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The creative tutorial home of image wrangler, Lesa Snider.

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Lesa’s 10 years at CreativeLive

CreativeLive is celebrating their 9th birthday, so I thought I’d share a few early photos.

I presented my first video trainings in 2009 for CreativeTechs, before their video training arm became CreativeLive.

Since then, CreativeLive has produced more than 40 of my training titles. My husband Jay and I were also proud to be co-creators of Photoshop Week and Creative Cloud Week.

I hope you enjoy these snapshots from the time machine!

How to combine images like a pro

How to combine images like a pro

One of the most exciting projects you can tackle in image editing software that supports layering—Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Pixelmator, etc.—is to combine images in interesting ways. Whether you’re crafting a surreal piece of art or swapping heads, the process is similar in each program. In this column, you’ll learn how to use Photoshop Elements to combine a photo of an Italian villa and a glass of red wine to create a version of Italy you can drink. Read my Creaticity story at Macworld here.

My new Lightroom & Photoshop book is here!

Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC for Photographers: Classroom in a Book

WHEE! Look what arrived today! She's a BEAUTY and may well be my finest work yet. Learn all about Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC for Photographers: Classroom in a Book and get it here. (Click the cover to see some pages in a slideshow!)

How to watermark multiple photos in Lightroom

Watermarking photos

Watermarking your photos is a fantastic branding opportunity. It can also deter photo theft, and including your URL in the watermark ensures anyone who sees the image online can easily find you and book a session. Lightroom users can create graphic or text-based watermarks quickly and easily, though in Photoshop it takes far more effort. This column teaches you how to make a simple text-based watermark in Lightroom and apply it using the Export command. Read my Creaticity story at Macworld here.

How to use Photoshop to turn a photo into a realistic painting

One of the most frequently asked Photoshop questions is how to turn a photo into a painting. Unless you’re a fine artist who’s skilled at digital painting, it can be a daunting task. Fortunately, the mortals among us can use a combination of Photoshop filters to get it done. This technique works especially well on landscape shots, where you don’t have to worry about distorting facial features. This column teaches you how to use Photoshop CS6 or CC 2015, specifically, to create a fairly realistic painting complete with canvas texture...

How to create a photo grid template in Lightroom

Grids are a wonderful way to showcase a handful of pictures on your blog or a social media site, though creating a custom grid in Photoshop takes time and skill. What many folks don’t realize is that you can easily create JPEG photo grids in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom’s Print module. In this column, you’ll learn how to create a photo grid and save it as a template...click here to read the full tutorial on Macworld.com

How to stitch photos into a panorama using Adobe Camera Raw

panorama by Jack Davis, wowcreativearts.com

One of the caveats of being a photographer is that you may not be equipped with a lens that’s wide enough to capture the scene you want. When such misfortune strikes, all is not lost; you can take several overlapping shots and then merge them into a panorama using Adobe Photoshop’s Camera Raw plug-in, which comes with Photoshop. (The steps are nearly identical for creating a pano in Lightroom.) Click here to read the full tutorial on Macworld.com.

How to create instant slideshows in Photos for Mac and iOS

When it comes to showing off your pictures and videos, nothing beats a great slideshow. Seeing your digital memories overtake your entire screen, set in motion through smooth animations and transitions, complete with background music, is a uniquely personal cinematic experience. Happily, the Photos application makes creating slideshows a snap both on your Mac and on your iOS devices. We’re not talking slideshow projects, wherein you spend hours crafting every single slide, oh heck no.

How to easily assess, cull, and organize photos in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Not all photos are perfect. It’s natural to have good ones and bad ones, especially in digital photography where you can take as many photos as you want with no guilt involving the cost of film and development. If you’re old enough to remember shooting in film, you probably tossed only the truly terrible shots. You then (likely) left the mediocre ones in the envelope you got from the photo lab, and you (probably) forgot about them. Only the best shots made their way out of the envelope and into a physical album.

How to edit video in Photoshop CC

Photoshop CC is ideal for creating promotional video pieces, portfolio-based slideshows, and sellable videos for your photography business. Best of all, you don’t have to learn another program—you’ll use tools you’re familiar with. In this column, you’ll learn how to create a wedding video by mixing stills, video, and text...click here to read the full tutorial on Macworld.com

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