Photoshop CS3: Smart Objects and Smart Filters

Creative Photoshop with John Reuter

Photoshop CS3 has taken the concept of Smart Objects to a new level, adding the capability of working with Smart Filters. Smart filters are non-destructive filters associated with Smart Objects that give Photoshop capabilities that programs such as Adobe After Effects have had for years. They come at a price, however. In larger files you may find that they will tax your system resources to the maximum and you have to be more careful in laying out your workflow. Some of my experience with them in this tutorial may be due to the fact that we are working with a beta version of CS3 and hopefully the final version will have faster performance. This tutorial was created on a G5 Dual 2.0 gz with 2.5 megs of ram. I since tried the same files on my Mac Book Pro with 2 gigs of ram and performance was noticeably faster but the Lens Blur and re-rendering of Smart Objects still took over a minute or so. I still think waiting for this is worth the flexibility and is a superior alternative to adding extra layers to run filters on. In any event Smart Filters are a powerful addition to Photoshop and offer new freedom and capabilities in creating images.