About Lesa
Welcome!
A note from Lesa Snider, The Graphic Reporter
Welcome to The Graphic Reporter, your source for tips, tutorials, and reviews for all levels of creative enthusiasts. You'll find detailed, easy-to-follow step by step tutorials on software like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, the Mac OS, just to name a few. Peruse web design techniques, marketing ideas, site visibilty tricks, digital photography, software reviews, and much more. Join me each week as I upload new Tutorials & QuickTips, the latter being just that—very quick, time-saving tricks and keyboard shortcuts. Not only will I be writing QuickTips myself, but I invite you to submit your own as well.
Find out about my classes and go on the road with me by visiting my Class Schedule. Discover some of my writings, favorite gadgets and software in Hotpicks & Tips. For some pretty (interesting!) pictures, be sure to subscribe to my Travel Bog. (Ed. note: These days I post more to my Facebook account than anywhere else. If you want to keep up with me, you can find me there.)
So come and join me on an exploration of being digitally creative, learn time-saving tips, and be my virtual travel companion on the road. I hope you visit often!
NAPP Interview Series
Jan. 21, 2010
I recently did an interview with the wonderfully creative Elizabeth (aka Firgs or Firggy) of Design by Firgs. She's a successful graphic designer in the Chicago area and a very active NAPP member (Nat'l Assoc of Photoshop Professionals). She had the brainchild to create an interview series with NAPP instructors, of which I was very honored and pleased to take part.
Click here (or the subhead above) to visit Firggy's site and read the full interview. It's loaded with all kinds of interesting tidbits! Plus you'll get 10 free, high-resolution iStockphoto images!
Spotlight: Photoshop CS4 Missing Manual
Jan. 28, 2009
This past Saturday night I treated myself to a trip to my favorite book store: Barnes & Noble. I went to stock up on some great sci-fi books (a list follows) but as I trotted across the parking lot, I wondered, "Oh holy Thor! Will*my* book be here?!" And sure enough it was. I can't tell you how surreal it felt to see it on the shelf. The manager even came over and got me to sign them so they could slap the "autographed copy" sticker on the cover. Wow! I was so proud. For those of you who haven't yet picked up a copy, O'Reilly's wonderful 40% off sale lasts thru Feb. 14. You can find more details here.
After much goofy grinning and staring, I finally made my way over to the glorious sci-fi section (whee!). For the sci-fi fans among you--I know there's a few!--here's a list of what came home with me:
Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series, book one: Wizard's First Rule. This is what the new sci-fi TV show "Legend of the Seeker" is based on.
Neil Gaiman's "Coraline" (mainly because he keeps "tweeting" about the movie on Twitter!).
Michael Moorcock's "Stealer of Souls" featuring Elric, the albino Emperor of Melniboné.
"The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life" by Twyla Tharp (because Paul Kent tweeted about it--darn Twitter!).
Book 3, "Grave Peril", of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I just finished watching the series on DVD and really enjoyed it. Too bad it only lasted one season!
Patricia Briggs (and others) "On the Prowl". Lots of wonderful werewolf tales included. I'm addicted to both her Mercy Thompson (coyote shapeshifter) series and her Hurog duology (involving dragons and a really hot Norse-looking dude named Ward).
I figure those will keep me busy for a night or three ;)
Lesa joins Kelby Training
May 15, 2008
Woo hoo! Today my first title for Kelby Training went live. It's a 2-hour little ditty called From Photo to Graphic Art and covers how to take normal photos and turn them into beautiful pieces of art, using Photoshop CS3. Here's a quick run-down of the content:
Partial color effect, faded color effect, colorizing a black & white photo, sepia-tone with burned edges, blurring the background, from photo to pencil sketch, realistic reflections, ornamental vector photo frame, filtered and painted edges, real world picture frame, combining images (4 parts), turning a photo into stone, high contrast effects (2 parts), breaking a photo into pieces, aging a photo, and eyes of the Otherworld.
Each QuickTime movie is approximately 3-6 minutes long and shows each step of the tutorial while I talk you through it.
