Photoshop CS4

I bet you thought I forgot about my promise to post all the videos from Deke's Photoshop Channels and Masks One-on-One, but I was really just distracted by all the dekepods, martini hours, and contest fabulousness around here.

Anyhoo, returning today with an episode from Lesson 9 in which Deke explains how Photoshop gives you a total of five ways to mix a grayscale image from an RGB (or otherwise colored) photograph. Three are automated but limited. The other two take a little more work, but they’re customizable and nondestructive. The automated methods involve choosing the grayscale command when viewing one or more channels; the nondestructive, and thus preferable, methods involve Channel Mixer and Black & White adjustment layers. If this whets your appetite, be sure to check out the book for more Channel Mixing goodness.  Read more » 

Hello Dear Friends,

Thanks for the Martini Hour love. CW and I's audio-only podcast is doing much better than expected here at the site and on iTunes. I thought people were going to flame us and say things like, "Why are you degenerates drinking on a tech podcast?" or "C'mon, get with the times: do crack!" But no, everyone's all nice and so thanks for that.

But that's not one of the two news items. Here are the news:

First, I finished filming my video "Photoshop CS4 One-on-One: Advanced," the second installment in my cradle-to-grave series for lynda.com. Spanning 10 chapters and 213 movies, it might be the longest, most comprehensive piece I've created so far. Plus, it offers the usual "Corrections to the High Renaissance Masters," including a fews movies in which I turn Raphael's porcine and dour Maddalena (left) into a poised and powerful gal-about-the-village (not left). Also helpful, my rendition includes something resembling a below-the-neck skeletal structure. (Raphael, a gifted artist who obviously hated this woman with everything in him, rendered Maddalena's body as belonging to a fleshy and formless Weeble.)

Read more » 

Dear Beloved Readers of Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One,

Let me tell you how psyched I am you're reading my book. There's nothing that makes an author happier than knowing that his or her efforts are being appreciated rather than, say, ignored.

I want you to know that we've discovered two problems with the sample files included on the DVD. (My apologies, of course, but I'd be lying if I claimed to be surprised. Complex version 1.0 projects tend to exhibit occasional bugs.)

• One is the corrupt Ancient doorway.psd file in the Lesson 07 folder. You can't even open the damn thing, but you can replace it with a functioning file by right-clicking here and choosing Save or Download. (See Colleen's on-the-spot post for more info.)
• The second is the collection of six files in the Lesson 11 file. They open splendidly, as witnessed by the lovely example below. But for unknown reasons, none of the paths in the Paths palette have names.

For the solution, keep reading. Read more »