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me to reduce the opacity of the Smart Filter adjustment to 70% (if I wanted to I could also change the blend mode here as well). I then double-clicked the Smart Object layer itself (circled in red) to edit the layer contents separately. This popped the warning dialog shown right, which indicated that any subsequent changes that I might make to the Smart Object image would need to be saved before closing the document window. It also reminded me that I should always save to the same location (in practice this should never be an issue, so long as you always use the File Save command rather than File Save As…)

4.

Here you can see the original Smart Object image document, but without the Shadow/ Highlight Smart Filter adjustment. I could now edit this document as one would do normally. If you look at the Layer panel for the Smart Object you will see that I added a spotting layer for the minor retouching work and a masked Curves layer that darkened the sky inside the main arch window. When I closed the document window a dialog box prompted me to choose ‘Save’. As I pointed out in Step 3, this must be done in order to save the Smart Object adjustments back to the parent document.

5.

Here is the final version in which you can now see a combination of the image adjustments applied to the Smart Object image mixed in with the Shadows/Highlights adjustment that I applied as a Smart Filter. In addition to this, I added a Black & White layer to convert the image to black and white and I also added a Curves adjustment layer to pump up the contrast slightly in the shadows. The key lesson here is that all of the adjustments I had just applied to this photograph remained fully editable.

Ragged borders with the Refine Edge adjustment

The latest improvements to the Refine Edge command were primarily designed to provide improved edge masking. However, Gregg Wilensky who worked on Refine Edge discovered that one of the side effects of the new Refine Edge dialog is that it can also be used to create interesting ragged-edge borders that have a natural, darkroom-type look. The main point to bear in mind here is that you primarily use the Radius slider to create the main effect, and a wide Radius will usually work best with the ‘Smart Radius’ option disabled. Basically, the rough edges you see are actually based on the content of the image itself so it is the image content that is determining the outcome of the Refine Edge adjustment. The Feather, Contrast and Shift Edge adjustments can then be used to modify the main effect. In addition to this you can also select the extend edge brush tool and carefully paint along sections of the edge to further modify the border and generally roughen it up a little more. Above all you have to be patient as you do this and apply small brush strokes a little at a time, but the results you get can be pretty interesting.

1.

The first step was to make a copy of the Background layer and fill the original Background layer with a solid color, such as white. I then made a rectangular marquee selection, went to the Select menu and chose Modify Smooth and applied an appropriate Sample Radius (in this case 50 Pixels).

2.

I then went to the Select menu chose ‘Refine Edge…’ ( ) and in the Output To section I selected ‘Layer Mask’. This automatically generated a pixel layer mask for the layer based on the current selection. The main controls I adjusted here were the Radius, to produce a wide border effect. The Contrast slider was used to ‘crispen’ the edges, Feather was used to smooth them slightly and a positive Shift Edge adjustment was used to expand the border edge. I also used the ‘extend edge’ brush (circled) to manipulate some sections of the border to create a rougher border.

3.

Here you can see an alternative border effect in which I started with a rounded marquee selection that was closer to the edges of the photo. I filled the Background color with black and used a narrower Radius, a higher Contrast and a softer Feather adjustment to create a tighter border edge. As in Step 2, I