contest

Photoshop Top 40, Feature #9: Levels

Submitted by deke on 16 February 2010 - 12:15am.
Feature #9: Levels

Feature #9 is my favorite adjustment command: Levels. Adjusted only slightly since its introduction in Version 1.0, this seminal feature lets you set the black and white points, as well as correct the midtones without harming either. It refrains from clipping colors unless you tell it to. It boasts Photoshop's first on-board histogram. And it works as well in CMYK and Lab as in RGB.

(Well there's another clue for you all.)

We had nearly twice as many entries last week as the week before, with 19 of you correctly guessing Levels or some variation. The winner is earthrat, whose guessed "Using Levels to work." Congrats to earthrat!

Now it's time to guess Feature #8. Hint: It's the ultimate convenience tool. All members have been sent an email invitation with a URL to enter the contest. (No direct URL this time around.) Join dekeOnline now to receive a reminder and an invitation to next week's contest!
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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #10: Color Settings

Submitted by deke on 9 February 2010 - 12:15am.
Feature #10: Color Settings

Hey gang,

The word is out: Feature #10 is Color Settings, Photoshop's command for regulating all things related to color management. It affects every image you create. Color Settings is located under the Edit menu, in case you're wondering.

For those of you tracking the contest, the winner is jude, who guessed "Edit... Color Settings...," which is spot-on.

Fully 25 of you guessed this feature (or something very much like it, as in "color management" or "color profiles," both of which are fundamentally correct). And frankly that amazes me. It means a surprising minority of you are reading my mind with an alarming degree of accuracy.

Which is excellent news. Because now it's time to guess Feature #9. Hint: It takes something bad and makes it good. Click here to take the survey (or skip it if you filled it out last week) and submit your entry! Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40: The Final 10 Contest

Submitted by deke on 2 February 2010 - 12:30pm.



For those unaware, Photoshop Top 40 is my countdown of the most essential features in Photoshop, starting with Feature #40: Reset & Purge and working my way up to #1. And lest you think it sounds like a trivial concept ("hey gang, Feature #38 is Vector Type cuz type in Photoshop is scalable, ain't that just the swellest?"), I go into detail and share tips and tricks on every topic. For free, because my name starts with a G for Giver (not Geek, although I embrace that too).

Now that I'm poised to unveil the Final 10 Features, I thought I'd ratchet things up a notch with a contest. And not just any contest either. The best contest possible. One with a winner every week with gobs of prizes from a host of sponsors.

The Final 10

You'll need to be a member to see what's in store. Which is a lot. Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40: The Contest Results

Submitted by deke on 27 December 2009 - 12:28pm.

Myyyy Photoshop, myyyy Photoshop, Top 40! Okay, so actually, it's the Top 3. That is, the Top 3 entries in our recent Photoshop Top 40: The Contest. I asked you to create a magnificent piece of artwork that celebrates no fewer than three of the features from my Photoshop Top 40 podcast. Happily, your response was overwhelming. Sadly, your response was overwhelming on Christmas Eve, while I and my sidekick Colleen were with our children. But eventually, we found time to review all 146 enthusiastically submitted entries. (Thank you, by the way! Nothing gets us going like a hot contest!)  From that, and with great difficulty, we have selected three winners.

I promised our choices would be purely subjective. And they are. But subjected to the things we love: Photoshop craftsmanship and creative ingenuity. And, go figure, we liked pieces that celebrated the theme of the contest, Photoshop Top 40. In other words, good art direction trumped precise execution, although our winners showed some mad skills. Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40: The Contest

Submitted by deke on 13 December 2009 - 6:00pm.

My Photoshop Top 40 countdown continues. And now that we’ve moved into the realm of the Top 20 (drumroll please), the whole gang here at dekeOnline figured it was time for a contest. And the prizes are phenomenal!

This is no small contest. It's a grand, knock-down drag-out, show-us-your-talent contest in which three lucky winners will take home a jackpot of prizes just in time for the holidays. The Grand Prize winner in particular will receive a brand new Olympus E-620, the world's smallest and lightest image-stabilized digital SLR, as pictured below. I am seriously not kidding--someone's going to win an f'ing SLR! (You have to be a dekeOnline member to comment and participate.)

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