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Begining to use Layers in CS4 - 2 Issues!
net1994
Registered Users Posts: 269 Major grins
After quite some time of applying adjustments directly to the photo, I am trying to get the hang of using adjustment layers only. But two things are driving me nuts:
1. Before using adjustment layers, I would often use quick selection to select an area of a photo to run unsharp mask only on this area. However I cannot seem to do this now when using Adj Layers. I tried creating a new layer and then using quick selection to carve out an area of the photo and then run unsharp mask, or (more importantly) noise ninja in only that area. But it won't work. Is this even possible? What am I missing/doing wrong?
2. When using adjustment layers, some critical options do not work. If I try to use Highlights/Shadows adjustment they do not work. Is it even possible to use Highlights/Shadows adjustment with multiple adjustment layers at the same time? What about other changes that are outside of the ''adjustments' panel? i.e. Filters, etc How do I get these to work happily with layer adjustments?
What is the easiest way to make these things work?
Thanks!!
--
My Photography website = Happy time for your eyes:
http://www.paintbypixels.com
1. Before using adjustment layers, I would often use quick selection to select an area of a photo to run unsharp mask only on this area. However I cannot seem to do this now when using Adj Layers. I tried creating a new layer and then using quick selection to carve out an area of the photo and then run unsharp mask, or (more importantly) noise ninja in only that area. But it won't work. Is this even possible? What am I missing/doing wrong?
2. When using adjustment layers, some critical options do not work. If I try to use Highlights/Shadows adjustment they do not work. Is it even possible to use Highlights/Shadows adjustment with multiple adjustment layers at the same time? What about other changes that are outside of the ''adjustments' panel? i.e. Filters, etc How do I get these to work happily with layer adjustments?
What is the easiest way to make these things work?
Thanks!!
--
My Photography website = Happy time for your eyes:
http://www.paintbypixels.com
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2. Make sure the background image layer is selected. (or a duplicate of it)
Thanks Ric!! That helped a lot. I can now use quick selections with layers.
Still have a shadow/highlights question. When I select the 'backround copy' I can run shadow/highlights on the whole image. But this is not an adjustment layer so if I want to go back later after opening the PSD file I won't be able to change the Shadow/Highlights I applied. Correct?
http://www.paintbypixels.com
This may help you.
Yes, you are correct. But if you feel the need for this, you can convert the layer to a smart object (in the Layer menu) before you apply s/h. When you re-open the file, you can click on the s/h component in the layer palette and tweak your settings.
I usually don't bother with smart objects. As long as you do s/h on a copied pixel layer (and don't delete the source, which for me is usually the background layer) you can always discard the adjusted copy, make a fresh copy and do it again. On my machine, converting to smart objects is not instantaneous, and since I generally don't touch my pics once I have processed them, it isn't worth the time to convert.
Both of these are possible with Smart Objects. You can stuff multiple layers into a Smart Object and run Highlight/Shadow on the S.O., which will both apply them to all and also allow you to double-click the effect to adjust it later.
However, to achieve all this, Smart Objects are very computationally expensive. They make your files bigger, they eat up more RAM and CPU, they slow things down. Fine on a fully tricked-out Photoshop computer with the RAID swap and everything, but probably aggravating on an older or low-end setup. This is part of the reason that, like Richard, I don't use smart objects at every opportunity. Only when I must have their benefits.
I love the nondestructive stuff but sometimes it's better to get it right and call it done.
OH MY GOD, where was this common sense last night when I tired to figure this out for 2 hrs on one photo!!!!
BTW, my new PC is pretty 'tricked out.' Built in Jan for pretty much photoshop. Intel i7 Quad core CPU, 6 GB Ram, Intel Solid State Hard drive Pretty smokin fast.
Who knows, maybe I'll try smart objects at some point. But, if I can just make a single adjustment with Sh/Hi on a background copy and later on I don't like it, can I just delete the copy-thus removing the Sh/Hi, without wipeing anything else out?
http://www.paintbypixels.com
Since you have a solid state drive you should have PS write to another drive as a scratch disc. SSDs have a finite amount of read/write cycles. This will pretty much explain all from a hardware point of view.
Hmm....I think I'm going to have to disagree with Ric on this one. Photoshop scratch space is the perfect use of an SSD, where speed is of the essence. If it ever wears out, a replacement will cost one fourth the current price for twice the storage. In any event, with 6 GB of RAM, unless you are doing monstrous things in PS, you probably don't touch the scratch drive very often.
Maybe so...but I think a dedicated drive for PS scratch disk is still a good idea. HDs are cheap...SSDs ain't.