ABSTRACT
The ‘Smart’ way to filter The concept of non-destructive editing is the future of editing for photographers and is ever growing in popularity and acceptance. Now many dedicated amateurs are working like professionals by embracing ways of enhancing and editing that don’t destroy or change the original pixels in the end result. Masking techniques, Adjustment Layers and the use of Smart Objects are the foundation technologies of many of these techniques. But try as we may some changes have just not been possible to apply non-destructively. Filtering is one area in particular where this is the case. For example, applying a sharpening filter to a picture irreversibly changes the pixels in the photo forever. For this reason, for many years, the smart photographer applied filters to copies of their photos in order to maintain the integrity of the original capture. Photoshop CS3 changed this way of working by including for the first time a new filtering option called Smart Filters and yes, you guessed it, this technology allowed users to apply a filter to an image non-destructively. Cool! Based around the Smart Object technology, applying a Smart Filter is a two-step process. First the image layer needs to be converted to a Smart Object. This can be done via the new entry in the Filter menu, Convert for Smart Filters, or by selecting the image layer and then choosing Layer > Smart Object > Convert to Smart Object. Next pick the filter you want to apply and adjust the settings as you would normally before clicking OK.