Pricing for KelbyTraining is $19.99 per month or $199 per year and that gives you access to every class (more are being added every day). Scott Kelby has literally gathered up the best instructors in put them all in one place and I'm very honored to be one of three female instructors in the whole program. I do hope you'll take this new service (and my title) for a spin.
Coming soon is Practical Photoshop Elements, and whatever else I can dream up. Enjoy!
Photoshop World Fun
A 3D Photoshop project
April 10, 2008
A little sillyness ensued last week while I was teaching at Photoshop World. Before the conference got started, the instructors attended an Adobe training day followed by a workshop with Russell Brown. He taught us how to create a 3D lenticular effect and even had a specialist properly affix the lens (glass) atop the printed image to complete the product.
Loads of fun was had by all, especially Jack Davis (author of the Photoshop WOW books) and I. In keeping with the overall theme of the conference, we donned Star Trek costumes. With Photoshop, you can truly transport yourself onto another world!
A Big Thank you...
Staying in touch while in the hospital
Dec. 5, 2007
Thanks to everyone who sent cards and well wishes while I was in the hospital last week. The beautiful flower above is an illustration by fan Daniel Potvin. And through my iPhone, I was able to *see* all the wonderful emails while I was in the hopsital, even when I was unable to hold my laptop. Technology really is grand :)
Spotlight: Duct Tape Marketing
A week or so ago I had the immense pleasure of hanging out with a bunch of Duct Tape Marketers in Kansas City, MO.
Say what?!
That's right, a brilliant marketer named John Jantsch wrote a marketing book for the rest of us, called Duct Tape Marketing. Since then he's been training folks in the Duct Tape Ways and I was invited to enlighten them about the importance of communicating through imagery and the evils of bullet points in presentations.
The following week, John was kind enough to have me on his podcast. You can listen to the interview here.
Spotlight: New York Times Video
March 7, 2007
This week, David Pogue's New York Times video was all about taking old memories digital and how the Sony DVDirect turns your old home video tapes into DVDs. I'm here to tell you, if you're reading David's columns and missing the video, you're missing half the fun!
The premise was that since all the great moments of David's life lived on VHS, he'd reshoot them... as an adult. To do this, he needed my help to play a nosey neighbor.
Hope you enjoy it! As always, it's tons of fun to work with David. Keep an eye on his videos as he enjoys sticking me into them.
New Look--Same Great Taste
 I'm proud to report that my favorite technology writer has launched a new web site! I'm even prouder because, well, I built the darn thing.
What did I learn during this paricular project? That David's writes *a lot*. The man has written a literal truckload of books. I know this because I looked up each and every one of the little buggers on Amazon.com. Oy, that was fun ;)
I hope you enjoy the new site and be sure to peruse the Columns section where you will find Vintage Pogue Writings circa Macworld Magazine's Desktop Critic. Oh yeah baby, that's good stuff right there.
Check back often as one of these days I'll attach a backend to this puppy so we can archive all the NYT columns. Now I'm headed out on my motorcycle to celebrate. Vroom vroom!
Lesa appears on PhotoshopTV
 It's been posted! Again, a big thanks to Scott Kelby and Dave Cross of the Photoshop Guys for having me on PhotoshopTV while Matt was away.
 In other news, fan Neil Carter sent me the coolest desktop screen I've ever seen: a beautiful Mac dragon (click the dragon to visit the link and download one of your own).
Now if I could just figure out a way to incorporate this design into my existing Apple tattoo... :)
Stuck in Salt Lake City
Snagging the coolest travel brush ever
 I now own the coolest travel brush ever. It's amazingly functional and pleasingly compact. It has half inch bristles that are stiff enough to comb through my long hair, though soft enough not to hurt, and it folds up to fit in my purse. How cool is that?! I've been on the lookout for a good travel brush for awhile now, and as you might imagine, they're hard to find.
I mean, you can find a travel brush, but the question becomes will it really allow you to brush your hair? Usually the answer is no. If you find one small enough, the bristles are so short they won't go through hair of any length, and others so dense with wire that they not only hurt, but doing any quality styling of any kind with a hair dryer is futile. This pretty blue travel brush, however, that Delta Airlines gave me for free, rocks.
How can you get yourself such a superior travel brush, you're surely asking? Well, believe me, it takes some time and patience, but it can be done. Let me now share with you just one method of landing your own Delta Airlines travel brush.
