Blending Effects + High res. = Nightmare. Smart Objects don’t do justice.

AF
Posted By
Adi_Feldman
Aug 8, 2008
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1226
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When Smart Objects debuted in Photoshop I tried them out and was content to find that there is now something which can scale my styles/blending effects while I resize the object. Previously I’d’ve had to resize the image first (with the Scale Styles option enabled), and then copying things over to what I was working on. (Simply resizing the contents of the layer itself would not also change the layer Style, which means that it would look different.)

Anyhow; I just discovered that I have been deceived. Smart Objects are merely a raster version of their contents: vector or not. If you enlarge a Smart Object containing vector data, it will look pixelated, yet resampled/semi-smooth pixelation.

So my problem is that I made something (vector-based) on 72dpi, and for example if I want to enlarge the image as well as the resolution to 300dpi, (for print), then the style settings are maxed at their boundaries and the look of the image changes.

If for example I have an Inner Glow blending effect with the Size set to 20px, and I enlarge the image, then Photoshop would scale the Size higher and higher the more I enlarge the image, but if I enlarge it too much, it cannot of course go beyond Size 250px as that is the limit for that effect. (And at that point onwards the look of the image starts to change the more I enlarge it).

I made a 3D-looking sphere/orb using purely 5 or so circle shape layers and blending effects. Nothing else. Everything is vector. I put everything into a Smart Object and tried enlarging that instead, hoping that it would somehow know how to render the layer styles/blending effects no matter how large. So as it turns out, the Smart Object is not even vector. *sigh*.

So what’s the solution? Am I using the wrong platform for these kinds of things altogether? Should I be using something else entirely like QuarkXpress and start all over from scratch?

I’m using Photoshop CS3 by the way…. 10.0.1

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

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