Curves

Photoshop Top 40, Feature #24: Curves

Submitted by deke on 3 November 2009 - 12:15am.
Feature #24: Curves

Normally, I write these Photoshop Top 40 posts from my home or office in Boulder, Colorado. But this week finds me in the pastoral countryside of Côte du Rhone, France, enjoying a little time off. Alas, the nature of a weekly podcast is that, even on a break, I have to give it the gas.

So I hope you'll forgive me if I keep this post short:

After sixteen Photoshop Top 40 movies, you may wonder what's next. While now you needn't, because here it is.

See? That was short. Read more » 

. Tagged with:

dekeOnline News: May 4, 2009

Submitted by deke on 4 May 2009 - 11:00am.

Hello friends of dekeOnline,

I have much to announce in this issue! I take you on a deep-sea diving excursion with dekePod, I unveil the longest video series ever released on lynda.com, and finally, my sidekick Colleen and I have a rousing chat with Russell Brown and John Nack on Martini Hour. In short, I offer you a feast for your mind and your senses.

dekePod Takes the Ultimate Plunge

Photoshop and the Lost Undersea Channel

Have you ever taken a camera underwater? I've used a few disposable underwater cameras and they don't include a flash. Which is crazy, because if there was ever a place where you need a strobe, it's underwater. Water and the distance filters away light and colors, starting with red, then orange, then yellow, leaving a world of greens and blues. How do you bring those colors back? I explain in dekePod 015: "Photoshop and the Lost Undersea Channel." Read more » 

. Tagged with:

Tripping on Arbitrary Maps

Submitted by deke on 1 December 2008 - 5:18pm.

 Colleen and David Futato and I are in the final death throes of Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One. I'm sitting here working on the introduction to the final lesson, Lesson 12, "Masking the Tough Stuff." By way of demonstrating arbitrary maps, which can be quite useful for "throw down" masking, I assembled this nifty composition. It's a photo from David Politi subject to two varieties of arb maps, one applied using Gradient Map and the other with Curves. Isn't she pretty?

It has nothing whatsoever to do with masking -- just introduces a topic -- but I'm rather transfixed with it at the moment. Takes me back to my teónanácatl-tinted halcyon days. So naturally I had to share.

Anyway, we're shooting to get the book to the printer any day now. We'll keep you apprised. Read more » 

. Tagged with:

The Fake HDR Portrait Technique, Revealed

Submitted by deke on 13 October 2008 - 1:41am.

As those of you who know a thing or two about what goes on 'round here know, last week's dekePod was devoted to the topic of faking an HDR portrait. As usual, the technique flew by in the blink of a bug's eye. A really scary, creepy bug's eye. Which is the idea, of course. Few know this, but dekePod won this year's Nobel Prize in Subliminal Anti-Training. (They give out that particular award in a tiny, dimly lit room off the janitor's closet, so it's not widely covered.)

But anti-training doesn't always work. In fact, one study suggests it kills roughly 1 out every of 16 lab rats. (Thankfully, we haven't heard of any human fatalities--yet.) Which is why I offer this traditional step-by-step description, as it applies to my youngest son, Sammy, who quite obviously really enjoys his ice cream.

Sam becomes HDR Read more » 

. Tagged with:
Photoshop CS3 Lab box art
Amazon.com

Photoshop Lab Color

Based on the device-independent CIE specification from 1976, Lab color is frequently misrepresented as a techy, labor-intensive color space. In fact, Lab color performs certain types of color modifications more quickly and with better results than RGB. In Photoshop CS3 Mastering Lab Color, Deke McClelland explores how to use Lab color "to make bad photographs great and great photographs even better." He demonstrates image manipulations that are best suited to Lab, and walks through a typical, non-destructive Lab correction. Read more » 

List price: $99.95USD
12next ›last »