cameras

Although Photoshop has the word "photo" in its title, a remarkably small percentage of Photoshop users identify themselves as photographers. In contrast, more than half call themselves designers. (In case you're wondering who the heck else uses the program, think realtors, medical practitioners, lawyers, law-enforcement professionals, insurance investigators, scientists, and anyone else who makes for good TV drama.) If you fall into this superhuge "designer" bucket---which includes all walks of visual artists, btw---there's nothing better you can do to get a leg up on the competition than learn and eventually master 3D in Photoshop CS5 Extended. Why? Because 3D is exciting, liberating, and outlandishly powerful. Not to mention, no one else in your immediate vicinity has a clue to how it works.

Which is why, just yesterday, I released the Part 3 of my 4-part Photoshop 3D series in the lynda.com Online Training Library. Titled Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One: 3D Scenes, this nearly 9-hour video course takes you to the far reaches of 3D, including scene building, lighting, shadow casting, camera manipulation, and stereoscopic imaging. Below you see me introducing 3D lighting. Note that I'm taking the topic so seriously that I'm wearing a jacket, even though the temperature on the set is roughly that of the sun. And I'm so bulging with 3D info that my left arm (the one on right) looks like I borrowed it from the Michelin Man.

I should mention that the live-action illustrations and many of the 3D models hail from Paul Roper, an incredibly talented guy at lynda.com.

Meanwhile, here's an illuminating chapter-by-chapter description of this transformative and, I freely admit, life-affirming course. Read more » 

No, not Kris Kringle, Chris Breen, Senior Editor of Macworld Magazine, who joins us in the dekeLounge this week to discuss some of his favorite gift ideas for the tech-lover in your life (even if that tech-lover is you...or Deke, who seems very interested in many of these toys). For the record, this show is airing a bit early for us, because neither Deke nor I believe in actually shopping until the 20th of December. But, after I finally kick off my new boots (courtesy of santaDeke, who bought them before the official dekeLounge shopping season) we launch into Chris' delightful list of his favorite tech things for the season.  

Here are some of Chris' wonderful (and lust-producing) suggestions: Read more »