The Amazing Power Of Linked Layers In Photoshop
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 лип 2017
- Learn about the amazing power of Linked Layers in Photoshop
In this tutorial I take you through the little known but extremely useful Photoshop feature called Linked Layers. I’ll be focusing on Linked Layers in terms of composites but there are lots of other applications, referencing a logo inside multiple documents for instance.
Linked Layers have three main benefits when it comes to complex composites:
1) Saving computing power: By splitting your edit up across multiple documents Linked Layers allow you to spread the editing load, as it were, rather than having all adjustments in the one Photoshop document
2) Organisation: If you’ve ever tried a really complex edit in Photoshop the sheer number of layers can become quite confusing. By using Linked Layers you can have all adjustments which refer to one element contained within their own Photoshop document.
3) Not having to merge: My favourite! The usual process when you want to Liquify, or make other adjustments to a bunch of layers, is to create a stamp visible layer. Having done so, you’re unable to make changes to those adjustments. Using Linked Layers that problem disappears.
IMPORTANT NOTES
- All your Linked Layers must travel together and CANNOT be deleted. The main file references those layers so they need to exist and it needs to know where they are.
- Use PSDs not TIFFs. Not sure why but PSD’s work much better for this technique. You can use TIFFs but could suffer a speed penalty.
VISIT SQUAREMOUNTAIN.CO.UK TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT US
squaremountain.co.uk/
CHECK OUT THE BLOG FOR EVEN MORE PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS
squaremountain.co.uk/product-...
FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Instagram: / square_mountain
Facebook: / sqmountain
Pinterest: / squaremountain
Square Mountain: squaremountain.co.uk/
Man your video quality is so crisp, crispier than those pringles. Awesom tutorial
you are just awesome broii thanks for the valuable tips you shared
Thank you so much, this has transformed how I now work in Photoshop!!!
Max, you're a genius. i can never get enough of your teaching straight forward approach.
I'm looking forward to more compositing tutorials. You are by far, the best UA-cam channel on all things Photography and Photoshop compositing. I wish I could have found you earlier, my career would be a whole lot better.... :) Thanks again mate!
Thanks Freddie, really appreciate that. Happy to hear you're finding everything useful
Great tutorial, clear and very useful! Thanks
very helpful, thanks.
super useful, thank you!
Max this is really cool ! I think my workflow has forever been changed. I'd love to see a more basic photoshop video going through your product/bottle composite/cleaning steps. Thanks so much for all your insights and instructions.
superb... I've been doing this for quite a while but I just learnt how to do it properly! thanks a mill
Just wanted to thank u and tell you your videos are extremely beneficial and valuable to me.
Wow! Thank you very much for the information.
Awesome! thanks!
Thank you so much!!! you saved me hours of work!! you are brilliant!
Very effective and helping idea. I usually exeed 2 GB file size and complaints from the PS speed. Thanks a lot 👍🏼
Useful technique!
Definitely going to try it
thank you so much, this tutorial is helping me.
I came to this video to learn how to use Linked Layers and ended up also learning the utility of Canvas Guides. Thank you so much for that!
great tutorial and it is useful ... thanks million
great handy tip
Max, you're a genius
great tip. thanks for sharing it with us and congrats on your first video tutorial!
Thanks Sebastian. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Great tutorial, is it possible to do it the other way round? To use the master to help me change the mockup jpg in layers for multiple tabs?
If I understand correctly, would you not just link the other way around? Link to your master file in the mockups?
Thanks
This reminds me a lot the smart object technique. but still great
Bernardo Tepedino it's similar but I've always found there to be pretty significant speed penalties when using smart objects
Yes 🙌🏼
what a professional
I have a concern that when I download a mockup from the internet and unzip it. I see onlly one master document which has link layers inside and I cant adjust exactly like your tutorial, but I cant find the layers ducument in the folder but master document. Could you explan that, thank you
Hi, I'm a little confused by the question. If I understand it correctly, all you need to do is ensure that all documents travel together. For example, if you have one document for the background, one for special effects and one for the bottle, all those documents need to travel together. Hence if you only download the Zip of the Master you may also need the rest. I hope that helps but please let me know if I misunderstood your question. Thanks
Very nice. Question: Isn't smart objects a better approach or the same? Wonderful training btw. You seem to know what your doing, will definitely subscribe. Thanks
Thanks Freddie. From my experience, smart objects can significantly slow down Photoshop when working on large composites, this method is far better for performance.
