Dave Cross - The Photoshop Productivity Series: The Productive Workflow

You hear a lot of talk about workflow. The one thing I dont like about that term is that it contains the word work. Im being facetious, of course, but not completely. Quite often people show me their workflows and I cant help thinking that they seem to be working too hard.

Thats why I like the term smart flow. I know itll probably never catch on, but hopefully it will help you remember the idea of working smart instead of working hard. My concept of a smart flow is taking advantage of the automation capabilities of Photoshop and using nondestructive, smart techniques. (See the other two books in this Photoshop Productivity ebook series.)

In this book, the term smart also refers to the Smart Object technology in Photoshop. As well see, a number of reasons exist for working nondestructively and using techniques that employ Smart Objects. The most common reason cited for working nondestructively is that its more flexible you can change your mind more easily. That is true, and it is one very important advantage of this workflow. But before you think Smart Objects are only about changing your mind, remember that you can also use these techniques to be more accurate, more creative, and more efficient when reusing the same effect, looks, and templates.

If youve been around the Photoshop world for even a short time, its likely that youve heard the term nondestructiveas in nondestructive workflow or working nondestructively. In principle, this means doing things in such that the result is not permanentthat is, destructiveso your work can still be edited in various ways. As well see, theres much more to working nondestructively than just the ability to change your mind.

The beauty of learning these smart, nondestructive techniques is that they can be applied in so many different ways. Whether youre retouching a portrait, adjusting an image, or creating fine art, working smart can help you. The following key techniqueswhich youll find yourself using over and over againform the basis of the nondestructive smart flow.

This book is not intended as a primer on layers in Photoshop, so if you need that, look elsewhere. Im making the assumption that you are familiar with the basic concept of layers. Just in case, however, Ill provide a quick overview of why we should use layers. If you are a veteran user of layers, you can skip ahead.

Imagine that you want to add some painted words to a photo. You grab the Brush tool and paint the words you want, save the document, and the job is done (). When you work directly on the Background layer, you are alteringor some people would say damagingthe pixel information.

Figure 1.1The photograph with painted text.

Figure 1.2The Layers panel showing one layer in use.

Instead, look at this alternative. In the Layers panel, click the new layer icon to add a blank layer above the Background. Use the Brush tool to add the words in the same way. The result looks the same, but theres an important difference: Now, the painted words are separate from the Background. This means the painted words can be moved, deleted, resized, and more ().

Figure 1.3Notice that the painted words reside on a separate layer.

Figure 1.4You can edit the separate layer, including lowering the opacity.

Think of adding a layer as covering your photo with a sheet of clear plastic; you can still see the photo underneath, but its protected. By painting on the plastic, it looks like youre painted on the photo itself, but you arent.

Thats the basic concept of working with layers: You build up sheets of plastic, each of which contains some information. You layer them from the bottom up to create the effect you want. A common way to use layers is to add a blank layer and perform functions such as retouching on the blank layer. You do that by choosing the Sample All Layers option in the Options bar.