Today marks the release of an all-new course at lynda.com: Enhancing Underwater Photos with Photoshop. Yes, my dekeQuarium dwellers, you can now go under the sea with Deke and the sharks (as well as jellyfish, angel fish, parrot fish, groupers, octopi, turtles, eels, and, did I mention, sharks?)

The real star of this undersea world is Photoshop itself. Shooting underwater is tricky, and the equipment can be expensive. But you’ll see in this course that Photoshop can sweeten even the simplest of shots, even those taken with the underwater equivalent of a standard point-and-shoot or with a stolen frame from a GoPro video.

And you don’t need to be a member of lynda.com or a seasoned scuba diver to get great tips out of this new course. For instance, the first chapter, "The Moon Jelly," features a creature that lives very near the surface of the sea and the entire chapter is completely unlocked for anyone to watch. Check out this translucent transformation and click on the image to start watching:

Each of the free videos in this chapter have a hidden bonus tip, because, after all, Deke’s got more Photoshop knowledge than there are fish in the sea. (OK, only a minor exaggeration, but I’m creating a mood here.) Here’s what I mean:

In "Selecting a frame from a GoPro movie," you’ll not only see how to isolate an individual frame to develop as a still photo in Photoshop, but you’ll also see how to convert that image to the correct color space.

In "Correcting contrast with the Overlay blend mode," you’ll not only see how an adjustment layer and blend mode can work in powerful tandem, but you’ll see how to set your own shortcuts to get at this power more efficiently.

In "Turning the ocean a true Caribbean blue," you’ll not only see how to restore what you remember as the correct color, but you’ll also see how to get rid of those pesky automatically generated adjustment layer masks.

In "Enhancing clarity with the High Pass filter," you’ll not only see how to invent your own Clarity, but you’ll also see how to set those big useful thumbnails in the Layers panel.

And, in "Cropping an image that can’t be harmed," you’ll also see how to add more High Pass filter to provide detail sharpening.

(It’s like Deke has provided little shark sucker tips that latch on to his big apex predator advice and come along for the swim.)

There are some other great free movies available as well, each with a useful quick tip for your own underwater adventure shots. Here are a few (with their respective projects in before/after style for your inspiration.)

Selecting the best frame of a fish in motion from the chapter where this queen angel fish gets the royal treatment.

Bring out the the detail in a turtle’s eye. Buddy tip: if you can’t immediately spot Deke under the water, look for the guy with a GoPro-on-a-stick chasing the turtle.

Developing multiple octopi at the same time in Camera Raw, in which Deke works on what may be two different octopi simultaneously. (Or it may have been the same creature seen at the beginning and end of a night snorkel.)

If you’re not a member of lynda.com, and would like to see more of this course, you can sign up for a free 10-day trial at lynda.com/deke, which will give you access to the chapter on this magnificent creature:

See you under the sea, you gorgeous dekeOpuses!