Question: Layers and Smart Objects

Dinarius

I have a photograph with a lit fluorescent tube in it. In order to render the tube with an RGB value that will print darker than paper white, I have done the following:

1. Open the image in Camera Raw and adjusted the exposure so that the tube reads 230, 230, 230. The overall image in now very dark.

2. Holding down the Shift Key, I open the image in Photoshop as a Smart Object.

3. I right click on the image in the Layers palette and choose New Smart Object via Copy.

4. I double click on the copy and it opens in Camera Raw.

5. I edit the image so that it looks normal. i.e. the fluorescent tube is now burned out again. I click OK and it opens again in Photoshop.

6. With the copy layer highlighted, I choose Add Layer Mask.

This is where I have a problem.

I want to have the fluorescent tube readings of the dark image and the other readings of the bright image.

So.........

7. I click on the Layer Mask icon to make it active.

8. I choose the Brush Tool and set the foreground colour to black.

9. I paint the tube carefully. This hides the 255, 255, 255 values of the bright image and leaves me with an acceptable result.

However, I'd rather remove the 255 values of the bright image to reveal the darker values of the image underneath this layer.

I thought that if I select white as the background colour that this is what happens. But, it doesn't work.

So, what should I do?

Many thanks.

D.

gloobag

Use the adjustment brush in Camera RAW to lower the exposure of the tube.

The problem you're having there is that both Smart Object layers are tied to your original raw file. Any changes you make to the RAW file will affect both layers.

CabanSail

This Tutorial may help.