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The creative tutorial home of image wrangler, Lesa Snider.

Photoshop

Final push to update Photoshop book happening now!

Howdy everyone! I'm back from teaching at Photoshop World in DC and have entered the final push to incorporate edit requests into my big Photoshop book update for the next version (currently referred to as Photoshop CS6 Beta). This new version of my bestselling book, Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual, is going to be 21 chapters, and could be pushing 1000 pages in the print version. There will also be four additional appendices available online, along with a slew of exercise files so you can follow along with some of the techniques.

Photoshop Editing Habits to Break, Part 1 - FREE 10 minute video

In part one of this FREE 10 minute video, you'll learn two frequently-used editing habits worth breaking in order to work more efficiently in Photoshop. I hope you enjoy it! Don't forget to check out part two as well.

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How to Fix Animal Eyes - FREE

In this short but sweet FREE video, you'll learn how to use Photoshop to fix animal white, green, or golden eyes by rebuilding the pupils. Thankfully, it's easier than it sounds! This technique also works in Photoshop Elements.

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Pushing photos through text and other shapes - FREE

In this FREE video, I'll teach you how to easily use Photoshop to push photos through text and shapes. This technique works exactly the same way in Photoshop Elements, too. I hope you enjoy it!

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How to design business cards in Photoshop

Few design projects are as nerve-racking, and important, as designing your own business card. Just like the clothes on your back, your business card tells the recipient if you’re professional, artistic, or a big ol’ ball of cheese. Also, aside from the aesthetic message, you’ve got to pack a ton of info into a very small space; company name, your name, logo, URL (it’s shocking how many folks leave that out), phone, and email address—you’ve got to include them all.

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Creative Curls

How to add a page curl using Free Transform in Warp Mode

NOTE: This tutorial works the same way in Photoshop CC.

I'm always amazed at the creative genius of graphic designers. I mean, just look at the things they think up to recreate digitally! Take the Classic Page Curl effect, for instance. Who the heck thought of this thing? It's cool indeed, but who did it first? Food for thought, I suppose.

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Combine Images Creatively in Photoshop

Combine Images Creatively in Photoshop

One of the most rewarding projects you can tackle in Photoshop is combining images. Whether you're swapping skies, creating a collage, or building a panorama, it's a useful procedure that's also a lot of fun.

In this tutorial you'll learn how to fade one image into another using a gradient mask, and then you'll discover a new twist on the classic oval vignette collage.

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Fun with Blend Modes

Chances are good that you’ve spotted the little pop-up menu at the top of your Layers panel in either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. It’s called the blend mode menu and it controls how color on one layer interacts with color on other layers in your document. In some instances — as is the case with the modes in the Darken category — Photoshop looks at the colors on all layers and the darkest colors win; the light colors just drop right out. In other instances – when using the Lighten category — it’s the lightest colors that win.

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Fun with Adjustment Layers

How to instantly reverse color

Graphic designers, this one’s for you! If you need to reverse the colors in your image—turn orange to blue, yellow to purple, and so on—you can use an Invert adjustment layer to make it so. There’s no need to select an item and use any other kind of color-changing voodoo because an Invert adjustment layer instantly turns black into white, blue into orange, and so on.

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Easy Embellishments

How to add vector art to photos

A simple way to spice up a photo is to add a touch of clip-art. Now, I’m not talking about the cheese-ball stuff that comes with Microsoft Office, oh heck no. I’m talking about the amazing, yet affordable stuff that you can get from folks like iStockphoto.com (click the link to receive 10 free, high-resolution images!).

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