luminance

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!
Read more » 

Well, well. I'm back from my week in the Golden Age City of Canals, Amsterdam. And although it was great to be there, I must say, it's good to be back. Even if it's a mere 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 Celsius) here in the malevolently icy embrace of Boulder, Colorado. By which I mean, actually, I'd rather be in Amsterdam. With kindly old Sinterklaas waving from his steam boat and blackfaced, red-lipped, clownishly festooned Zwarte Pieten tucking me in at night. Ah, those zany Dutch! Don't they know Santa's slaves are miniature, felt-dressed Vulcans?

Then again, if I were still in Holland, I might be too distracted by all things poetic and profane to post today's Photoshop Top 40 video. And what a shame that would be because this week, I've got a doozy. Read more » 

I have returned from Southern France. And with the exception of a few exciting airport debacles--never ever try to return your car to the "French sector" of the Geneva International Airport!--I had a great time. Avignon, Les Baux-de-Provence, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Mouth-watering cheeses, world-class wines, and chocolates like you've never tasted. Plus everyone's super polite and the speed limit is >80 mph. You can't get a decent martini, but I did manage to parlay a glass of 15-year Laphroaig, which'll tide me over in a pinch.

In the meantime, I'm in Toronto. In fact, this very day I'm teaching a full-day, super-intensive Channels & Masks seminar at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, at which every attendee gets a copy of my book Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One.

So it's only fitting that today's feature is Photoshop's most successful automated masking function, Color Range. To say it's good is an understatement. Like a Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine, it is soigné. Check out the free high-quality streaming video to learn more. Read more » 

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 » 

Today marks the fifth installment of "Photoshop Top 40," the ongoing series that promises to tour you through Photoshop's 40 best features, starting at #40 and eventually working its way up to #1. (Which, assuming I've done my math right, will appear sometime in April of 2010.) Feature #36 is "Black & White," which lets you distill a full-color photograph into the best of all possible black-and-white images, one range of colors at a time. Read more »