The adventure
This is not Calgary, nor is this Canada. This is Salt Lake City, Utah. I'm supposed to be in Calgary, but instead I'm sitting in the saddest motel I've encountered in at least 10 years. A dumpy little Quality Inn three miles from the airport that can't even afford fitted sheets or a restaurant. So how did I score being stuck in the dryest state in the US overnight? Why, I must have been a bad girl.
The day started off well enough, I got myself packed, backed up my laptop, and poked everything into a sparkling new Brenthaven bag that I'll be trying out on this trip. It's a pretty pastel blue number, of the shoulder strap variety. After a non-eventful drive to the airport, I arrived two hours early for the international flight, and everything proceeded to careen downhill from there.
First, a diabetic flight attendant passed out. After a 30 minute delay for the "crew medical emergency" (rather unsettling, don't you think?), the attendant was pronounced fit for flight and we boarded the plane only to find out it had started sleeting. This, of course, led to a relaxing hour and a half spent sitting motionless at the gate. I was seated, of course, next to a fat, grumpy man who complained the entire flight, ALL FOUR AND A HALF HOURS OF IT. "Four and half hours?!?" you might say, "to fly from Nashville to Salt Lake City? It shouldn't take that long." You're right, it doesn't take that long. Unless, of course, you have 200 mile an hour headwinds. Oh yeah, so once we finally got going, it took an hour longer than it was supposed to. Excellent.
I read a couple of magazines (Pink and Fast Company), and was amused by the big bitchy man's huffing and puffing while he tried playing Solitaire on a laptop he couldn't set on his tray table because of his fat stomach. This was after he complained about being hungry to the flight attendant (who now seemed overly perky) and had gorged on crackers, pretzels, several cookies, peanuts, and a granola bar or two. Gads :)
My mood was still suprisingly decent as I had my iPod loaded with podcasts from the Dragonpage, and was enjoying my magazines. Plus I had a tiny bit of hope that there might be a later flight to Calgary, or that my connecting flight had been delayed because of weather. No such luck. Once we got on the ground, things got a lot worse.
What made it so bad (besides the big fat bitchy man), was the complete lack on Delta's part of telling people what to do and where to go in the Salt Lake airport. People wondered around aimlessly, and finally, after being shooed to the baggage claim area, we trudged up to the ticket counter one by one. At first Delta didn't want to cover the hotel costs because they said the delay was due to weather. Luckily, a large "good ole boy" wasn't having any of that and pitched a fairly impressive fit, so when I got up to the counter, I smiled sweetly and the attendant was very appreciative of my attitude. He even got the manager involved to help get me to Calgary tomorrow in lieu of two days later like he initially thought. I took my hotel voucher, two $7 meal vouchers, and plastic overnight kit outside to wait for the shuttle.
So to make a long rant a little shorter, suffice to say I won't make it to Calgary until tomorrow afternoon. And if I'm lucky, my bags may actually get there. I was told my chances would be better if I just let Delta keep them tonight. Seriously?! Fine. Just get me there.
Once at the sad little motel, I tried to log onto the free wireless internet service after calling the front desk for a passcode. It didn't work. I call him back, he repeats the code, then gives me an 800 number to call to ask them. The 800 number requires a passcode, so I gave up. This of course after I'd also asked the front desk dude about vending machines. The conversation went like this.
Me: Hi, this is Lesa Snider in 218, I just checked in.
Him: And...?
Me: I was wondering, are there vending machines somewhere?
Him: Yeah.
Me: <pause> Where might they be?
Him: All over the place.
Me: <pause> So I just have to go find them?
Him: Yeah.
Me: THANKS SO MUCH <click>
Now, mind you, this is one of those motels where the rooms face the great outdoors. There are no hallways and it's freaking cold outside. They just had nine inches of snow the other day and though I've been wanting to see some snow, I was in no mood to go trudging around in it foraging for a diet coke.
