In this weeks free Deke’s Techniques episode, Deke takes a standard shot of Earth’s moon and turns it into a dreamy ET-inspired one using some custom colorization techniques. This all in the service of eventually making a movie poster for his latest Spielberg homage, R.T. (Warning, the R stands for “Rex.”)

We begin with this high detail full phase moon photo (courtesy of our friends at Dreamstime).

Then, using a careful combination of Levels adjustment, Camera Raw split-toning, and Gaussian Blur, he eventually arrives at the familiar glowing orb of the ET-bicycle in the sky poster, suitable for next week’s addition of a visitor from a very different movie altogether.

If you’re a member of Lynda.com or LinkedInLearning, Deke’s got an exclusive movie this week in which he adds the tree line to his masterpiece courtesy of these two vector images from Dreamstime:

Resulting in this arboreal combination of Pacific-coast pines and prehistoric deciduous greenery suitable for dinosaur dwelling.

Deke’s Techniques, the time and space-traveling graphics tips of your imagination.