dekeStuff

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.

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

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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Welcome to our extra-special, Thanksgiving-week contest. This one revolves around the 21 images that I posted in my two-part "Southern France Rocks" travelogue. For the sake of reference, here are links to Part 1 and Part 2. And just for fun, here's a graphic of one of the images in progress.

The idea is this: Either I or a friend of mine shot nearly all the images using one of two cameras: an Olympus E-30 digital SLR, or an Olympus Stylus 1030 SW point-and-shoot. (Just one image comes from another camera; can you tell me which it is and the camera model?)

I selected from the best photographs. Even so, they needed Photoshop's loving care. Now as you know, Photoshop isn't just for fixing mistakes or creating elaborate compositions. In fact, its first and foremost mission is bring out the best of what your photographs naturally have to offer. Which is what I did. No switched-out skies. No artificial reflections. No slimming with the Liquify filter. Just some elbow grease and lots of good old-fashioned image correction. Read more » 

During our Martini Hour 035's discussion on how to make a dekeWorthy screenshot, we mentioned that we'd share the Photoshop action that plows through many of these steps for you, especially establishing the correct color profiles. Because you need to include your own display color settings, it's not particularly useful if I just pass along my version of the action. So I thought I'd run you wonderful members of dekeOnline through the steps to make your own.  Read more » 

Last week, Colleen and I invited Adobe's own Jeff Tranberry to join us for our weekly Martini Hour. During the show, we discussed the Configurator, which is a free utility from Adobe Labs that lets you create custom palettes for Photoshop CS4.

If you've ever used Configurator, you know that it provides access to just about every tool and command available to Photoshop. Make a new palette, drag a tool or command into it, and you have your own customized interface. Problem is, Adobe left out a few of the new features available to Photoshop CS4, including the Adjustments palette and Vibrance command. I now make them available to you in the form of a palette I'm calling Photoshop CS4 Treasure Trove.

You'll need to be a member to gain access to this palette. Read more »