What are smart objects?

What happens when you convert a layer to a smart object? I was trying this procedure for using the shadow/highlight adjustment without affecting the pixels directly. Read a rescent article in Outdoor Photo and decided to try it.

After creating a smart object do you need to convert it back to something?

Thanks for any information in advance.

Kevin

Kevin, One of the purposes of smart objects, as near as I can determine without going to the Adobe pages, is to keep track of specific filters. They are non-destructive; i.e., if they are not rasterized, you can track them and delete specific filters. However, to edit, you must rasterize.

I guess one of us should read the Adobe pages

Carol

that's correct. Smart objects are a way to provide non-destructive editing with tools that were previously destructive ( in the sense there was no going back other than through history). The problem with smart objects is that with a smart object you can't apply all the tools so after converting to a smart object you may find a need to make a change that can't be done until you rasterize it back. at that point it's something of a wtf did I bother with that for? still...they have their place and can be invaluable at times. they are badly underutilized by most, just like layer comps which are incredibly helpful and not used by many.

layer comps? I guess I need to delve into the help pages in the application software again for awhile. Hate to miss too many good tricks; I need all the help I can get for processing in a time saving way.

After editing my RAW files in ACR, I press the shift key and click on 'Open Object' to open the files in PS as a Smart Object.
If I ever need to tweak the settings in ACR after editing in PS, I can just double click on the original (base) layer and that layer opens back up in ACR for further editing.

So how come after rasterizing the layer, you still can't put a border on it using the canvas size feature?

I really need to buy a good CS3 book...

So how come after rasterizing the layer, you still can't put a border on it using the canvas size feature?

I really need to buy a good CS3 book...