Photo Mastery Club Blog

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Why bother using smart objects in photoshop?

It’s an extra step, which feels unnecessary, so do you really need to use them?

These are all valid questions and the quick answer is no. You don’t have to.

Might you want to use smart objects in your workflow anyway?

It depends.

In this video I’m going to show you why you might want to use smart objects, and why you might not need to bother.

They can be a useful tool in your processing workflow and save you a bit of effort in the long run.

Speaking of workflow, if you want to download the free guide to my end to end 6 stage processing workflow for landscape photography, you can get it here: https://arnl.ink/avfp

So, smart objects are used mainly when we want to run a Photoshop filter on a pixel based layer (as opposed to an adjustment layer).

What they do is allow you to go back and adjust any filter settings you made to that layer.

This is opposed to running those same filters on a non smart object layer where those filters will be baked into the pixels.

**Subscribe To My Channel For More Photoshop Videos**
https://arnl.ink/subyt

**Download my Luminosity Masking Panel **
https://arnl.ink/panel

This video is a handful of useful layer masking tips that was prompted by a question I received recently, which was How do I reset a layer mask?

That question would only take a couple of seconds to answer, so I’m adding in a bunch of other useful masking tips afterwards in case they help you too.

**Subscribe To My Channel For More Photoshop Videos**
https://arnl.ink/subyt

**Download my Luminosity Masking Panel **
https://arnl.ink/panel

Watch the luminosity masking video I mentioned in this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Xm4rZYhqo

Someone asked me in a comment recently what is the difference between using Lightroom’s HDR functionality for blending bracketed exposures, versus using luminosity masking in Photoshop.

Even considering the fact that Lightroom’s HDR functionality is an automated process that basically guesses how we want to blend our exposures, it is actually pretty good for some specific scenarios, like when there’s zero movement between frames, and rescuing basic shadows and highlights in “regular” kinds of shot.

However, I’m all about sunrise and sunset when lighting conditions are very difficult and high contrast, and there is usually movement between frames (whether that’s the waves of the sea, or the clouds in the sky, theres usually something).

So This video is going to be a quick demo of exactly why I personally rarely ever use Lightroom to do my exposure blending.

**Subscribe To My Channel For More Photoshop Videos**
https://arnl.ink/subyt

**Download my Luminosity Masking Panel **
https://arnl.ink/panel

There are 3 blending mistakes I see photographers regularly making in Photoshop.

They’re the kind of mistakes that a non-photographer probably wouldn’t notice right away, but their subconscious leaves them feeling like something just doesn’t feel right about an image.

To you and me as photographers, when we can spot these mistakes we instantly know WHY it doesn’t feel right, and you’ll be able to see the missed potential in images that contain them.

In this video learn 3 proven methods to increase image contrast in photoshop.

This isn’t “just another” contrast technique tutorial…

What I really want to share is the concept of using whatever contrast technique you like to use, to work 2 different types of contrast

What I mean by that is, I like to file contrast adjustments in photoshop into one of two groups. Micro contrast, and macro contrast. And that’s what we’re going to get into now.

It’s worth noting that many or these adjustments I’m about to show you can be further fine-tuned by masking them in or out of whatever image you’re working on, but that’s beyond the scope of this tutorial. I

Here’s a link to my playlist containing many more layer masking tutorials:

And if you want to see how all the seemingly random Photoshop tips and techniques fit together to create a seamless and consistent editing workflow for me, here’s a link to my downloadable guide to my 6 Stage Processing Workflow for landscape photographers where you can get it for free: