Photoshop CS3 Effects Template

There are some combinations of actions, effects and filters that work well enough that you'd really to repeat the process on other images. However, not only is it tedious to have to manually recreate the effects on a new images, this is all supposing that you can actually remember what you did in the first place. Step forward Photoshop CS3 and the new smart filter and smart object features, which can be used to create a template of effects where all you need to do is select another picture for all the styling to be applied, without any of the hassle. Simply create the effect template as described in this tutorial, then save as a PSD file. Later, to recreate the effect, all you have to do is replace the original picture.

1. Load in an image that you want to create the effects with. Right click on it in the Layers Palette and select Convert to Smart Object. It will now change from Background layer to Layer 0 and a new icon will appear in the picture icon itself. Now, right click on this layer again and select Duplicate Layer. Don't select New Smart Object from Copy, because although this sounds like exactly the same thing, it won't work if you do.
1. Load in an image that you want to create the effects with. Right click on it in the Layers Palette and select Convert to Smart Object. It will now change from Background layer to Layer 0 and a new icon will appear in the picture icon itself. Now, right click on this layer again and select Duplicate Layer. Don't select New Smart Object from Copy, because although this sounds like exactly the same thing, it won't work if you do.
Select the Layer 0 copy and go to Edit > Transform > Scale. In the variables boxes at the top enter 75% in the H and W boxes to scale this object. If you apply this change the image will be centred at the new size.
Select Layer 0 and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a value of about 25 pixels. The strength of this will depend on the resolution of the image. However, as you have now applied this to a Smart Object, it has become a Smart Filter. Look in the Layers Palette and it is listed there. Double click on the filter to change the settings if required.

Select Layer 0 copy again, then go to Layer > Layer Style > Stroke. Change the colour to black and use a Size of 3px, more if the image is higher res than 6Mp. While you've got the Layer Style dialogue open, put a tick in Drop Shadow and click on the effect to select it. Set the Angle to 135, the Distance to 10px and the Size to 50px. As before, with larger images, you may want to increase these numbers. Click OK to apply.

• The effects applied to the top layer can now be seen in the Layers Palette. You can add as many as you like to the image, but here, this presentation effect is complete. Now, before you flatten the layers and save as a TIFF as per usual, save the file as a PSD with layers. Name it something like Blur_Presentation_Background.PSD and save it in a folder you create for effects template. It's important that it's obvious what the effects do so that you can reuse it later. Now, here's the clever part then. You've loaded the PSD file and want to recreate all the same effects with a new image. Right click on either layer and select Replace Contents. Use the file browser to select the new image. Click on Place and hey presto, the original image is replaced and all those effects are now applied to a new image. Flatten and save at will. Note that it's best if the replacement image is a similar resolution but certainly it should be the same orientation.