Adjustment layers and non-destructive editing in PhotoCraft

PhotoCraft's README puts it simply: "Adjustment layers keep every edit live." You can stack them, mask them to an area, reorder them or turn them off, and your original pixels never change.

The 16 adjustment layers

PhotoCraft's command registry defines these adjustments under Layer › New Adjustment Layer:

Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves, Exposure, Vibrance, Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Black & White, Photo Filter, Channel Mixer, Invert, Posterize, Threshold, Gradient Map, Selective Color, Color Lookup.

Curves supports per-channel editing, Levels shows a live histogram, and Color Lookup loads .cube, .3dl and .look files.

Add an adjustment layer

1. Select the layer you want the adjustment to sit above.
2. Choose Layer › New Adjustment Layer and pick an adjustment.
3. Change its settings. The canvas updates live.
4. To limit it to an area, make a selection first, or paint on the adjustment layer's mask (see layer masks and selections).

Direct (destructive) adjustments

The same adjustments are also available under Image › Adjustments. They change the pixels directly. The default shortcuts are on the destructive versions:

Adjustment	Shortcut
Levels…	Cmd+L
Curves…	Cmd+M
Hue/Saturation…	Cmd+U
Color Balance…	Cmd+B
Black & White…	Cmd+Alt+Shift+B
Invert	Cmd+I
Desaturate	Cmd+Shift+U

According to the README, Image › Adjustments also includes Shadows/Highlights, Replace Color, Match Color, HDR Toning, Desaturate and Equalize.

Smart objects and smart filters

Run filters on a smart object and they stay editable: you can change, hide, reorder or mask them at any time. New in 0.7.0: applying Image › Adjustments to a smart object records it as a smart filter.

Undo anything

Full history, Edit › Toggle Last State (Cmd+Alt+Z) and the History Brush let you undo any step, down to a single brush stroke.