I have no doubt they are useful. Your explanation was a bit confusion, though. I'll re-watch it tomorrow. Thank you for the video.
Whats the diff. between Linked layers and Smart Objects?
If you work on a server, which method is "safer"?
Smart objects are contained within a single Photoshop document. I haven't tested in a long time but I always found smart objects caused massive performance issues whereas Linked layers had the opposite effect. As to which is safer on a server I'm afraid I can't comment, not my area of expertise
How do you make that brown color bounce on the edge of the bottle. I tried everything just could not get the result that I like.
I can't tell you exactly how I did it here, this was ages ago, but I can give a good idea as to my approach. Within Photoshop I don't tend to use that many tools, the most important thing is theory. With this in mind I always think about real life first, how something should look. Then it's normally pretty easy to transfer that to Photoshop.
So if something coloured is held close to a surface the closest part will transfer the deepest colour. As the objects distance gets further away that colour will lesson. That's the most simple way of thinking about it but other factors will impact it too; lighting, light direction, object shape, the colour itself etc.
Given all of this, I probably went with the most simple route, I usually do. That would have been using my selection around the clouds to create a solid colour on a new layer. I'd then add a small amount of Gaussian blur to that layer and change the blend mode (colour, screen, soft light, experiment).
That first layer would be the deep colour closest to the object. I'd then duplicate that layer and add more blur. This would be a less deep colour which represents the object being further away. I would repeat this process 5 or 6 times (ish) adding more and more blur each time.
Next, I'd adjust the opacity of these layers. It should be more intense close to the bottle and less intense further away. Again, just experiment.
Finally, I'd group the layers and paint the effect on using my wacom tablet and a brush set to a low flow.
I'm not sure if this is how I did it but it would work. Remember always think about reality and start your retouching from there.
@@maxbridge8921 Thank you so much I will try that workflow.
How on earth did you make those clouds?
That's evaporated milk injected into a fish tank. Then a little photoshop to blend multiple versions together and adjust colour.
Did it update the linked layer and add the appropriate liquify to the reflections? either way. Mind Blown!
Hey Brendan, I'm not sure which part you're referring to but when I liquify the smart object (linked layer/PSD) it will liquify everything within it. You can then, if you wish, still go into that document and make adjustments
Great tip, love the videos.
Sounds like a great workflow technique, but doesn't it massively increase the whole project's size?
Joakim Touati there's definitely an increase given that you're dealing with multiple files but given how cheap hard drives are these days I don't see that as a massive issue. To me, it's far more important to be able to work quickly and efficiently.
Thanks for the comment
9:06 Brackets
Hi! You probably already say what I'm gonna ask you but my English isn't good enough so If you don't mind... I'm going to say an example and try to clarify myself about this. I'm sorry in advance If I say something weird, hehe.
Let's say the bottle example: The master file could contain the next linked files:
Baileys Composition.psd
{
---> Cap and Neck.psd
---> Label.psd
---> Body bottle.psd
---> Reflection.psd (here could be the body bottle.psd and label.psd)
---> Background.psd
}
Could this be a good practice?
I think what works best will depend on the particular image. My normal arrangement for this workflow is to create the comp in the first document, then do all cleaning in another document, then do all contrast and colour adjustments in the last document. If I were adding special effects I may have another separate document just for those. Hope that's helpful
@@maxbridge8921 More than perfectly helpful. Thanks
I saw a tutorial where a guy actually was changing layers in illustrator in one document and it automatically updated the other file...how is that possible?
I can't talk about illustrator but that's essentially what happens here, you just have to save the document for the other to update
i went from adobe cs6 to adobe2020 and this saved my life ! what a pleasure not having to doubleclick your imported object and merge all layers inside it... EVERYTIME i change the original file !
photoshop keeps evolving on the positive track, unlike flash/animate and its crappy (which has always been perfect before) onion skinning bicolored system that becomes invisible after 20 frames... adobe why did you want to touch what didn't need to be touched ?? who's the non professional animator who asked for this smelly steamy shit ???
ahem, sorry for the personal rant.