Photoshop (PSD), and select Save. Keep the image open for the next section.
The starting lesson fi le.
Opening an image as a Smart Object
In this lesson, you’ll compile many images of rainforest animals to create a photo illustration that could be used for a travel advertisement.
One of the defi ning characteristics of Smart Objects is the ability for layers to be transformed multiple times without the traditional resampling that occurs by default with Photoshop.
In this section, you will go through an exercise to help you understand the main diff erence between a standard Photoshop layer and a Smart Object.
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1 Click on the eye icon ( ) to the left of the type layer named Visit the Rainforests of Palenque. This layer has been locked so that you can’t accidentally move it, and it will remain hidden for most of this lesson.
2 Select the Butterfl y layer and then select the Move tool ( ). Choose Edit > Free Transform to scale this layer. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Windows) or Command+T (Mac OS).
3 Hold the Shift key, and then click and hold the bottom-right corner of the transform box. Drag toward the center of the box to make the box smaller. Holding the Shift key ensures that the width and height are constrained proportionally.
In the Options bar at the top of the screen, note that as you scale down, the percentage values begin to decrease. Scale the butterfl y until the horizontal values are approximately 25 percent. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to commit the transformation (you can also press the Commit check mark ( ) on the right side of the Options bar).
You can view the scale percentage in the Options bar.
You have reduced the width and height of this layer by 75 percent. This also means that the original pixel data has been lost through the scaling process (also called downsampling).
This creates problems if you decide at some point to make the image on this layer larger.
4 Choose Edit > Free Transform, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Windows) or Command+T (Mac OS), to turn the transform bounding box on again. Press the Shift key, and then click and drag the bottom-right corner of the transform box diagonally downward and to the right to scale the image to approximately 400 percent. Remember to watch the percentage as it changes in the options W (Width) and H (Height) text fi elds. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to commit the scale transform.
The butterfl y layer after rescaling.
The image is fuzzy and pixelated because you have now enlarged the layer information, forcing Photoshop to fi ll in pixel information. This is called destructive editing because the original layer lost its detail through the resampling process.
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You will now open the same image as a Smart Object so that you can see the benefi t of non-destructive editing.
5 Click on the eye icon ( ) next to the Butterfl y layer to turn the layer’s visibility off . You will turn it back on shortly so that you can compare the two layers.
6 Choose File > Open As a Smart Object. Navigate to the ps10lessons folder and choose the ps1002.psd fi le. Press Open to open the image in a new document window. In the Layers panel, note that the thumbnail for the layer is now a Smart Object thumbnail. All Smart Objects have a Smart Object icon in the lower-right corner of the layer thumbnail to help you distinguish them from standard layers.
The image is opened as a Smart Object.
7 Click and hold on the Arrange Documents button on the Application bar, and choose Tile All Vertically from the drop-down menu. This repositions the image windows so that you can see both the ps1001_work.psd and the ps1002.psd images.
8 Select the Move tool ( ). Click and drag the butterfl y image from ps1002.psd into your ps1001_work.psd image, using the Move tool to reposition the new layer at the bottom of the screen. The bottom of the butterfl y wings should be touching the bottom of the image.
9 In the Layers panel, double-click directly on the layer name, ps1002. When the layer name becomes highlighted, type Butterfl y 2 and press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to commit the change.
10 Click on the tab for the ps1002.psd image to make it active, and choose File > Close.
When prompted to save the fi le, choose to not save the fi le.
11 In the ps1001_work fi le, choose Edit > Free Transform or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Windows) or Command+T (Mac OS).
12 Press the Shift key, click and hold the top-right corner of the transform box, and drag toward the center of the box. Scale the butterfl y down in size until the horizontal value is approximately 25 percent. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to commit the transformation.
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13 Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Windows) or Command+T (Mac OS). Press the Shift key, and then click and drag the top-right corner of the transform box away from the center to scale the image up to 100 percent. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to commit the change.
When scaling Smart Objects, they “remember” their original size in the scale text boxes for Width and Height in the Options panel. This makes it easy for you to control the sizing and not dramatically stretch the image beyond its original size.
14 In the Layers panel, click on the eye icon ( ) to the left of the Butterfl y thumbnail.
Readjust the layers as needed to compare the two images. Notice that the detail has not been lost, because Smart Objects maintain their original pixel data even if they are scaled and resized.
