Smart Objects and Album Layouts

Lesson Info

Smart Objects and Album Layouts

The next thing we're gonna look at is how you can use Smart Objects to replace one object within an image with another object. So I'm gonna close this down. Close this down. And what we're gonna do is we're just gonna make a whole new document here. So I'm gonna press Command or Control + N to make a new document and I'm gonna set this up like a layout. Like I want to make, let's say it's an album layout for a book of landscape images that I'm working on. I'm gonna call this Landscape Layout. Then I'm gonna make this inch-based and go 10 inches wide and 14 inches high, at 300 pixels per inch and press okay. Actually, you know what? I kinda want it the other way. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go to image, and go to rotate canvas 90 degrees clockwise. That's better. So what I want to do is I want to make a layout that I can use on multiple different images, multiple different book pages. So I'm gonna start by just setting a couple of guides for myself. I'm gonna click here at the top...

, and just move this guide down to about the half-inch mark. So that I know that that's a safe printing area. Move this over here, to the half-inch mark again so it's about a safe printing area. Half-inch mark over here and notice the marks across the top and where I'm saving them, where I'm moving those guides to. And then one across the bottom right about here. So I'm making a custom layout that I can then put my images into. So I'm gonna make a couple different shapes here. I'm gonna go ahead and grab my shape tool and use a rectangular shape tool. And just do something like this. And we'll just take another one, maybe right here. If I want to maintain that half-inch rule, let's do this. There we go. Okay, I'm getting really picky here. And then Control + T to fix that shape and make it a little bit wider. There we go. And then let's make another shape right here, like this. Then if I want to do it with the half-inch rule. Control + T on that shape, make it a little bit smaller. And there. And then maybe I'll make two more shapes right here. One right here, and then another one right here. And with this one I might need to make it smaller if I need to click on it just Control + click on that shape. (mouse clicks) There we go. Think about a half inch. So, all these shapes are not actually Smart Objects right now. What these shapes are is that they are vector-based images but they are not Smart Objects. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna click on the top one, I'm gonna Shift + click on the bottom one and then right click and say convert to Smart Object. No, I'm not gonna do that. (laughs) Okay. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna just right click on this rectangle number four and say convert to Smart Object. Then I'm gonna click on rectangle number three. Right click. Convert to Smart Object. Rectangle number two. Right click. Repeat the pattern. Convert to Smart Object. Same thing for rectangle number one. Right click. Convert to Smart Object. So why I'm doing this is that - I can press Command or Control + H to get rid of my layouts now - is that because these are now Smart Objects, I can do things within these shapes that I couldn't necessarily do if they weren't Smart Objects. So if I double-click right here on this Smart Object, it's going to say "After editing the contents "choose file, Save to commit the changes. "These changes will be reflected upon "the returning to Landscape Layout." So, what that's telling you is that when you double-click this, it's actually going to open up what would be in that space as that Smart Object. But it's telling you that, in order for it to commit that space, you have to say that you want to save it to commit. So press okay. This shape is a new layer. It's a new document essentially. You see it says Rectangle.1.psb? It's a different type of document that's gonna save data within the workspace of that layout. So if I were to go into some images that I already have predefined here. And I were to go in and just grab, let's say, this image. And drag this and drop this into Photoshop on top of that rectangle. When I place it, it's gonna make that a Smart Object within inside of it. So if I go and press Shift + Alt, increase the size of that, now placing this inside that space. If I press cancel on this, or close. Remember how it said, "Do you want to save this?" I'm gonna say yes. It's gonna replace that shape with that image. So if you're thinking about album layouts, you're gonna think about how you can make one page that can have multiple images put into it so that you don't have to continue every time making this album layout, you make one album layout that looks like this, and you save it. You save it as landscape album layout 10 by 14, four blocks. Or something like that. Because if you double-click on this rectangle, check out what happens. That... That