lesa's blog

For most creatives, music is inextricably intertwined with the creative process. Before we sit down to hammer out a project, many of us pick a playlist that (we hope) will inspire or, at the very least, keep us awake. Steve Jobs, in delivering keynotes on iTunes and the iPod, called music “the soundtrack of our lives” and trumpeted iTunes’ Genius Playlists as a shockingly easy way to discover (or rediscover) music in our collections—after all, many of us own more music than we remember to listen to.

Fancy typography doesn’t require expensive software. Thanks to the OpenType font format, the newest versions of everyday software (and the pro stuff) can tap into a multitude of alternate character designs if you know where to look. In this column, you’ll learn to use a variety of applications to add a special flourish to an important letter in a word—say, the first or last letter of a name—or to change the appearance of any amount of text. It’s a wonderful way to enliven an invitation, greeting card, inspirational graphic, logo, headlines, stationery, resume, and so on...

This past fall Adobe released a new version of their consumer-level photo organizing and editing application, Photoshop Elements 14. A mature and uniquely user-friendly application, the latest version has a host of welcome improvements for beginners and advanced users alike. For example, the Organizer has better facial recognition and it’s easy to find images that you haven’t yet organized with tags and events.

I'm absolutely over the MOON to announce my new book project, "Adobe Lightroom CC & Photoshop CC for Photographers: Classroom in a Book." Of all the tech books in the whole wide world, this is the one I wanted to write the most. I can't wait to help people learn to use these two amazing applications together.

Hey everyone! In case you haven't heard, as of yesterday (March 24) the Google Nik Collection of SEVEN desktop plug-ins are now free. The company is also offering a refund for anyone who purchased the collection in 2016. You can learn more at this link: https://www.google.com/nikcollection/

In last week's Creaticity column, you learned about basic image file formats such as JPEG, PNG, PDF, etc. However, once you pick up a camera, terms such as raw and file formats such as DNG, XMP, along with a plethora of proprietary formats, can creep into your life. In this column, you’ll learn what all that means.

Chances are good that you’ve witnessed a wide variety of file formats flit across your screen, but do you really understand what they mean? For example, you may understand that a JPEG is for pictures but what’s a PNG and a TIFF? And which format supports an image with a see-through background? In this column, you’ll get answers to those questions and more... click here to read the full story on Macworld.com

Color trends come and go, though when it comes to photographic treatments, some color effects are here to stay. For example, adding a brown tint to a black and white image produces a sepia tone that evokes a vintage or romantic feel. Likewise, adding pastel pink or blue—Pantone’s colors of the year are rose quartz (13-1520) and serenity (15-3919)—to a black and white image evokes a soft, dreamy feel. These ageless and classy techniques limit the photo’s color palette, which puts focus on the image content.

All of Alien Skin's photo editing apps, including the new Exposure X, are 30% off through Wednesday, March 2nd. They're used by some of the most successful photographers in the world, including one of my personal faves, Sue Bryce! Have a look here.

Resolution is one of the most commonly misunderstood concepts in digital imaging, though it’s crucial when printing your mementos. You could trudge through life without understanding resolution, and the Print dialog box in most apps and most online print labs alert you if you don’t have enough of it to print.