lesa's blog

creativeLIVE's Photoshop Week is broadcasting free this week! Watch this event that I co-created here.

This class is 100% free to watch through your web browser while it's live, or during the replay each evening. You can also buy anytime-access at 50% off this week!

Note: the graphic above is from a previous Photoshop Week — creativeLIVE doesn't seem to have a graphic for this year's event!

Want to squeeze the most out of your Creative Cloud membership dollars? creativeLIVE is broadcasting my “Creative Cloud Essentials” class this Sunday and Monday at 10am each day. It’s free to watch while live, and it’s on sale at a discount if you want to watch it anytime. The description on their site is misleading, so please read the description on my website here. (This class actually teaches you the most useful features of the most useful apps for photographers and designers in Adobe Creative Cloud!)

creativeLIVE is broadcasting my “Photoshop For Beginners” class this Saturday and Sunday at 10am each day (Feb 20 & 21). It’s free to watch while live, and it’s on sale at a discount if you want to watch it anytime, here. Tell your Photoshop-aspiring friends!

One of the great things about Apple apps is that they're packed with a slew of helpful features. For example, both Preview and QuickTime Player include a multitude of superpowers that many folks aren’t aware of. Unless you click every button and scour every menu, you’re likely not using the app to its potential. In this column, you’ll discover seven handy tips for using Safari the next time you’re surfing the web...click here to read the full story on Macworld.com

Unless you’re fortunate enough to live near a Trader Joe’s, affordable greeting cards are hard to come by. If you no longer enjoy paying $6 or more for a greeting card, you can use your Mac to create a unique and personalized card that your loved ones will cherish. In this column, you’ll learn to create a simple yet classy Valentine cards using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (nearly any version of these apps will work). To keep it budget-friendly, we’ll use standard size paper and then fold it.

Creating and publishing your own ebook is easier than ever before. There are several apps you can use to create your masterpiece—two of which are free—and (happily) there are fewer snafus to watch out for. That said, there are still some details that can trip you up. In this column, you’ll learn essential and real world tips for creating ebooks using today’s most popular apps... click here to read the full story on Macworld.com

Creating an animation isn’t as complicated as it sounds, and the technique comes in handy when you’re making web ads, where space is at a premium. In this column, you’ll learn to use Photoshop to make an animated GIF that cycles through several images—including ones with text—to create a slideshow that plays automatically on the web. Click here to read the full story on Macworld.com.

I’m presenting a 2-hour online class: “13 things Photoshop doesn’t want you to know about Lightroom” on Thursday January 21 at 5pm PST / 8pm EST. The $19.99 price includes an archived recording of the class. Join me to learn how much easier it is to edit photos in Lightroom than in Photoshop! Get more info and register here.

Photos are among our most prized possessions, so when you realize your entire family photographic history exists in one vulnerable—and in my case, tornado-riddled—place, spread across dozens of envelopes and stacks of albums, you’ve got to put your scanning boots on. (Besides, how else can you use those pictures in projects you make on your Mac?) You can mail your beloved mementos to a scanning service, but the fulfillment you get from doing it yourself and reliving all those memories is huge.

I’m excited to announce that Adobe asked me to update the most popular tutorials on their website! “Get Started with Photoshop for Photography” is a series of five very short free tutorials that teach new users the most important basics of editing a photo in Photoshop. Each one is less than five minutes long, and they even include a sample file to practice with! Check them out here.