effects

Deke's Techniques 040: Filtering Images with Camera Raw

Submitted by deke on 4 October 2011 - 6:15am.
Deke's Techniques 040: Filtering Images with Camera Raw

I use the commands under Photoshop's Filter menu as much as the next guy. But as a collection, I have five problems with them: 1) Let's face it, most are gimmicks; 2) many of them are old as the hills, so they lack previews; 3) most of the filters don't create the effects that they're named for (Fresco? come on!); 4) in what way are they even remotely related? 5) and they rarely receive any attention. There are the exceptions---for example, Smart Sharpen (CS2), Gaussian Blur (1.0), and High Pass (1.0), although generally ancient, are flat-out indispensable---but for the most part, the Filter menu is riddled with cobwebs of our communal disinterest.

So it got me thinking: Might there be a better place to filter images than Photoshop? My answer: Camera Raw. The great thing about Camera Raw is that it offers precise edge-detection capabilities---the one tenuous string that binds Photoshop's best filters---as well as equally precise color modification options. Plus, the values have huge ranges (compared with, say, the Filter Gallery) and the options make sense (compared with, say, the Filter Gallery).

The result is this free video, in which I show you how to create five independent Camera Raw filtering, from which I imagine you can extrapolate a few hundred more.

Here's the official description from lynda.com, with copious graphics: Read more » 

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My Latest Video Course, Photoshop Extended One-on-One: 3D Type Effects, Is on Its Way

Submitted by deke on 24 September 2011 - 12:15am.

Update: This 5-hour and 51-minute video course is now live at lynda.com. If you get a chance to watch it, please let me know what you think!

This coming Tuesday (September 27 October 4, 2011), my beloved video publisher lynda.com releases the last in my four-course series on 3D in Photoshop, titled Photoshop Extended One-on-One: 3D Type Effects. In this course, I show you how to create a total of seven 3D type effects---all covering different disciplines, design needs, and approaches---entirely in Photoshop and altogether from scratch.

Watch the above movie for more info.

Meanwhile, if a picture is worth 1,000 words, here are 7,000:

Photoshop Extended One-on-One: 3D Type Effects, murder mystery

For example, this one's a poster for a vintage murder-mystery movie. Read more » 

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I've Finally Begun Work on Photoshop Extended One-on-One: 3D Type Effects

Submitted by deke on 12 August 2011 - 12:15am.

I've had a couple of questions about when I'll be releasing the last of my four-part video series on 3D in Photoshop for lynda.com, Photoshop Extended One-on-One: 3D Type Effects. After all, I started the series nearly five months ago, so you'd think I'd be done by now. But it's been a busy Summer, and with one thing or another (including four Up and Running courses), I got distracted. But I'm finally getting back to it, and having an absolute blast I must say. For example, here's an image from Chapter 2 of the course, "Hand-Drawn Type." Don't you just want to reach out and photocopy it?

Hand-drawn 3D type in Photoshop

And that's not the best of it. Read more » 

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I'm Geeking Out on Ambigrams

Submitted by deke on 1 August 2011 - 6:30am.

Every once in a while, I go on a creative bender. I'm not proud of it; it's just the way I'm built. Yesterday (and a bit of this morning), my artistic tonic of choice was the obscure 19th-century art of the ambigram. (Update: Click the previous sentence to see the video, now live on lynda.com.) You know, those words that read the same way regardless of how you rotate the page. For example, here's my name. Turn it upside-down and it's still my name. Damn, I have a long name.

My name in ambigram

An ambigram can also be a piece of art that reads as one word one way and becomes another when turned upside-down. For example, can you guess what this word looks like when spun 180 degrees?

Creative artwork ambigram

If you guessed "cat vomit," you're wrong. Here's the correct answer: Read more » 

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Deke's Techniques 002: Branding Type on a Texture

Submitted by deke on 11 January 2011 - 7:00am.
Deke's Techniques 002: Branding Type on a Texture

Hey gang,

Today, I am on a plane flying halfway across the world on a week-long vacation. But thanks to the miracle of me writing this post four days in advance, I appear to be "here" today. Wherever "here" is.

Anyway, "here's" the thing: Today marks the second in my "never-ending" series of Deke's Techniques. (That's right: I will die, you will die, the human race will die, the robot overlords who destroyed us will die. And yet---I don't understand how---Deke's Techniques will continue. When the Vulcans discover Earth, this is all they will find. I know, when I first heard, I was like: how messed up is that?)

Today's episode is about using type in Photoshop to brand an image. Imagine that your image is a cow or a pig. And the type is a big hot branding iron. Only much gentler on both the giver and receiver. (Come on, no one wants to hurt livestock! Unless, you know, if a cheerful young fattened pig accidentally died, in which case I'd totally throw down for a plate-full of its bacon.) Here's Colleen's official description: Read more » 

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