Home
photolesa.com
The creative tutorial home of image wrangler, Lesa Snider.

Step by step tutorials

Welcome to the home of the step by step creative online tutorial. Here you will find detailed, easy-to-understand steps accompanied by screen shots. These tutorials are liable to be about anything from my current project to something that drove me nuts trying to figure out. It is my hope that the things I can convey here will save you time and frustration.

If there's something that you'd like to see written up, please feel free to let me know

Fabulous Fades

More and more I see the following question appear on various Photoshop forums: How do I create a fade? Some folks want to fade out a line at one end, some want to fade a photo into a background, and the list goes on. No matter what element you want to fade into another, the secret to creating truly fabulous fades is to use a gradient layer mask.

Let's start off by defining the word "gradient."

scoreless-slow
Let Your Graphics Do the Talking Using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to change hair color Digital Beauty Shop
Placing Text Behind an Object Pinching Flabby Chins Photoshopping People
Mastering Multiply A Stroll Down Blend Mode Lane, Pt. 2 Turning a photo into an illustration or watercolor Fall Painterly Effect
Picking the Perfect Palette How to Create Your Very Own Warp Trail
Photoshop CS2 Survival Guide Managing Photos with Bridge CS4, Part 1
Using the Brush tool to create grunge type Weathered Words Filter your way to a flurry of snowflakes Let It Snow!
Retaining a photo's aspect ratio while cropping Zoom Crop Top 11 Keyboard Shortcuts
The Skinny on Scanning Creating Coloring Book Art
Digital Plastic Surgery Fire It Up!
How to whiten teeth The Basics of Retouching People, Part 3 Playful Panoramas
Correcting shadows and highlights Tips & Tricks for making photos look old Aging Photos
Classic Colorizing Ordering business cards online
Livin' La Vida Levels How to create a partial color photo in just two steps! Selective Color Photo Effect
Using the Crop tool to increase canvas size Creative Combinations, Pt. 1
Creating a collage with Linear Burn A Stroll Down Blend Mode Lane, Pt. 4 How to recreate the effect of a popular new lens Blurry Background a la Lensbabies
Mysteries of Unsharp Mask How to add soft or hard round edges to your photo The Secret to Round Edges
Creating Favicons Replacing Backgrounds with Photoshop's Background Eraser
The Basics of Design Two-step pro portrait studio effect Fast Photo Spotlight
How to add Lab Pop Intensifying Color Lesa's Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tips
Repainting Cabinets in Photoshop and Elements How to smash a photo into pieces Break it up!
How to sharpen individual channels Get Sharp! Creating a beautiful fade from original color to grayscale Fading Color
The Che-Guevara Effect The magic of selective blurring Softening Freckles
How to add a page curl using Free Transform in Warp Mode Creative Curls Fabulous Feathers, Pt. 2
How to change the color of drop shadows Shadow Dancing Managing Photos with Bridge CS4, Part 2
The magic of iris enhancement Eyes of the Otherworld Combine Images Creatively in Photoshop Combine Images Creatively in Photoshop

Pages
darkness