HOW TO ››› ›photoshop user› february 2017092
COLIN SMITHPhotoshop Tips
boost your productivity and creativity
In this issue’s “Photoshop Tips,” we’re doing something we don’t normally do; we’re going to start out with
a theme: adjustments. So if you want to learn how to be more efficient with all your image adjustments
and learn a few cool little tips, read on!STACK YOUR ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
Adjustment layers are really great to work with because of
their nondestructive abilities. This means that they don’t
degrade your images with multiple applications like pixel
adjustments do. As such, you really want to take advantage
of this. When we have newer tools, we sometimes apply
old workflows to these new tools and fail to get the most
out of them. Rather than trying to do everything in a single
Curves adjustment, try creating an additional Curves adjust-
ment layer for each task. For example, make your tonal
adjustments on a single Curves adjustment layer, but make
another Curves adjustment layer for color correction. This
provides more flexibility to tweaking after the fact, as well as
avoiding the pitfall of spoiling a previous adjustment when
applying a new one.CLIP AN ADJUSTMENT LAYER TO A SINGLE LAYER
When you apply an adjustment layer, such as Curves or Lev-
els, it affects all the layers underneath it. This is something that
most of us know. The challenge, though, is how to apply the
adjustment to a single layer. If you choose to “clip” the adjust-
ment layer, it will affect only the layer directly beneath it. You
can do this by clicking the square-with-bent-arrow icon at the
bottom of the Properties panel. The other way is to position
the adjustment directly above the layer to adjust, hold down
the Option (PC: Alt) key, place your cursor in between the
two layers until it changes to the square with bent arrow, and
click. This will restrict the adjustment to a single layer.APPLY ADJUSTMENT LAYER
TO SELECTED LAYERS ONLY
This tip kind of works hand-in-hand with the previous one.
Instead of affecting a single layer, or all the layers, what if
you want to apply an adjustment to, say, five layers? Here’s
the way to do it (with a caveat). Select all the layers that
you’d like to affect in the Layers panel. Press Command-G
(PC: Ctrl-G) to group them together. Apply the adjustment
layer to the top of the group to trickle down to all the layers
in the group. Notice that this works like a regular adjustmentlayer; it still affects any layers below the group. Here’s the
tip: Click on the Group in the Layers panel to make it active,
and change its blend mode at the top of the Layers panel
from Pass Through to Normal. It will now be constrained to
just the layers within the group. Okay, now for the caveat.
The layers have to be contiguous (together). You can’t have
other layers sandwiched in between. If that’s the case, you’ll
need to make two groups, one above and one below the
sandwiched layer.ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF NONDESTRUCTIVE
ADJUSTMENTS TO SINGLE LAYERS
As I mentioned earlier, adjustment layers are the way to go,
but sometimes, they’re not ideal. This is true when you’re
working with a lot of layers and you need to shuffle them
around, such as a complex composite or a design with many
elements on a page. Start moving things around and the
adjust ment layers can
start to affect areas
they shouldn’t, or you
lose the adjustment
on tiny elements. It’s
easy to do. The solu-
tion is to apply the
adjustment directly to
the layer, but keep it
nondestructive. Right-
click on the layer (or
group of layers) and
choose Convert to
Smart Object. Now
apply the adjust-
ment through the
Image>Adjustments
menu, which will
apply the adjustment
directly to the layer
instead of applying
it as a separate layer.