video

My final video course of 2011 for the lynda.com Online Training Library is now live. Titled Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Hair, it lives up to its name, showing you how to mask and composite the most fragile of all photographic details, hair, in that most powerful of masking applications, Photoshop.

(Yes, I'm aware that the term "follicle" specifically refers to the root of the hair, not the part we see and therefore need to mask. It's all about the alliteration, dammit!)

My goal is to boost both your skills and your confidence. As well as pass along lots of useful, in-the-trenches techniques. All in just 3 hours and 6 minutes! Here's an illustrated outline of the four feature-rich chapters and the fun, challenging projects that accompany them: Read more » 

When I released my first "Photoshop Channels & Masks" course for lynda.com, it shot to the top of the Online Training Library and remained there for months. Naturally, I've been eager to update the videos, but as seems forever to be the case, there have been plenty of other things to occupy my attention.

Fortunately, that unfortunate situation officially changes today. Nearly four years after the release of my last "Channels & Masks" course, I am just today putting the finishing touches on its update. Only this time around, we'll be calling the video "Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Fundamentals." And it contains all new content. (Okay, so there are a couple of archival projects, but I thoroughly rehashed them, so they're new too.)

Here's a sample project, in which I take a couple of foreground subjects, one with lots of hair and the other with lots of feathers:

And I arrange them against a new background, complete with some adventurous compositing techniques and a few synthetic effects:

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Just a note to let you know that I've begun work on my next video course for lynda.com, which will be called Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Fundamentals. The course is slated to be 9 chapters long, and it will set in motion the stuff that you need to know to mask a photographic image with absolute authority against any and all backgrounds. Many courses will follow, including (but not limited to): Advanced Blending, The Pen Tool, and the ever-thrilling Hair. The last of which will include "tough stuff"!

At Photoshop World, I had many folks come up to me and tell me that my two back-to-back Channels & Masks sessions were their favorite at the conference. Which was awesome, because those sessions were based on my old content. This next course is a new take on things. Here's how it all starts, with an artificially colored foreground set against a similarly adjusted background. (Based on a Fotolia image from TessarTheTegu, BTW.) It's a wacky multichannel effect. And, really, isn't he just the duckiest toucan you ever laid eyes on? I love how he has pretend teeth to scare off the predators. (That's not Photoshop, that's natural!) Don't you just want to take him home and make bird-love to him? I know, me too.

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Things have been crazy around here lately. So forgive me for just now finally getting around to posting the fact that my beloved video publisher, lynda.com, has released the fourth and last in my series of crash courses on Adobe programs. It's called Up and Running with Photoshop for Photography, and it explains how to get started with Photoshop specifically and digital photography in general. So gather your loved ones, microwave some popcorn, and get ready to watch 3 hours, 32 minutes, and 33 movies of the best video training you ever laid your eyes and ears on. (I don't mean to be boastful; I'm just excited.) Newbies and seasoned pros will find much to learn. (Again, I stress: I'm excited.) Here's my choice for a poster frame, featuring the adorable Alicia, as captured by the equally adorable Jacob Cunnigham (the guy in the Coke shirt coming up soon).

Here's my chapter-by-chapter description: Read more » 

Just last Thursday, lynda.com released the third in my series of four video crash courses on Adobe programs, Up and Running with Photoshop for Design. I'm so proud, I decided to provide you with a blow-by-blow description. It is, if I dare say, 3 hours, 36 minutes, and 31 movies and blissful goodness.

Here's the skinny: Read more »