
Let's go back over where we are. New to CS5 person, doesn't have an
understanding of Layers, had done major work on the Background Layer, went
exploring and clicked on Convert For Smart Objects. When the person went back to try to do almost
anything to the image he/she found out they were locked out of, pretty much,
everything. The first rule of Smart
Objects is that you can't do anything directly to them. You can put Adjustment Layers on them and
play with all sorts of things that way.
You can add another, blank Layer, and use that for things like
retouching skin on a portrait. You could
add a blank Layer, fill it with 50% gray and use low Opacity black and white
brushes to Dodge and Burn the image. You
could, certainly, add any number of filters or make Shadow and Highlight
(Image/Adjustments/"Shadow/Highlight") or HDR Toning
(Image/Adjustments/HDR Toning) behave like Filters. But, you can't do anything directly to a Smart
Object. Think of it as an "in progress
RAW file". You cannot
directly alter it. Where does that leave
our lost soul?
If, for some reason, something "must" be done to
the original image that was converted into a Smart Object, you can always
double click on the Layer icon. That'll
bring you back to the original image. Do
whatever you feel "must be done" to the image. When you're finished, Save and Close the file. Not Save As, just plain Save
(File/Save then File/Close). That will update the Smart
Object and anything that was done to the original image will show up in the
Smart Object. You can then continue on
with whatever you want to do that can be done using additional Layers,
Adjustment Layers, Filters, etc.
If, and I mean if, you're hell bent on removing the Smart
Object and getting back to a flat image, it is easy. Go back to what got you in trouble in the
first place. Right click on the Layer
panel. Rather than having Convert For
Smart Objects as an option, you'll see Rasterize Layer. Click that and your Smart Object is gone.
A better solution would be to learn how to use Smart
Objects. As I said at the start of this
post: they're the alpha and omega (the
beginning and the end, the be all and end all) of working in Photoshop CS5.
To the person who is persistently doing the search: if you're still unsure, send me an email and
we can go through it one on one.
0 comments:
Post a Comment