RGB CMYK LAB and Dan Margulis !

[mquest]

I probably wont get any sleep tonight... thanks Mark!

[MatthewMarshall]

i dont know why you guys all fuse so much about color conversions, when you take it to your print shop or give it to your clients to print, they are just going to hit the print button on there hp printers and let the software do what ever it wants with the file. lol lol lol

[pixel_monkey]

Originally Posted by MatthewMarshall

i dont know why you guys all fuse so much about color conversions, when you take it to your print shop or give it to your clients to print, they are just going to hit the print button on there hp printers and let the software do what ever it wants with the file. lol lol lol

But, this is not just color conversions. It's also a really great approach to nondestructive retouching. You have the ability to retouch at any level within the smart object layer that's within another smart object and use whatever amount of layers you want within each level and you still end up with a single layer for your master file. It sure helps my workflow enormously. I used to have to flatten all my retouching layers to just the original and the retouched version in my files and back up the masters in my hard drive before I pass them over the quality control team...it was just such a pain. Now I don't have to do that anymore.

This is not something new, though. I just realized that Deke McCelland mentioned briefly about this approach before CS2 came out. I didn't pay much attention to it back then and never thought it can be taken to this extent.

[cricket1961]

It was new for CS2, just not talked about evidently.
Be careful with the amount of smart objects you use. I had a empty base CMYK
with a RGB smart object that contained a Lab smart object. It went from 250 mbs to
1.7 gigs. No alpha channels either.
It could eat up your hard drive space rather quickly. And although it is really great, having to save a smart object each time will add an enormous amount of time to your workflow. Of course it all depends on the resolution and file size of the image.
To me, the benefits outweigh everything but the time factor. So it just means to use it when it is most beneficial to me and not any rush jobs.

Chris

[pixel_monkey]

I do notice the increase in file size, but it's ok for what I do here. What I meant by that Deke mentioned it before CS2 came out was that he was showing it on the CS2 space monkey beta version before the final retail release.

[pixel_monkey]

Chris, you brought up a good point about the increase in file size, which led me thinking about smart object instances. I haven't used them, yet. I'm assuming they should behave similar to the instances in Flash or other 3D programs out there that let you edit the look of each instance in whichever way you want as long as you don't mess with the master object and still maintain a considerably small file size . This is going to be wild if this were true.

[KR1156]

funny thing is i use the smart object for embeded illustrator files when i do production and mechanicals...helps when i need a clients logo or something, and need to apply ps effects, if i needed to modify the illustrator file, i would quickly do it and save, instead of having to copy and paste and resize and register all over again.

but i never even knew you can turn a ps layer into a smart object, i vaguely remember glancing over it somewhere, but never knew how to use it.

i'm in RGB 95% of time, and don't do the cmyk conversions, so i really love the bringing in the K plate. that's where i get most use out of it.

[pixel_monkey]

It's amazing how unforeseen possibilities start to surface when we look at the same thing from several different perspectives. I've been possessing my raw files into smart objects so I can reopen them in camera raw whenever I wish. They're basically tiff files with just a smart object layer inside, but it never occurred to me that it can go a lot further from there.

[CaptainHook]

Originally Posted by KR1156

but i never even knew you can turn a ps layer into a smart object, i vaguely remember glancing over it somewhere, but never knew how to use it.

Funny that i thought it was ONLY for ps layers.

[Markzebra]

mquest - try counting sheep, its more effective at getting you to sleep

I had a empty base CMYK with a RGB smart object that contained a Lab smart object. It went from 250 mbs to 1.7 gigs. No alpha channels either. yes this is true - i think its because Photoshop has to generate a full resolution preview of the embedded object in the master document, if you have a CMYK master with an RGB Smart Object there are now three copies of the base pixels: the CMYK base pixels, the RGB smart Object itself ...AND a preview of the RGB smart object converted back to CMYK which sits in the original file. Chris in your 3 level embedded version there is alot of extra data being generated to create the previews. Its also worth mentioning that your LAB object by the time it is reflected in you CMYK master has been converted twice.

Instances - yes I suppose the equivalent in Illustrator is what they call Symbols. This idea is actually more powerful in photoshop than in other software for this reason - now with smart filtering you can apply distortion filtering as well as warp, you can group multiple adjustments/curves, apply opacity, blending - all this individual to each instance. Its capable of enormous subtlety. As an example I have used them to coat a car bodywork and recently as a pitch to do skin where a potentially variable tattoo design had to be imposed on her. In practice each instance can have different perspective and distortion blending and opacity masking. Its magic when you see your entire image change before your eyes on updating the Smart object, or replacing it completely.

[Hello_taipan]

Markzebra is God.
thx for the tip man !

[pixelzombie]

Originally Posted by KR1156

i'm in RGB 95% of time, and don't do the cmyk conversions, so i really love the bringing in the K plate. that's where i get most use out of it.

i'm trying to figure this out but can't seem to get a handle on it, how would i use the smart object to add K only to a RGB file?

[cricket1961]

Originally Posted by pixelzombie

i'm trying to figure this out but can't seem to get a handle on it, how would i use the smart object to add K only to a RGB file?

You convert the smart object to CMYK and adjust with curves.

Chris

[mr.aj]

Tai,

Thanks for starting this thread...I learned a ton

[pixelzombie]

Originally Posted by cricket1961

You convert the smart object to CMYK and adjust with curves.

Chris

ok, i got that far but i can get a similar result by just using selective color on the RGB file itself...