All options under Adjustments in Image menu greyed out for smart object

[Beacon_Artwork]

Hello. To start, I am using Photoshop CS6. I was following a video tutorial on masking glass objects for tranparent effects. When I try to adjust the luminosity on smart object layer I have created, I cannot access the Black and White option under Image - Adjustments. It is greyed out, as are all the other Adjustment functions under the Image menu. Only Shadows/Highlights and HDR Toning are accessible.  I AM in the RGB mode, and I HAVE the document set at 8 bits/channel, so this is not the issue. For grins and giggles, I rasterized the layer which DOES allow me to covert to Black and White in the Adjustment menu, but the filter functions are lost in the group as the object is no longer a smart object. This same trend happens with all smart objects outside of layer groups as well. I simply cannot get smart objects to convert to Black and White (or any other adjustment options) in Adjustments. Have you any idea WHAT is going on? From what I am seeing in forums, this function works the same in CS6 as it does newer versions of Photoshop. Please tell me why the smart object layer cannot access the functions under Adjustments in the Image menu. THANK YOU.

[Chuck Uebele · Accepted solution]

Are you you using adjustment layers? If not, things like curves, levels, etc will not work.

[Beacon_Artwork]

Hello Chuck,

Yes, I was reting to access all the functions under Adjusments in the Image menu. Apparently the limitatioin occurs in Photoshop CS6. Smart filters can be applied, but all functioins under the Adjustments options in Image cannot be appplied to smart objects in CS6.

Thank you very much.

[mglush]

Hi! I tried to recreate your problem, and I AM able to use the Image>Adjustments on a Smart Object that I brought into the file. Can you post a screenshot of your window so we can see what else might be going on?

Thanks,

Michelle

[Chuck Uebele]

It's works with the current version of PS, but not with CS6. The ability to use layer adjustments with smart objects wasn't added till later.

[Beacon_Artwork]

Thank you. I have been looking all over for this possibilty and I continually found conflicting information. Most the informatioin I found however, implied CS6 DOES allow these adjustments to be made. This is a bit of a letdown. 

Let me ask you: Why does CS6 allow smart objects to be edited for smart filters if these adjustments aren't allowed. Is is that ONLY the FILTERS under the Filters menu work?

Thank you.

[Beacon_Artwork]

Hello Michelle,

Apparently the limitatioin occurs in Photoshop CS6. Smart filters can be applied, but all functioins under the Adjustments options in Image cannot be appplied to smart objects in CS6.

Thank you for your time.

[Chuck Uebele]

Adobe is just slowly adding features that with Smart Objects. There are still some filters that don't work with it, that I think should. When CS6 came out the things that worked were very limited.

[Beacon_Artwork]

I will just do further research - see if I can find a tutorial that allows me to accomplish the transparency effect for glass using CS6. I was slowly managing getting there by tinkering around before I found the tutorial that led me here to ask this question. 

I suppose there is a way of doing this by multi-layering a series of images that aren't converted to smart objects. I will just have to keep track of which layer is what effect.

Thanks again.

[Chuck Uebele]

Do you have an example of what you're trying to achieve, and/or one of the tutorials? 

[ncoleartist5]

I was having this same problem but realized certain adjustments get greyed out when you change the color mode to CMYK. In RGB mode i could still adjust the vibrancy but once i changed to CMYK mode that adjustment was locked, so i made all my adjustments before i converted to cmyk.