“What Becky [Kagan Schott] captured in a few real time moments behind the lens, I mimicked in several digital hours in post.”
—Deke

“Gee whiz, Deke! “I didn’t know you were evil.”
—Becky

My dear dekeOnes, if you’re not feeling it this week, I totally understand. But if you need a break, then I think you’ll enjoy this week’s free Deke’s Techniques episode.

This week, we have a good old-fashioned lesson in Photoshop compositing, in which Deke takes two elements from two different goPro frames and wishes he caught them both at the same time with a full-frame camera. In his defense, he was in almost frozen water with an apex predator at the time. Who can blame him if he didn’t have perfect lighting and composition?

Well, one person can certainly comment, although she’s not the blaming type: the amazingly talented and generous Becky Kagan Schott, who shot the photo that inspired this project. Check out Deke’s video to see her amazing work in Antarctica, then check out her website, Liquid Productions, to see more amazing work all over the world and below the sea.

Anyway, back to Deke. Who takes this image that he worked on last week:

And adds some surface ice that he also shot during our spontaneous leopard seal encounter:

And then shows you how he spent an inordinate amount of time in post to make his homage to Becky and the leopard seal.

If you’re a member of LinkedIn Learning, then Deke’s got a follow up movie in which he shows you how he created the hand-drawn vignette that helps merge the two images more evenly.

By the way, if you want to experience Becky in real time awesomeness (alas not under the water at the moment) she’s doing a panel discussion tonight on “Three Different Generations of Women Divers” with our good friend the also awesome Faith Ortins and a woman named Sally Wahrmann whom I’ve never met but she hangs out with awesome people so my guess is…also awesome.

Deke’s Techniques, swimming in icy waters with warm people.