Create reflective sunglasses in Photoshop
Deke's Techniques 232: Creating Highly Reflective Sunglasses in Photoshop
Deke turns a regular pair of dark sunglasses and turns them into mirrored reflections of their surrounding scene.
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Steal from the Best: Get Your Gradient Swatches for InDesign by Lifting Them from Illustrator

Submitted by colleen on 25 April 2013 - 1:05pm.

And while you're at it, get your InDesign know-how by lifting it from Anne-Marie Concepcion and David Blatner.

As I've probably mentioned ten thousand times already, I have a project I'm working on that requires InDesign, and I'm heading to PEPCON (the Print and eProduction Conference) this weekend and don't want to seem dull-minded as I mix with the InDesignerati. (In my experience, the crowd, speakers, and attendees alike, are wicked sharp at PEPCON.)

So, one of the ways I'm feeding my craving for more InDesign know-how is to watch a lot of David and Anne-Marie's lynda.com course, InDesign Secrets. In fact, that's where I stole this movie on how to get gradient swatches out of Illustrator and into InDesign.

If you're an InDesign user with a design-centric version of the Creative Suite or a subscription to the Creative Cloud, then you already have access to Illustrator, so go grab those swatches. They're already yours. I'm just using the thievery motif for dramatic effect. Much like one might use these gradients:

Like Deke's Techniques, the InDesign Secrets collection at lynda.com is a continually updated series of short episodes. And if this level of InDesignery is over your head, there's an Up & Running with InDesign course taught by some guy named Deke there, too. And if you're not a member, you can get a free week's trial at lynda.com/deke.  

For those of you who like to read, here are my insightful observations on Anne-Marie's trick:   Read more » 

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Deke's Techniques 216: Making a Danger Sign Even More Dangerous

Submitted by colleen on 23 April 2013 - 1:00am.
Danger and more danger

In this week's free Deke's Techniques episode, Deke takes a delightfully narrative but not nearly threatening enough warning sign, and adds a sharp-toothed incentive to stay off the frigging cliffs. 

The Cliffs of Moher on Ireland's west coast receive something in the vicinity of one million visitors a year from all over the world. Thus, they need graphically narrative signs that warn people away from the friable edges. But, of course, intrepid photographers ignore those signs on occasion. And Deke, being one of those sign-scoffers decided to use the power of Photoshop to enhance the perceived danger portrayed in the sign. Like this: 
 

Now, lest you think this is just Deke being Deke (which, it is, on so many levels; I can tell you, I climbed over more than one "No Trespassing" sign, written in English, during our visit to the Cliffs, in order to retrieve him and his fancy camera before they slid off the muddy edge).

But nonetheless, I will also tell you that this particular technique, whilst frivolous and cartoon shark-infested on the surface, nonetheless does a terrific job of showing how to create masks, manage paths, and master the Transform command options. If you follow along, you may just find yourself doing something actually useful with this knowledge down the line. And if not, you're well set to create a humorous warning sign from your next set of vacation photos. 

And for members of lynda.com, Deke's got an exclusive episode this week as well, in which he shows you how to add that extra bit of texture to your shark (or whatever danger bonus you create) that really sells it as an original bit of sign. If you're not a member of lynda.com, you can get a free week's trial to check it out at lynda.com/deke.  Read more » 

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Five Key Things about Working with Graphics in InDesign

Submitted by colleen on 19 April 2013 - 12:15pm.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been working more with InDesign lately and thinking about how learning InDesign's layout capabilities might be of interest to more people as the Creative Cloud model makes it more readily available (i.e. it's free as part of your subscription, so you might as well give it a test drive). Or maybe, like me, it's been a while since you've needed to use ID, and you're looking to renew your acquaintance. 

Given that dekeOpolitans are generally graphically oriented creatures, I've made a list of five things about using graphics (photos, line art, logos) in InDesign documents. These observations may come in handy should you wish to create garage sale flyer, an invitation to an intergalactic cocktail party, or anything else that might combine your carefully crafted graphics with pithily presented text in InDesign. 

intergalactic cocktails in InDesign

So here's my list of five things about working with graphics in InDesign.  Read more » 

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Create A Logo, Quickly, in InDesign of All Things

Submitted by colleen on 17 April 2013 - 12:15pm.

In honor of the upcoming (perennially awesome) PEPCON (Print and eProduction Conference) in Austin at the end of the month, I've decided to remember how to use InDesign. I've also been thinking about how lovers of great Photoshop and Illustrator techniques (often synonymous with "fans of Deke") may be interested in showing off their images with InDesign's layout features, especially as a subscription to the Creative Cloud now makes access to ID essentially free. 

But to ease into the layout program after a diet of mostly graphics and photos, I thought I'd start with this tutorial, extracted from Deke's Up & Running with InDesign course at lynda.com, on how to make a quick and easy logo. Deke uses some familiar tools, like the Rectangle shape tool and Pathfinder, that will help PS and AI users aclimate to the InDesign environment. 

In the mood to read rather than watch? Don't have access to the lynda.com sample files? Here's an illustrated step-by-step recounting of how I adapted this tutorial to create my own personal logo from scratch inside InDesign:  Read more » 

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Deke's Techniques 215: Defringing Purples and Greens in Camera Raw 7

Submitted by deke on 16 April 2013 - 12:15am.
Deke's Techniques 215: Defringing Purples and Greens in Camera Raw 7

Hey, gang. It's me, Deke! Actually writing a blog post for my very own site. Weird! But, honestly, Colleen's so good at it, who needs me underfoot?

Even so, in rare form, I attend (hello!) to announce this week's free technique. Now I warn you, this movie is not terribly humorous or exciting. In fact, while watching it, I yawned once. Okay, twice. But it was late. And besides, this movie is seriously educational. Perhaps even dangerously so. For this week, I explain how to use the Defringe slider bars in Adobe Camera Raw 7, which ships with Photoshop CS6.

Oh, crap, that sounds dull as shit, even with all the italics.

We start with the following helpful sign that warns men with chest erections not to stumble off obvious cliffs. Wait, no, I have that wrong---there's no red slash through the sign. So it must recommend that men with chest erections stumble off obvious cliffs. Phew, boy am I glad I misread that sign! I'm pretty sure I had a massive arm-shaped chest erection at the time.

The Danger-Don't-Fall-Off-This-Cliff Guy

Sadly, that misses the point, and it's already much more entertaining than the boring-ass video that accompanies this post. Which, if I haven't already mentioned it, is dull. Great grandpappy-discretion advised. Read more » 

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