Smart Objects and Camera Raw

One thing that many people don't realize is that Smart Objects aren't restricted to regular JPEG photos or vector artwork. You can actually place a Camera Raw file as a Smart Object. Now, why the heck would you want to do this? Well, let's say you decide you'd like to reprocess the Camera Raw file once it's inside a Photoshop document. If it's a Smart Object, you can go back and edit the original RAW settings at any point.

Step One

Open an image that you'd like to work with. Here, I've used a file with a blue background. Choose File>Place. This time, instead of placing a regular old JPEG photo, select a RAW photo and press the Place button. The Camera Raw dialog will open so you can process your RAW photo (I've done a few adjustments and some cropping here). When you're done, press Open to place the photo into Photoshop. Just position it where you want and press the Return (PC: Enter) key. (I've also added a Stroke and Outer Glow layer style to the photo here.)

©MATT KLOSKOWSKI

Turbo Boost

When you double-click a Smart Object layer's thumbnail to edit it, you'll probably see a warning dialog telling you to make sure you use File>Save to save changes. Go ahead and check Don't Show Again in this dialog, so it doesn't continue interrupting you.

Step Two

Now, let's say you continue to work on this design and later realize that you need to adjust the photo more. Since it's a Smart Object, just double-click on the layer thumbnail and the Camera Raw dialog will open again. It'll be populated with the settings you used before and you can change them here. When you're done, just click the Open button again and Photoshop will update the photo to reflect the changes you just made.

Turbo Boost

You can actually change the opacity of an image as you're placing it before committing the place. I know it sounds weird, but make sure you type the percentage in the Layers palette to change it. This won't work with the sliders.