Workaround For Photoshop Issue.

[smoke665]

So I watched a recent video on color grading in PS by opening an image as a Smart Object and using ACR color grading.

For those not familiar color grading in ACR/LR it's a quick process that I was hoping to do nondestructive in PS. The problem I ran into is that once you use the ACR as a SO on an image, as a layer, you can't use pixel based tools (destructive) like curves above it. It will let you add a layer, but not do any adjustments. ACR does not have a delete/remove function, but surprisingly it will let me remove an object using generative fill.

Original Image

Image color graded with one horse removed

And what happens when you change the color grading or profile in the ACR smart object.

This was something mentioned on another thread by member @Ysarex at the time I didn't agree with him, because I assumed there was a workaround. There is in fact a partial workaround, you can do all your edits destructively, do a clone stamp image at the top and use a SO with ACR to edit, but you then have a nondestructive edit of an image already processed with destructive editing. I can't think of any other options....anyone else??

 

[TJMcG122 6]

If you change a Photoshop layer in ACR, and bring it back to Photoshop, Photoshop does not update all its other layers to accommodate that change. Your "workaround" is to do the steps in the proper order and understand how your editing software works. If you modify your smart object after you have added a pixel layer above it, you can't expect Photoshop to know that all other layers get the same modification.

 

[smoke665]

@TJMcG I understand how the order of layers work, though it isn't always clear as I pointed out in my OP. For example, you can remove objects from the base layer with Generative Fill which creates a new masked layer above. If you then open the SO ACR layer and change the settings in the Color Grading panel the Generative Fill layer above reflects those changes. However if you change the Profile in the SO ACR layer, it's not reflected in the Generative Fill level above (see my last image). In thinking about it I didn't try clipping the layer to the SO layer.

I've already determined by doing that it's possible to Color Grade with a SO ACR layer at the top of the layer stack and redit without issue but curiously the Profile Browser is missing from the ACR Panel when you do. I'm assuming that because in this scenario ACR becomes a smart filter???

 

[smoke665]

Okay an update: You can open an image as a SO in PS, AND put adjustment layers above it like Curves, Levels, Hue/Sat, Exposure, etc. any adjustments made to the base layer SO in ACR will be reflected to the above layers. The only thing I couldn't do was remove something from the base SO image and change the profile in ACR. I think this is because, PS will not let you actually do the remove from the SO, you have to first add a blank layer then select (sample all layers). It then creates a new layer with the generative fill, so it isn't working destructively on the original image, it's generating a new image from the information in the SO. As it is a new image, any changes to the original in ACR would not be reflected.