layer that we added to this is still contained within that square, or rectangle I should say. If we move it, we can move it to even make the size different 'cause it is remembering all of the data that's contained within that. So if I press Escape to commit, or cancel actually. The X I should say to commit. Press Yes. Now, if we double-click on this rectangle. Double-click. It's giving me that space of rectangle number two. If I go ahead and go into my images, click on this image. I believe I clicked all images from Chicago. Move that into there. Press Shift and Alt. Make this larger, to fit that screen a little bit better. If I exit out, it's gonna ask me, do I wanna save? Yes. And now that image is in there. Double-click this one. So what you can see, what you can do with this is if you have an album layout, even if it already has pictures within it, and you have it saved, you can go back to that anytime and change out what pictures are in there. So if you've got, maybe you have 15 different page layouts that you're going to use in this process for client-based work. If you're a wedding photographer and you wanna build your own very specific album pages, you could build all of your own album pages with Smart Objects, and then replace those pictures as necessary from one bride series to the next bride series. Now I know that there are other ways that you can do this within other programs but I'm gonna show you why this is beneficial to do it in Photoshop as opposed to other programs in a second here. So I'll move this into this rectangle. Shift and Alt, fix my size there. I'm just resizing that. Press Enter. Exit out. Save it. And then we need to open up the other one. Rectangle number four. Let's just take this guy. Some of them. Let's just take all of the Chicago images. That's what we're gonna do here. To my Chicago page. Something like that. Now obviously, I'm cropping these too, because I'm cropping off those edges. If I wanted to make this template exact to those images, I'd have to pre-plan a little bit, 'cause this image started out as a square and I'm putting it into the space of a rectangle. But when I commit to it and I save it, I can always go back by double-clicking on that to go into it if I needed to. But the cool part about this, is because these are all set up as Smart Objects, this is where the cool part comes in. We did that whole thing with the filters before, right? Let's say with this rectangle, we click on it, we go to filter, we go to blur and we go to Gaussian blur and we blur it a little bit. Let's just blur it a lot, so we can tell the difference. Blur it to about there. Press Okay. If we were to double-click this, nothing has actually happened to this photograph. This photograph remains the same. So if I were to replace this photo with any photo that I have in here. Let's just grab this one right here. And replace this photo with this one. Oops. I dragged it into the wrong space. Not thinking smart. So go ahead and drag this into this space here. Resize it to fit. Exit out, commit. Yes. Look at that. It changes the image, but it also changes the effect that happens within it. So for instance, if this is one of those albums that you're building where you know that, that's that one place it's gonna have that bokeh effect. Even if we were to come in here on that smart filter, and we were to brush, and brush something else. Let's make this a really large brush, and do kinda like a bokeh effect here. Like a little Gaussian vignette. Now if I double-click on this. Look at the images that are in there. Both those images are still in there. So if I turn this one off, and I save it, it's gonna replace that other image with that bokeh blur effect that's happening there. Now obviously, because these are Smart Objects, if you save it down with multiple files contained within that Smart Object, it's going to become a very big file. As we talked about before, there is a downfall to this. So a lot of times what I would consider doing with this is just maybe making your layouts like this. There is an ulterior way that you can do this. Instead of using Smart Objects you could also use clipping masks. The only problem with those clipping masks is that you wouldn't get the benefit of adding the smart filters to that area. And what I mean by a clipping mask is if we were to go into this one and just delete this completely and save that out, say Yes. We could essentially go in here, grab this image, pull this on to our photo or layout. Shape it to that rectangle up there and if we press Alt or Option and click here that will allow us to clip that into here. The only problem is, any effects that we do in there because it's not a Smart Object, would not happen to that photograph. This is basically now just overlaying itself and you're telling this image to just clip itself into that box, which is not the same as using a Smart Object workflow. Smart Object workflow will contain that information within it.

