Using Smart Objects in Photoshop

Smart Objects are of one of Photoshop’s best-kept secrets, even though they’re one of the most powerful and essential tools in the entire program. What makes them so great? Simply put: They allow you to work with maximum flexibility, editing, transforming, and manipulating layers as much as you like, nondestructively. You can place content from Bridge, Camera Raw, Lightroom, Illustrator, or InDesign in Photoshop, as embedded or linked Smart Objects. You can make copies of Smart Objects and transform them so when you change one, they all change—or you can keep them independent. In this feature, you’ll learn what Smart Objects are, how they work, and how to use them in your day-to-day Photoshop workflow. Finally, I’ll show you some of the more interesting and, often, surprising uses of Smart Objects.

What Makes Smart Objects Smart?

The easiest way to explain the fundamental benefit of Smart Objects is to compare them to the behavior of regular Photoshop layers. To create Figure 1, I duplicated the layer on the left and moved it to the right. Then, I turned the second layer into a Smart Object. How? As with just about everything in Photoshop, there are a few ways to do this. With the layer selected, you can choose Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object. Alternatively, choose Convert to Smart Object from the Layers panel menu, or right-click a layer name (not the thumbnail) and choose that command.

You won’t immediately see any difference on the canvas. The main indication that you’ve created a Smart Object is the tiny icon on its thumbnail in the Layers panel. If you have the Properties panel open, you’ll also notice the words Embedded Smart Object as well as some related options (Figure 2). For Figure 3, I selected both layers together, then used Free Transform to rotate and shrink them to a tiny size. This is an extreme example of the sort of procedure you might use if you want to use a layer in a composition and are experimenting with different sizes and angles of rotation. For Figure 4, I restored the two layers to their original orientation and size. You can clearly see the difference. The original layer, on the left, lost so much data during the previous transformation that it’s now entirely unusable. The Smart Object, however, retains all its original quality. This is the key advantage of using Smart Objects: They allow you to work nondestructively. When you turn a layer into a Smart Object it encapsulates the entire original layer within it, so even after multiple transformations it will always retain the original data.

Editing Smart Objects

Any time you want to make a change to the pixels in a Smart Object (e.g., painting, erasing, cloning, healing) you need to take an intermediate step first in order to reap the benefits of working nondestructively. For example, I reverted to the undistorted version of the original layer and recolored the man’s tie using the Color Replacement Tool. But when I tried to use the same brush on the Smart Object layer, a warning dialog box appeared, telling me that the Smart Object must be rasterized in order to proceed (Figure 5).

Now what? The obvious choice would be to click OK, but that turns the Smart Object into a regular layer, which isn’t the desired result. To paint on a Smart Object, you first need to double-click its thumbnail in the Layers panel. This opens the Smart Object as a separate document in a new tab where you can make your edits. In the title bar for this tab, you’ll see the name of the layer you saved as a Smart Object and a PSB file extension. Working in that Smart Object window, I used the Quick Selection tool to select the tie, then added a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer from the pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers panel (Figure 6). This will allow me to edit the color at a later date, if I need to. When you’re done editing a Smart Object, you can choose File > Save, or just close the Smart Object window and click the Save button when prompted. The changes you made will now appear back in the original document (Figure 7). Significantly, this demonstrates a powerful feature of Smart Objects: Even though they behave like a single layer, they can contain multiple pixel layers and/or adjustment layers within them. At any point you could open the Smart Object again and change the settings, add or remove adjustment layers, and so on. Yes, working with Smart Objects requires an extra tiny step, but that’s a small price to pay for such flexibility.

Creating Complex Distortions

The next example demonstrates one of the most powerful uses for Smart Objects: creating complex (yet nondestructive) distortions. To demonstrate, I’ll use a stock photo of a man reading a magazine on a plane. The only preparation work I did ahead of time was to copy the magazine to a new layer, so I could use it as a mask later on (Figure 8).

Making a Smart Object from multiple layers

There were four additional layers in my document: a reproduction of a famous painting called The Laughing Cavalier, two text layers, and a green banner behind the magazine title (Figure 9).

I made a single Smart Object from all these layers. To do this, I selected all the layers (the easiest way is to select the top one, then hold Shift and select the bottom layer). Then I chose Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object.

The Smart Object in place

Figure 10 shows the resulting Smart Object. It contained all the original layers within it. I could then work with this object as if it were a single regular layer.

Distorting the Smart Object

The next step was to make a clipping mask so the Smart Object shows up inside the magazine cover only. You can do this by pressing Command+Option+G (macOS) or Ctrl+Alt+G (Windows), or choosing Layer > Create Clipping Mask. The Smart Object now shows up only where it overlaps the layer beneath. I used Free Transform to rotate the Smart Object so that the spine lined up with the spine of the original magazine, and I scaled it down to roughly the right size (Figure 11).

