Here are a couple more things that are new to me in Photoshop, that I’ve found beneficial.
Spring-Loaded Tools
Now obviously there aren’t any actual springs involved here, but in Adobe Photoshop CS4, you can temporarily switch from any tool in the toolbar to any other tool by pressing and holding down the other tool’s shortcut while you use it. This was already available with the hand tool in previous versions of PS, where you press and hold the spacebar to get the hand tool, and after using it, letting go of the spacebar switches back to the previous tool. Now it just works for all the other tools as well. For instance, to jump from the Clone tool to the new Rotate View tool, just hold down R, click-and-drag the canvas to rotate it, and then release R to jump back to the Clone tool. It doesn’t really save a ton of clicks, but helps keep your workflow going more smoothly.
Smart Objects
Now these definitely aren’t new to PSCS4, but are new to me (which shows how many versions of PS I skipped!) and are a welcome addition. Even in the CS4 version, there are some things about them that are lacking, but we’ll take what we can get. For those of you who either haven’t used the most recent versions of PS, or just haven’t ever gotten around to using Smart Objects for whatever reason, this is the idea behind them. They allow you to perform operations (such as a blur, for example) in a way similar to how adjustment layers work. What this means is that if you decide 25 steps later that you really would like that blur to be 10 pixels rather then 40, you can change the blur radius without having to go back to that step in the history (if you even could go back that far anyway).
Another way that I use them is to keep multiple elements “synched up”. For example, in my cereal box announcements, I tend to use the same cereal title twice on the box. Once as the main large one, and then again much smaller on the top right area representing the “Nutrition Facts” side of the box. So I put all the layers that make up the title (usually 3-5) into a layer group, and convert it into a smart object. Then I duplicate that smart object and move the copy over to the side, and scale it down. Those transformations are not “baked” into the pixels, but are associated with the whole object. Now if I double-click on either of the smart object layers, it will allow me to edit the contents of the smart object. So then I might change the text to be a different font or color. After I save that smart object, it updates in the original file, and both smart objects will get that change.
One thing that is missing (that exists in other software that has a similar concept) is that of it being referenced in from a separate file. The same file could be referenced into 50 different psd documents (maybe useful for your company logo, for example). And when that separate file gets altered (if you change the color scheme of your logo, for example), all 50 documents would see that change and update accordingly. Maybe in a future version…
My favorite reason for using for them in general, though, is because I can adjust filters (usually a blur or sharpening) later on, even on a different day in a different session of PS.