A
B
A. A standard layer, scaled and resized. B. A Smart Object, scaled and resized.
Converting a layer to a Smart Object
In the last exercise, you created a Smart Object by using the Open as Smart Object feature.
However, this is not always ideal. For example, perhaps you have a document in which you have already added several layers, and then you realize that you will be performing operations that require the use of Smart Objects. Rather than opening the original images again as Smart Objects, you can convert existing layers to Smart Objects.
1 Drag the Butterfl y layer to the Delete button ( ) at the bottom of the Layers panel. The Butterfl y layer is deleted.
2 Select the Butterfl y 2 layer in the Layers panel. Choose Edit > Free Transform, or press Ctrl+T (Windows) or Command+T (Mac OS).
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Creating a composition using Smart Objects
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Digital Classroom
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3 You will now enter an exact value into the Width and Height text boxes in the Options panel. Type 35 into the W (width) text fi eld, and press the Maintain aspect ratio icon ( ) in between the W and H text fi elds. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to commit the transformation. The layer is scaled to 35 percent. Reposition the butterfl y to the upper-left corner.
4 In the Layers panel, select the Toucan layer and then click on the eye icon ( ) next to the left of the Toucan layer thumbnail; the layer is now visible. You will now convert this layer to a Smart Object.
5 Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object.
Changing a layer to a Smart Object.
There is no visible change in the image, but the Smart Object icon ( ) in the Toucan layer now appears in the lower-right corner, indicating that it is now a Smart Object.
6 Choose Edit > Free Transform, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T (Windows) or Command+T (Mac OS) to transform the toucan image. Grab the top-right corner of the bounding box, and, while holding the Shift key, click and drag a corner point to scale it to about three-quarters its current size (75 percent). If necessary, reposition the image in the lower-left corner. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to commit the change.
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Placing a Smart Object
In addition to opening new documents as Smart Objects, and converting existing layers to Smart Objects, you can also use the Place feature to import an image as a Smart Objects 1 Choose File > Place; the Place dialog box appears. Navigate to the ps10lessons folder,
select the ps1004.psd fi le, and press Place. This places the parrot image into your ps1001_work.psd fi le.
When documents are placed, they become Smart Objects by default. Note the large X on the layer; this is a bounding box that allows you to transform the Smart Object before confi rming the placement.
2 Click and drag the parrot image until the bottom-right corner snaps against the
bottom-right corner of your work fi le. Hold the Shift key, and then click on the top-left anchor point of the transform bounding box. With the Shift key still pressed, click and drag toward the center to scale the image down in size. Scale the parrot until the top is approximately even with the top of the toucan image.
Scale the parrot so that it is approximately the same size as the toucan.
3 Select the Commit check mark ( ) in the Options bar, or press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to commit the change. Remember that because this is a Smart Object by default, you can scale it back to its original size and still retain the original detail.
4 In the Layers panel, double-click the layer name, ps1004. When the layer name becomes highlighted, type the name Parrot.
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Adobe Photoshop CS4 Digital Classroom
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Editing a Smart Object
There are additional benefi ts to Smart Objects besides their ability to be resized without loss of detail. To fully understand these benefi ts, you should know a little bit about how Smart Objects work. When a layer is a Smart Object, Photoshop preserves the original content of the source fi le by embedding it into the current fi le. In this exercise, you will learn how to edit the contents of Smart Objects. You will also fi nd out how multiple Smart Object layers can be modifi ed at the same time, how to replace the source for Smart Objects, and even how to export the contents of a Smart Object.
1 Choose File > Open As Smart Object. Navigate to the ps10lessons folder, select the ps1005.psd fi le, and press Open to open the image in a new window. Notice that the title bar of the window reads ps1005 as Smart Object-1. This is not the original fi le, but rather a copy of the original fi le.
An image opened as a Smart Object.
2 Click on the Arrange Documents button ( ) on the Application bar, and choose Tile All Vertically from the drop-down menu.
3 Select the Move tool ( ), then click and drag the butterfl y image into your ps1001_work.psd image. Note that the layer is named ps1005 and has the Smart Object thumbnail.
4 In the Layers panel, double-click on the layer name, ps1005. When the text becomes highlighted, type Butterfl y 3. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).
5 Select the ps1005.psd image, and choose File > Close, or select the Close button in the document window. When prompted to save the fi le, choose to not save the fi le. The Smart Object fi le is separate from the original and is essentially embedded inside the ps1001_work.psd fi le.
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