AV News 191 - February 2013
Photoshop Non-Destructive Editing
Keith Scott FRPS
What are 'Adjustment Layers' and 'Smart Objects'? In simple terms these
functions allow edits and transforms to be re-edited or undone without
damage to the original file even after a .PSD file has been saved then
re-opened. Using destructive technique such edits cannot be undone after
re-opening a file. This first image of a Ghost Walk Leader in the Shambles at
York originated as a Nikon RAW file, for the purpose of this article it has not
had any adjustment applied in Adobe Camera Raw. Normally adjustments to
white balance, curves, highlights, luminance, colour, lens profile corrections
etc would be done using Camera Raw prior to opening an image into
Photoshop. Although this rapidly grabbed shot was taken around dusk on a
summer evening the average exposure mode has produced an image without
any real mood. Had time permitted an incident light reading or spot reading
from this chap's face ignoring any influence from his dark cape and hat would
have produced a tonal image more suited to the subject, it will however serve
to illustrate several non-destructive editing techniques.
Before making edits to
any image it's good
practice to analyse the
image and determine
what's to be changed
with due consideration to
the purpose of the final
image. In this image t