Applying filters to multiple layers

- [Narrator] There might be times when you have multiple layers in you image and you want to apply a filter to them all at once. If this is the case, on the layers panel select all of the layers that you want to add the filter to, and then choose filter, convert for smart filters. Then I'll choose filter, stylize, and choose extrude. I want to extrude these as blocks with solid front faces and click okay.

As we can see the filter is being applied as if the layers are flattened first. If I apply the filter to each individual layer then the center of the filter wouldn't be in the center of the image, but it would be in the center of each individual photograph. If I need to make changes to the contents of the smart object, I can choose layer, smart objects, and then edit contents. That opens up the contents of the smart objects so that I can edit them in their own window.

I'll use the space bar in order to reposition this and then I want to swap the top two layers. So on the layers panel I have the cactus 1 layer selected. With the move tool I'll scoot that over to the left. Then I'll select cactus 2, and drag that over to the right. As soon as it's positioned the way I want it I'll choose command S in order to save this and then command W in order to close the file.

And we can see that it's been updated and the filter's been applied. If I want to change the filter, I just double click where it says extrude. I'll switch this to pyramid and click okay. So as you can see it's quite easy to apply a re-editable and non-destructive filter to multiple layers at one time simply by selecting them in the layers panel and then converting them to a single smart object.