Greetings, my dekeTopuses, from Siladen, an island off the bigger island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. I’ve left Deke in the custody of our photo workshop friends in Lembeh, and moved on to Siladen to chase turtles in the Bunaken National Marine Park.

Which has nothing to do with today’s Deke’s Techniques episode. In fact, it’s just the opposite. While we chase tiny real critters in the warm waters of Indonesia, you can create your very own fake snow anywhere you are. (Meanwhile the local live Indonesian band in the resort just started playing White Christmas, so this technique might be the only way they can actually make that happen.)

So we begin with this appropriately dressed model from the Dreamstime image library (about which you can learn more at Dreamstime.com/deke.php, and then create some noise, and then turn it into what Deke calls “smart snow” with the help of blend modes and some Photoshop filtering.

And if you’re a member of Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning, Deke’s got an exclusive movie in which he shows you how to enhance your snowflakes even further.

Deke’s Techniques, bringing White Christmas possibilities to your holidays whenever and wherever they may be.