When the awesome fashion photographer, Photoshop expert, and bestselling author Martin Evening honored us by stopping by the dekeLounge, we seriously considered dropping the i from Martini in his honor. Instead, we decided to take advantage of having his considerable expertise and quiz him on what he thought was significant for photographers in Photoshop CS5. Our questions served two purposes, 1) it’s always good to hear what savvy, notable photographers have to say, and 2) Martin is one of those guys that Deke thinks is smart enough to steal tips from.

Of course, the exchange of ideas betwixt two luminaries is never really outright stealing. Here’s where Deke and Martin took the “reciprocal exchange of ideas” this week, and why Martin thinks CS5 might be one of the best versions of Photoshop to come along for photographers:

Of course, many of the features that really shine for Photographers come with Camera Raw 6.x that ships with Photoshop CS5. Including:

• Most noticeably, Martin appreciates the new demosaicing process, which allows you to reap better results from your both the stuff you’re shooting now and the old “raw” negatives you may want to reprocess now that the software has been improved.
• And the noise reduction that gets the “bad noise” out, and keep a small bit of the random noise that keeps the photo looking its best. 
• Automatic lens correction which allows you to compensate for a specific lens, especially good for reducing chromatic aberration.

And within Photoshop proper, of course, feature of which strike Martin (and Deke) as particularly notable:

• There’s HDR Pro. This feature also has Deke’s vote for best new feature (although it really should be “best improved feature”). Hear Martin’s special tip for getting good results out of the process (listen as Deke impressed.)
• The faux HDR (aka HDR Toning) maybe not so much (although Deke sort of skews the conversation here by calling it “faux-HDR” from the beginning. 
• Did you know that Martin scooped Deke on the existence of the new blend mode, divide, when he showed how it could be useful for removing sensor marks over at Photoshop-News.
• And of course more there too!

Martin’s Toast? Subverting reality. A man after Deke’s heart.

And now we can officially put a pin for yet another dekeLounge satellite in London. Take a listen! Here’s the regular-quality audio file. You can stream, or for best results, right-click and choose Download or Save. Here’s the high-res version; you’ll want to download rather than stream. And don’t forget our usual plea to subscribe via iTunes.

Thanks, Martin, for joining us. Cheers!