dekeSpeak
The Newsletter of Things Deke: February 08, 2011
Hi all,
This week we bid a fond farewell to one of the weekly staples of dekeOnline for the past two years, Martini Hour. But don’t despair. There’s still plenty of stuff going on, including more Deke’s Techniques, a new video course, and an in-depth tip from yours truly.
Here’s the skinny:
- Martini Hour goes out with a bang and peal of laughter.
- New Deke’s Techniques videos cover molten type and anti-edge masks.
- The 13-hour Illustrator CS5 One-on-One Mastery video course goes live on lynda.com.
- Today’s tip is about Levels and Curves, two of the most powerful color correction facilities in Photoshop.
- You can say “Cool, that’s my video!” Comment here to let Deke know what you want covered in a future Deke’s Techniques.
As ever, Deke sends all his virtual love.
Best regards,
Lou B
Speaker of the Deke, dekeOnline
Martini Hour 11: A Hilarious Farewell
This week in the dekeLounge, Deke and Colleen list the Top 12+ things they’ve learned from running an audio-only podcast on digital imaging and computer graphics, and bid farewell to the lounge and its patrons.
I have to say, this show is a super-fun listen. I laughed out loud several times. Check it out in one of two formats:
- Regular-quality audio version (You can stream this, or for best results, right-click and choose Download or Save.)
- High-res audio version (You’ll want to download, rather than stream, this version.)
Don’t forget: You can still subscribe to the entire Martini Hour series via iTunes. Share them with friends, catch an episode you might have missed, or hear your favorites over again.
Deke’s Techniques: A Free Movie Each and Every Week
The newest Deke’s Techniques demonstrates how to smooth away unwanted details in your portrait photography. In this movie, Deke combines a trick he learned from Katrin Eismann (on a Martini Hour, no less) with his own anti-edge mask. The result is a technique that “unsharpens” pores and other skin details by isolating an inverted High Pass layer to low-contrast regions of an image.
In case you missed it, the previous Deke’s Techniques lets you play with actual fire without getting burned. The free movie shows you how to create a molten letter effect. Members of the lynda.com Online Training Library get a bonus movie, in which Deke very impressively sets the letters on fire.
A choice selection of Deke’s Techniques are available for free to anyone who visits deke.com or lynda.com. The entire series of Deke’s Techniques, including bonus videos, are available to lynda.com subscribers.
Coming next week: Blending Textures onto a Face, plus a bonus video on Rendering a Face as a Cave Painting. Keep watching!
Request a Technique!
Deke has just returned from recording a new batch of Deke’s Techniques, taking the total tally to more than 4. But so far he’s been winging it.
Deke wants to tailor his techniques to your needs. So here’s your call to glory: To be immortalized in a Deke’s Techniques video, go to Deke’s “I Want to Know Your Thoughts!” page at dekeOnline and post a comment.
Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Mastery Is Now Available
The final installment of Deke’s magnum opus on Adobe Illustrator is now live on lynda.com. It covers the most powerful features in Illustrator, including dynamic effects, gradient mesh, perspective drawing, 3D, and more.
Click here to view the actual course on lynda.com. Click here to review a detailed table of contents, with graphics, from Deke himself.
Tip: Levels and Curves Are the Left and Right Ventricles of Photoshop
Simply put, the Levels and Curves commands let you adjust the luminance of an image on a channel-by-channel basis. With these features, you can correct brightness, contrast, and color casts. Levels offers relative simplicity while Curves gives you more control.
Featured Image from Fotolia
A recent Deke’s Techniques introduced the element of fire. I add that of air. Today’s image is #4314522, ©magann. With more than 2, downloads, it’s one of the most popular files in the Fotolia library, and perfect for those projects where you need to add a photogenic sky to your masterpiece.
Log on to Fotolia to view and download the image.
For the record, Fotolia offers the largest bank of royalty-free photos, illustrations, and videos perfect for any medium, whether print, motion, or web. Photographers and designers constantly update Fotolia with thousands of juried submissions each day. Fotolia protects its artists and offers high commissions while keeping prices low, so that everyone can enjoy and afford high-quality artwork.
“Hi, I’m Deke, and I approve this newsletter.”
The Lesson 9 zip on OReilly seems to be corrupted
I have tried several strategies for successfully downloading the LessonNine.zip from oreilly, as in the practice files for Photoshop CS5 One-On-One, but to no avail. I’ve tried different browsers and different times of day. The file seems to be corrupted.