Class Description

Lessons

1. Bootcamp Introduction
2. The Bridge Interface
3. Setting up Bridge
4. Overview of Bridge
5. Practical Application of Bridge
6. Introduction to Raw Editing
7. Setting up ACR Preferences & Interface
8. Global Tools Part 1
9. Global Tools Part 2
10. Local Tools
11. Introduction to the Photoshop Interface
12. Toolbars, Menus and Windows
13. Setup and Interface
14. Adobe Libraries
15. Saving Files
16. Introduction to Cropping
17. Cropping for Composition in ACR
18. Cropping for Composition in Photoshop
19. Cropping for the Subject in Post
20. Cropping for Print
21. Perspective Cropping in Photoshop
22. Introduction to Layers
23. Vector & Raster Layers Basics
24. Adjustment Layers in Photoshop
25. Organizing and Managing Layers
26. Introduction to Layer Tools and Blend Modes
27. Screen and Multiply and Overlay
28. Soft Light Blend Mode
29. Color and Luminosity Blend Modes
30. Color Burn and Color Dodge Blend Modes
31. Introduction to Layer Styles
32. Practical Application: Layer Tools
33. Introduction to Masks and Brushes
34. Brush Basics
35. Custom Brushes
36. Brush Mask: Vignettes
37. Brush Mask: Curves Dodge & Burn
38. Brush Mask: Hue & Saturation
39. Mask Groups
40. Clipping Masks
41. Masking in Adobe Camera Raw
42. Practical Applications: Masks
43. Introduction to Selections
44. Basic Selection Tools
45. The Pen Tool
46. Masks from Selections
47. Selecting Subjects and Masking
48. Color Range Mask
49. Luminosity Masks Basics
50. Introduction to Cleanup Tools
51. Adobe Camera Raw
52. Healing and Spot Healing Brush
53. The Clone Stamp Tool
54. The Patch Tool
55. Content Aware Move Tool
56. Content Aware Fill
57. Custom Cleanup Selections
58. Introduction to Shapes and Text
59. Text Basics
60. Shape Basics
61. Adding Text to Pictures
62. Custom Water Marks
63. Introduction to Smart Objects
64. Smart Object Basics
65. Smart Objects and Filters
66. Smart Objects and Image Transformation
67. Smart Objects and Album Layouts
68. Smart Objects and Composites
69. Introduction to Image Transforming
70. ACR and Lens Correction
71. Photoshop and Lens Correction
72. The Warp Tool
73. Perspective Transformations
74. Introduction to Actions in Photoshop
75. Introduction to the Actions Panel Interface
76. Making Your First Action
77. Modifying Actions After You Record Them
78. Adding Stops to Actions
79. Conditional Actions
80. Actions that Communicate
81. Introduction to Filters
82. ACR as a Filter
83. Helpful Artistic Filters
84. Helpful Practical Filters
85. Sharpening with Filters
86. Rendering Trees
87. The Oil Paint and Add Noise Filters
88. Introduction to Editing Video
89. Timeline for Video
90. Cropping Video
91. Adjustment Layers and Video
92. Building Lookup Tables
93. Layers, Masking Video & Working with Type
94. ACR to Edit Video
95. Animated Gifs
96. Introduction to Creative Effects
97. Black, White, and Monochrome
98. Matte and Cinematic Effects
99. Gradient Maps and Solid Color Grades
100. Gradients
101. Glow and Haze
102. Introduction to Natural Retouching
103. Brightening Teeth
104. Clean Up with the Clone Stamp Tool
105. Cleaning and Brightening Eyes
106. Advanced Clean Up Techniques
107. Introduction to Portrait Workflow & Bridge Organization
108. ACR for Portraits Pre-Edits
109. Portrait Workflow Techniques
110. Introduction to Landscape Workflow & Bridge Organization
111. Landscape Workflow Techniques
112. Introduction to Compositing & Bridge
113. Composite Workflow Techniques
114. Landscape Composite Projects
115. Bonus: Rothko and Workspace
116. Bonus: Adding Textures to Photos
117. Bonus: The Mask (Extras)
118. Bonus: The Color Range Mask in ACR