Warping the Smart Object

Rotating the Smart Object wasn’t enough to create a truly convincing effect, so I clicked the Warp button on the Options Bar and used the Bézier curve handles to distort it so that it fit the shape of the magazine (Figure 12). Another great thing about Smart Objects is that if you don’t get the distortion exactly right the first time, you’ll find that when you use Free Transform again, the distortion handles will be exactly where you left them before.

Adding a shadow

To make the cover look more realistic, I made a new layer above the Smart Object and used a soft-edged brush at a low opacity to paint a soft shadow beneath the hand (Figure 13). I had to make sure this layer also used the underlying layer as a clipping mask, so the shadow didn’t spill over onto the hand.

Editing the Smart Object

Now the real magic: I double-clicked the Smart Object in the Layers panel, so it opened in a new window (Figure 14). All the original layers were present, and I could modify them as I wished.

Changing the contents

As well as modifying layers within a Smart Object, you can also bring in new layers. This comes in handy for trying multiple variations of an image: I decided to create a different edition of the magazine by changing the background image to the Mona Lisa. I also changed the headline and the color behind the nameplate text, and I masked the nameplate so that her head sticks up above it (Figure 15).

After completing the modifications, I saved and closed the Smart Object to return to the main Photoshop document.

The revised artwork

When I closed the Smart Object, all the changes I made were revealed in the original document—along with the distortion I made to the Smart Object (Figure 16). It may have taken a little while to create the original distortion and its shadow, but swapping out the contents was a piece of cake. Imagine how much work this kind of technique could save in a job where you had to create many different versions of the image with different magazine covers.

Working with Multiple Smart Objects

Typically, when you make copies of Smart Objects, they’re all linked together. Change one, and you change them all. (Note: It is possible to create unlinked copies of Smart Objects by choosing Layer > Smart Objects > New Smart Object via Copy.) For Figure 17, I started with an image of an art gallery. I then removed all the pictures from the frames, so I could place my Smart Objects inside them.

Adding the first image

An image of the Mona Lisa seemed like a fitting subject for the first painting. I moved it behind the gallery layer and turned it into a Smart Object (Figure 18). Using Free Transform, I easily was able to distort the image so that it matched the perspective of the scene. (Tip: If you hold Command/Ctrl as you grab each corner while in Free Transform, you can move that corner independently of the others.)

Duplicating the Smart Object

It’s easy to make multiple copies of a Smart Object, just as it is with any regular layer. You can use Command+J/Ctrl+J to duplicate a layer. Or, with the Move tool, just hold Option/Alt as you drag a layer to make a copy. Using this technique, I moved each copy of the image into place and used Free Transform to fit them into their frames (Figure 19). Free Transform behaves rather differently when working with Smart Objects: You don’t just get a rectangular selection as you do with regular layers. Instead, if you’ve already transformed a Smart Object, then when you use Free Transform again—even on a duplicate of the object—you’ll find the Transform handles still where you left them after the previous transformation. This makes it much easier to change the distortion.

Adding Smart Filters

You can apply almost all of Photoshop’s filters to Smart Objects, just like regular layers. Unlike regular layers, though, when you apply a filter to a Smart Object, the filter itself becomes Smart. After you’ve applied the filter, you can change its settings, hide its effects, or remove it altogether. This is another huge advantage of working with Smart Objects. For Figure 20, I applied various Smart Filters to each of the Mona Lisa images in the gallery. All the Smart Filters were applied to different copies of the same Smart Object.

Changing the image

Once again, you can double-click the Smart Object thumbnail in the Layers panel to open it in a new window. For Figure 21, I pasted a painting of The Laughing Cavalier on top of the Mona Lisa. As usual, close or save the Smart Object to return to your main Photoshop image.

Keeping the effect

Once the base image has been changed in a single Smart Object, all the duplicate Smart Objects are changed to use the same image. But note what also happens: All the filters applied to the original copies are now applied immediately to the new content (Figure 22). Now that’s a smart way to work!

Placing Art from Other Applications into Photoshop

As well as turning Photoshop layers into Smart Objects, you can also import artwork from Illustrator, Lightroom, Camera Raw, or other Photoshop files. Combine that ability with the fact that all duplicated Smart Objects are linked together, and you have the recipe for amazing efficiency. For example, you could produce a mockup for a client showing what their logo would look like printed on a coffee mug, on a keychain, and on a business card. If the client then wants to make changes to the logo, you only have to paste the new version into a single Smart Object and the changes will instantly take place on all the versions in the image.

Working with linked Smart Objects

There are several ways to create linked Smart Objects (See the sidebar “The Many Methods of Creating Smart Objects”). The most obvious is to choose File > Place Linked and select your artwork. It will appear as a new layer. An icon on the file’s thumbnail will show that this is a linked file (Figure 23). If you’re familiar with the workings of links in InDesign, linked Smart Objects will seem very familiar. They can be Up to Date, Out of Date, or Missing. They can be local files in a folder on your computer or a server, or CC Library items.

