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The creative tutorial home of image wrangler, Lesa Snider.

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New photo enhancement tools rival those of Photoshop

With an eye toward its core audience of non-professional photo enthusiasts, Adobe has made improvements to its 4th version of Photoshop Elements that make it easier than ever to edit, organize, and share digital photos. Despite its consumer-level price tag, Photoshop Elements 4.0 sports some new tools that gurus wish the full-blown Photoshop had.... more

The Lords of Photoshop

Holy mother of Thor! That’s me pictured with Thomas Knoll (left) and Zalman Stern (right) whom I had the pleasure of getting to know while teaching at the PhotoshopSoup2Nuts Conference in Michigan. When Photoshop loads, Thomas’ name is listed first and there’s a reason for it! He invented the darn thing.

Mon Ami Gabi

So I get into Vegas late Sunday evening and who do I meet at baggage claim? Thunder from Down Under, the Aussie male stripper team. Can you believe that?! I knew something was up for that many reasonably attractive, well-built men to be congregating around the carousel with matching suitcases (be sure to check out the Vegas picture link at the top of this page).

Copying Layer Styles

So you've made that perfect drop shadow and tweaked it to your heart's conent. Now you need to add it to another layer. What do you do?


Instead of Control clicking the Layer Style icon to conjure up a contextual menu where you can copy and paste it, just press and hold the Option key and *drag* the effect onto another layer, as shown above.

Faster Resizing

Here's a handy keyboard shortcut I picked up recently while visiting the InDesign User Group in Orlando, FL. When using the Free Transform tool to resize an object, you probably all know that you can hold the Shift key while dragging a handle to resize the object proportionately, but did you know that you can also hold down the Option key to affect all handles at once? Please allow me to illustrate.

Without the Option key:

*With* the Option key:

Lesa & Deb do Dallas

During a trip to Dallas to present at the Art Institute (where I graduated in 2000), I was able to meet up with Your Mac Life listener Deb Cornish (of Women In Film). And what did we do? We had margaritas at On the Border and trotted right across the street to the Apple Store on Knox St.to fondle the new black laptops. Sweet! Thanks for a great afternoon Deb!

More photos from this trip live in the Dallas.

Thick and sort of tasty

It was bound to happen and I wanted everything to be just right when it did. Today, I drank (chewed?) my very first Guinness. It was formidable to be sure, and I believe I experienced it in the best way possible when not in Ireland: in Manhattan at a pub called The Irish Pub.

Mac love in Manhattan

I had a great time in Manhattan for the MacLive Conference where I taught a couple of classes. During the instructor dinner, we got to hang out with photographer Kevin Ames and his model/friend Sheryl. Shawn flew into town this afternoon so he was able to join in on the fun! Thanks to Bob LeVitus for these cute photos :)

More pictures live in the MacLive-NY link at the top of this page. If they decide to do this show again next year, be sure not to miss it! It’s a learning extravaganza :)

Doing the Dragon

What does one do four days after getting their motorcycle license? Well, they go ride the most technical road in the United States of course! It’s called The Dragon and it lives at Deal’s Gap, NC. It has 318 curves in 11 miles, and that’s me and Suzi on it above (photo from Killboy.com).

Cruising around in Clearwater, FL

Leslie Raguso

During a trip to speak at the InDesign User Group of Orlando, I got to spend a few days with my best girlfriend, Leslie Raguso. We had an outrageously great time gabbing, drinking sangria, and eating lots of delicious clams. We even did the touristy thing and took a sunset cruise on a pirate ship.

Leslie and I used to be on the Adobe Photoshop Seminar tour together as booth babes (back before I started teaching). We visited a different city every week for about two solid years. It was tiring but boy did we have ourselves some fun :)

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