It’s “Guest Blog Wednesday” featuring Deke McClelland!
Photo by Jacob Cunningham
Hello Scott. And friends of Scott. Not to mention you people who know friends of folks who at one time thought they knew Scott or saw him once. As if in a dream.
My name is Deke. But enough about me. What’s more important is what I have to offer. In celebration of The Day After Scott’s Birthday, I bring you the most special Eighth of July gift ever. A video. A Web-based, streaming video. With a mouse cursor moving around the screen and me talking and everything. (!)
The topic of this video is masking. Over the course of things, we’ll take this girl:
With all her hair and rambunctious attitude.
And blend her into this composition:
Granted, the end result is over the top. And a bit silly. (Forgive me, I learned design from Mad magazine. Or was it Super Mario Brothers? I forget.) But it’s impeccably executed. And it demonstrates a point: If you can merge that hair and that dress and that girl against that background, you can do anything.
And by “anything,” I mean anything. Turn lead into gold. Climb vertical walls. Fly. With glistening, radioactive abs of steel.
I call my intensive video “The Essential Approach to Masking in Photoshop.” It’s not a step-by-step recipe. It’s not a magic bullet. It’s an overarching roadmap of the tried-and-true approach to masking a complex image. In about 30 minutes (I told you it was intensive!), you and I will create a full-blown mask—from scratch, mind you—and employ said mask to composite a complex foreground against a foreign background. In Photoshop.
This is not an inspirational video. This is a training video. (I’m sorry, but it’s what I do.) It’s carefully crafted and tightly produced. And believe it or not, it moves along at a fairly brisk pace.
Definitely click the full-screen button for every bit of gloriously compressed detail in this 1280 by 800-pixel movie.
Watch. Rinse. Repeat.
Along the way, I mention some links. They are these:
-For the images, fotolia.com/deke
-For the videos, lynda.com/deke
-For the books, deke.oreilly.com
-For more free masking videos, dekedotcom.blip.tv
-For still more videos, youtube.com/dekepod
-For 24/7 love action, deke.com
Now stop reading this and watch the video. And have a really awesome day.
–Deke
Thanks to Deke and kudo’s to Scott for hosting this. It’s like Mercedes would offer their clients a test-drive in the new BMW.
Unless… one of these days we get a blogpost saying Deke moves to Kelbytraining or Lynda is taken over by Kelbytraining or vice versa. I don’t know who’s got the most cash.
Probably Scott
Deke and Scott,
Although you apologized amidst this fine masking presentation, Deke, it came at
the right time for an upward spurt in masking growth for me. In effect – it jumped me to the next level in using sophisticated masks. I have been looking at compositing – this tutorial clears up some of my concepts which are much more klunky ~ then points me to a smoother work path. Thanks…
Once again, Scott, your reaching out (Power to the People) has enhanced our Photoshop World. Looking forward to the WorldWidePhotoWalk …
My Hat’s OFF…
Thanks for the tutorial, but may I make a suggestion? There’s so much extraneous “DJ talk” and goofyness that it’s hard to concentrate on what the actual steps are. I MUCH prefer the style of RC or Scott who are excellent educators. Deke sounds like he loves his own voice and is hosting a radio show in the mid 1980’s. The tutorial could have been half the length that it was with more careful attention to the instruction. And no, I don’t lack a sense of humor. I just prefer the tutorials I watch to help you get the steps you need to know, in a reasonable amount of time, without rapid fire wacky.
Sorry.
The Reason Deke is my favorite Photoshop trainer is the way he incorporates his own jargon into the tutorial in a way that makes the lesson really stick. I basically learned photoshop from Deke on Lynda.com, and to this day when I do certain things in photoshop, I can still hear Deke and remember the goofy story he used to illustrate it. Thanks Deke, and thanks Scott for hosting this on your blog!
Sorry, I have to disagree, too. It’s the humor that makes it fun and fun makes learning far easier. I don’t feel like I’m slogging through yet another tut that’s dry as a bone. Deke’s over the top, and that makes him and his lessons memorable.
Hey, and don’t dis the 80s!
Deke is the man. He’s the only instructor that keeps me awake and interested. It’s fun learning from Deke and more of a chore learning from the other top instructors.
I have to say I disagree.
There’s nothing worse than a video lesson being a set of instructions with a one-tone machine reading them. Deke adds flavour and personality to the subject, and it truly helps me learn faster and more effectively than any other method.
scott is a great tutor, but deke is greater.
Agree 100%
Deke. That was awesome. Learned alot.
didn’t learn that a lot is two words
Awesome!
I have to keep that video forever…thank you so much …a real jewel…Micmac
I must say, Deke, you have been my favorite Video Educator for a reason. You put your slant on everything. I have 30 or 40 dvd’s on various subjects and the ones I learn from have always been with a good bunch of humor and Deke has that hands down, the others I have donated to friends and such.
And yes, Kudos to Deke’s photoshop shortcuts video on deke.com, episode 2. Awesome, I still listen to that (while I’m Driving around town) imagine how I must look singing “Who knew X stood for change”, lol.
Hey Deke, don’t switch to Kelbytraining.com, (although if you did, you would probably raise their income substantionally) I have absoutly noting against Kelbytraining.com other than some of the tutorials are dry.
Peace out,
Robert
Deke your the best of the best buddy, your teaching style is very refreshing and i love the way you get straight to the point. I got 2 big shots out of this one, thanks for hosting it Scott
Fascinating tutorial. I love his presentation style and enjoy his books. (I’m just starting his InDesign One-On-One book.)
I have a neophyte question I hope someone can answer. Why not use something like OnOne software’s MaskPro to create the mask? It seems to be a lot simpler. Does it do fundamentally in the background what Deke is doing with channels? Does Deke’s approach result in a superior mask? And if so, is it sufficiently superior to be noticable in the end result?
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