› › http://www.photoshopuser.com131To: Kathleen
From: KelbyOne Advice Desk
The key is flexibility, the possibility of going back to a lay-
ered PSD or TIFF file and making changes to the changes
you already made. If you use an Image>Adjustments
command, the pixels are changed forever. If you use
an adjustment layer, you can re-open the adjustment’s
dialog and apply different settings.
This might happen if you change your mind about
how the image should look, or it may be because you
want to create a custom copy of a particular image
because this print will be hung in an area with unusual
lighting. If, for example, you have a client who will be
hanging your print under fluorescent lighting and you
want it to look as good as it does under daylight, you
may need to add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
(or make changes to an existing adjustment layer),
play around with the settings, and create small sample
prints until you get exactly what you want. If the print
will be hanging in a very brightly lit room, you may
need to work with a Curves adjustment layer to get the
exact look you want.
Remember, one of your most important advertising
tools is the people seeing your work. If it doesn’t look
good because of the lighting in the room, you may
be missing a sale (or several). I like to see where my
prints will hang (or at least a photo of the area) and a
paint chip of the wall color so I can judge the lighting
before making a print for that specific spot. I also like
to know the distance from which people will first see
the image so that I can sharpen appropriately. Unfortu-
nately, the various sharpening filters aren’t available asFrom The Advice Desk
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site today! ■adjustment layers, so each print is a separate file. When
working with adjustment layers, you have a couple of
options so that you don’t end up with several copies of
the same file.
You can, for example, add a single Hue/Saturation
adjustment layer and use the Note tool (nested in the
Toolbox with the Eyedropper tool [I]) to keep track of
what settings you used for each print. Alternatively,
use a series of Hue/Saturation adjustment layers,
each appropriately named, and have only one of the
adjustment layers visible at the time you make that
specific print.
The Camera Raw Filter in Photoshop is simply a filter
that offers you most of the capabilities of the Camera
Raw plug-in. But, it’s a filter and the changes it makes
to an image are permanent—if you re-open the filter,
all the sliders are set back to their defaults. And keep
in mind that using the Camera Raw Filter in Photoshop
doesn’t convert your image into a RAW file.
The Camera Raw plug-in, which is used with RAW
image files, is used prior to opening the image into Pho-
toshop. You do have the option of opening images from
Camera Raw into Photoshop as smart objects rather
than as image files. Doing so enables you to go back to
the Camera Raw plug-in to make changes by double-
clicking the smart object layer thumbnail in Photo shop’s
Layers panel. Filters applied to a smart object are applied
as smart filters so, much like an adjustment layer, you
can double-click the filter in the Layers panel to re-open
it and make changes. Flexibility!I’m a little confused about the difference between the Image>Adjustments commands and using
adjustment layers. And now we have Camera Raw and a Camera Raw Filter inside Photoshop.
What’s the difference?—KathleenCOLUMN ››
BY PETER BAUERAnswers to Photoshop and gear-related questions