Non-Destructive Lens Correction or Transforms in CS4

I had a situation last night where I wished to perform a number of adjustments on a different version of a photo. I had set up most of my layers as adjustment layers for contrast (curves) and saturation, etc, so much of it was done. However, out of (bad) habit, I did some perspective corrections in a destructive manner - ie; I performed them on the original Layer 0.

Thinking about it later, I realized that I had no idea on how to do non-destructive Transforms and/or Lens Corrections.

Does anyone have any idea how to do such actions in way that makes Transforms or Lens Corrections adjustable, so that I can make slight changes to these actions at a later time?


In a similar vein, how about a way that makes them repeatable? Let's say that I take a shot and use Lightroom to produce 3 variations. Now I want to perform Lens Correction, Transform Skew, and Transform Perspective on all 3 variation, identically to each variations.

I guess - but I'm not sure in work without Photoshop - that I could load all 3 variations as Layers, and then Link the layers, and then perform those actions. Would that ensure that the actions are performed identically on all 3 images?

Anyone have any other ideas on how to do this?

That's a couple interesting questions -- the other day, I copied a background layer over it and did some lens distortion correction, and from what I could see it affected the background layer -- not sure how. I turned off the visibility of the upper layer and the correction still appeared.

It's possible that something else happeded -- I didn't really take the time to analyze it. It's possible, in fact, that I inadvertently changed the background layer to "Layer 0" making it unlocked and susceptible to change.

As for your second question, I can't see a way of copying a correction layer over, since you are applying it to pixels in an image, not just like an adjustment layer.

To do them Non destructively you can duplicate layer 0(ctrl+j) but they are not re-editable. But you can turn them on or off and throw them away.

For lens correction and readjustiing the setting you could convert the layer to a smart object (this is not available for liquify) not sure about transform.

As for the rest of your question....above my head. But my first exploration would be an action or droplet of some form...

Turn the whole bunch into a smart object, then apply the lens correction filter (at least in CS4, possibly also in PSCS3, highly unlikely you can do this in CS2).

Edit: Lens correction: Settings can be saved.
For transform: Transform one document, then do "Transform again" on the other. This should apply the last transformation to the new document. (I think this only works if both documents are the same dimensions in pixels)

René Damkot wrote in post #8364658
Turn the whole bunch into a smart object, then apply the lens correction filter (at least in CS4, possibly also in PSCS3, highly unlikely you can do this in CS2).

I was hoping that Smart Objects would be the answer... I'll confirm all this when I get home.


One other question about smart objects... I have used them to do NeatImage non-destructively, but only NeatImage. Can you do multiple things to a Smart Object and have them all be editable/changeable?

My plan would be to:
- Duplicate the background layer, lock it, and hide it away for protection
- On my Duplicate, convert that to a Smart Object
- Run Neat Image on that layer
- Run Transform-Skew on that same layer
- Run Transform-Perspective on that same layer
- Start adding Adjustment Layers for Curves, Saturation, etc.

Possible, do you think?


Granted, I can check this in a couple hours... I'll report back.

No idea about NI, since I don't own that.
Transform isn't a filter, so while it's editable, there might be some disadvantages, depending on what you want to do..

Here's an example: I used a simple white document with a smart object that started life as a black rectangle.

Then I applied lens correction: Distortion correction +10, vertical perspective: +50
I then used transform to skew the top to the left:

Whoa....Interesting! I did not know you could use diffrent color spaces.

I like LAB but often don't go there because I need to flatten layers.....This is a game changer for me when it comes to LAB!!!

Well, Lens Corrections works on a Smart Object, but not any of the transforms.

In any case, that's some great info René. Thanks!

Scottes wrote in post #8365969
Well, Lens Corrections works on a Smart Object, but not any of the transforms.

Huh?

I can transform a smart object (as shown above). Or do you mean something different?
I think even PSCS2 could transform a smart object?

René Damkot wrote in post #8366239
Huh?

Good question. It works now - I can Transform a Smart Object.

I must have had an adjustment layer selected when I looked at the menu last night.