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[ 25 ]› › DOWN & DIRTY TRICKSStep One: We need to start with an image, so
here’s a nice stock shot of a cellist that would
make for a modern poster design. (Note: The
image dimensions I’m working with here are
2000 x1200px. Filter settings will vary on higher-
or lower-res images.) If you’d like to download
the low-res watermarked version of this image
to follow along, click this link, log in with your
Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button.
Double-click the image in the Libraries panel
(Window>Libraries) to open it in Photoshop. To
make it easier to work with the image, increase
the resolution of the practice file. (We normally
don’t recommend enlarging images, but this is
only for practice purposes.) Go to Image>Image
Size, turn on the Resample checkbox, and set the
Width to 2,000 pixels. The Height should auto-
matically change to around 1,252 pixels. Click OK.
Step Two: Create a duplicate of this layer by
pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Then Right-click
on the duplicate layer in the Layers panel and
choose Convert to Smart Object. You’ll see the
smart object icon appear on the layer thumbnail.
Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) three more times to
create a total of four duplicate smart objects. Now
we can run different effects on each layer while
the core image stays linked through all layers.Step Three: To make it a little easier to identify
the layers throughout this exercise, rename them
classcial_1–4, ascending from the bottom. To re-
name a layer, double-click its name in the Layers
panel. When done, click the Eye icon next to layers
2, 3, and 4 to turn them off, and click on classical_1
to make it the active layer.
Step Four: Any filter effects we apply to a smart
object will become smart filters, which means that
we can edit them even after they’ve been applied.
For this first layer, we need to smooth the image
a little without losing edge sharpness, so go under
the Filter menu, to Blur, and choose Surface Blur. Set
both the Radius and Threshold to 10 pixels. Remem-
ber, these settings may be different based on the
resolution of your file. Click OK when done.©Adobe Stock/ra2 studio