Since RadLab is a Photoshop Filter, it’s possible to take advantage of Photoshop’s Smart Filters feature to allow true non-destructive editing of your images. Smart Filters and Smart Objects allow you to change the RadLab recipe you’ve applied, even after you’ve exited RadLab and performed additional work in Photoshop.
Without the RadLab Panel
- Copy a merged version of your document to a new layer. The shortcut key Cmd-Shift-Option-E will do this for you (Ctrl-Shift-Alt-E on Windows).
- From the Photoshop menu, select Layer -> Smart Objects -> Convert To Smart Object
- Run RadLab via Filter -> Totally Rad -> RadLab
RadLab also makes using Smart Objects a one-click operation for Photoshop CS4 and CS5 users. Here’s how you do it:
Via the RadLab Panel
- Make sure your RadLab Panel is visible (CS4 and CS5 users only)
- Select “New Smart Object” from the drop-down menu
- Click “Open RadLab”
That’s it. A new Smart Object will be created with your recipe, making it easy to later edit or mask the result.
Editing Your Recipe Later
When you apply a filter, like RadLab, to a Smart Object, you get a Smart Filter entry below that Smart Object in the layers palette. You can double-click on the RadLab entry in the list of Smart Filters to bring up the RadLab interface and make changes to your recipe. When you click Finish, your image in Photoshop will be updated with the new Recipe from RadLab.