For Figure 24’s example, I placed several copies of an Illustrator file, duplicated them, and distorted them to fit the objects in my main image. I also changed the mode of each Smart Object layer to Multiply to allow the shading of the scene beneath to show through, which added more realism to the final scene. To edit a linked Smart Object in a new window (such as the logo in the example), double-click any of the copies. Then, double-click this file, and it will open the original in Illustrator, where you can make any changes you want. When you’re done editing, Save the Illustrator file and return to Photoshop, where you’ll see that the artwork inside the Smart Object has been updated to the new version.

The changed logo

Save or close the Smart Object, and you’ll see the edited version in place in your Photoshop document (Figure 25). Note that if you’ve changed the proportions of the logo in Illustrator, it may no longer fit within the bounds of the Smart Object file inside Photoshop. In this case, you’ll need to use the Crop tool to resize the canvas of the Smart Object so that it contains the whole logo. You’ll also need to use Free Transform to adjust the size and position of each of the placed versions of the logo in your file.

Working with Text in Smart Objects

You can use Free Transform to rotate and scale live text in Photoshop, but the program won’t allow you to apply perspective or other distortions on it without rasterizing it first—which means it will no longer be editable text (Figure 26). Clearly, it’s a major advantage to keep the text editable as long as possible, and once again Smart Objects are the solution.

Turn the text into a Smart Object

Make the text into a Smart Object using the usual procedure, and then you’ll be able to hold Command/Ctrl as you grab each of the corner handles and move them to their new location. In the example, it’s easy to follow the lines of the bricks in this wall to make the text perfectly match the perspective of the scene (Figure 27).

If you want to add a stroke to your text, you could, of course, add it directly to the Smart Object, using the Layer Styles dialog box. But this would add a uniform stroke across the whole object, which means the thickness at the far end would be the same as it would be nearer the viewer. To mimic the perspective of this scene, however, the stroke needs to be thinner the farther it is from the camera. The solution here is to open the Smart Object and apply the stroke directly to the text. When you save the Smart Object, the stroke will also appear in perfect perspective. Note that if you choose to set the stroke outside rather than inside the text, you’ll need to either shrink the text slightly or expand the canvas of the Smart Object, or the edges of the stroke will be clipped by the size of the canvas.

Eliminating Distracting Elements with Smart Objects and Image Stacks

Even if everything I’ve told you so far about Smart Objects hasn’t convinced you to try them, I think this final example might. It’s sheer magic, and it involves combining Smart Objects with a rather obscure feature called image stacks to remove unwanted elements from photos (such as a gaggle of tourists wandering aimlessly in front of your perfectly composed shot of the Eiffel Tower). Here’s how it works.

Figure 28 shows a collection of eight photographs taken on London Bridge, with Tower Bridge just visible in the background. The goal is to produce an image with no people. To begin, choose File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack. You’ll then be prompted to select the files you want to import. Turn on Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images if your original photographs weren’t taken with a tripod; turn on Create Smart Object After Loading Layers to combine all the images into a single Smart Object (Figure 29). Select the Smart Object layer and choose Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode > Median. This will tell Photoshop to analyze the stack and attempt to remove the transient elements, retaining just the detail that is common to the largest number of images. As you can see from Figure 30, this doesn’t always produce perfect results; there are some ghostly remnants of people in front of the wall bottom left. It’s easy to fix. Double-click the Smart Object to open it in a new window and turn the layers on and off till you find one in which that ghostly area is clear. Hold Alt/Option with the Clone tool as you click that part of the image to sample it, and then go back to your Smart Object window. Make a new layer, and clone here to remove the offending regions (Figure 31). There are other stack modes you can explore. If you take multiple shots of the same scene, the Mean stack mode will average them out and will generally result in reduced noise. If you want to experiment with other stack modes, bear in mind that they have been created by software engineers, not artists. The Kurtosis mode, for instance, is defined in Photoshop help as a “measure of peakedness or flatness compared to a normal distribution,” whereas the Skewness mode is a “measure of symmetry or asymmetry around the statistical mean.” Right. Good luck with those.

An Objectively Smarter Way to Work

Smart Objects should be a key component in any Photoshop artist’s workflow. They allow you to manipulate layers with an unprecedented ease, giving you the ability to rotate, transform, and distort layers multiple times without loss of quality. They also give you the ability to change your mind at any point and prevent you from having to repeat complex tasks. Just watch out for the unfortunate limitation of how everything in a Smart Object is represented by raster data outside of Photoshop (see sidebar). Even so, Smart Objects are an essential tool in Photoshop. If you aren’t using them on a regular basis, you’re seriously missing out.