I gave up and called Dominoes and, 45 minutes later, I had a diet coke and a pizza complete with jalapenos (respectably hot, I might add). Afterwards I couldn't resist the urge to dig through Delta's complimentary overnight kit and guess what I found? The *coolest* (seriously!) fold-up travel brush ever. How cool is that?! It was almost enough to make me not notice that the heater doesn't work and that there's no fitted sheet on the bed. Ah well. Here's hoping tomorrow goes a little smoother :)
Spotlight: New York Times Video
Feb. 3, 2006
 Yesterday, Motorola announced their new SLVR iTunes compatible cell phone. New York Times technology columnist David Pogue cooked up an entertaining video comparing it to the popular RAZR. Can you spot my graphics handiwork throughout the video?
My mission was to find celebrity photos with RAZRs, slip SLVRs in their hands instead, and outfit a couple of superheroes with both a RAZR and SLVR. The Bush photo was a bonus, the opportunity to add a pink RAZR was too good to pass up. A special thanks to Ian Nixon for finding the Batman and Spiderman pics, and thanks to J Curtis for helping make the gnat sneeze.
A Big Day
The Graphic Reporter fulfills a life-long dream
 Yesterday the world changed—I bought a motorcycle!
I've had my license for about four years, and one thing or another (some legitimate excuses) has held back an actual bike purchase. That all changed when I listened to an interview with the publisher of Women Riders Now recently.
During the interview, Genevieve Schmitt spoke of how the sport of motorcyling is seeing an influx of women riders, how the numbers are growing rapidly. She spoke of a women's only motorcycle conference coming up soon in Georgia, and the bonding and camaraderie. She talked about the infusion of freedom, confidence, and excitement you get from riding your own bike.
Then last week I read an article called What's Stopping You? on the same web site. For an entire week I dreamed every night about the Suzuki GS500F I saw at the Int'l. Motorcycle Show in Atlanta last month. Enough is enough, I thought, and called up the dealership that sold my husband and I our beloved Yamaha Royal Star Tour Deluxe.
Would you believe they had exactly one GS500F, and because it was a 2005 model, they were ready to make the deal of a century? Needless to say, I had to have her (more pictures live here). Indeed, the world has changed, and though it scares me half to death, I couldn't be happier!
Ed. note: I've now upgraded to a BMW F800ST named Saphira. I love it!
Fun at Photoshop World in Miami
Where friends don't let friends eat Steak Tartar
 Let me just say "ugh" right now and get it out of the way. During Photoshop World East in Miami this past week, I was goaded into trying Steak Ttartar by some buddies. Two small bites was all I could handle and believe you me, that was two bites too much. My advice: don't let this happen to you. To those who did the goading (Deke, Garth, and Ed), shame on you! I'm still suffering. Super-duper ugh.
Aside from the lower GI tract discomfort, I had a great time seeing lots of friends and colleagues, and speaking to people who came by the beautiful iStockphoto booth (more pictures live here). The sessions were terrific (as usual), and there just wasn't enough time in the week to do everything. The downside was that I never got to see the beach! Not even once. The official hotel was downtown and the convention center was on South Beach. Construction was terrible and it was a 20-30 minute bus ride back and forth. Unfortunately, the only eating joint near the hotel was the hotel itself so once you got out to the convention center, you were stuck in conference gear. Ah well, I did see some *really* pretty people walking around down at Lincoln Mall (an outdoor, trendy line of shops and restaurants on South Beach). All the women looked like the bartender in the picture above, and the men looked like Ricky Martin :)
To all of whom I met in Miami, thanks so much for coming by. Hope to see y'all again soon!
Discovering Technology at the Discovery Museum
Oct. 5, 2005
 What do you get when you mix 14 of the world's most renowned electronics companies, a science museum, and an Emmy-winning New York Times technology columnist? You get a technology fair of a most unusual sort, that breathed new life into a struggling non-profit operation.
On Sept. 23, hundreds converged upon the Discovery Science & Space Museum in the small, heavily-wooded city of Bridgeport, CT, to learn about digital cameras, camcorders, music systems, MP3 players, headsets, and plasma TVs. They came to touch and feel... more
Laptop brings the joy of DVD viewing into dreary hospital room
No tutorials last week due to family crisis
Feb. 9, 2005
My apologies for not uploading any new content last week. My Dad was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer, so my Mom and I spent the week in the hospital with him. The bright side is that he's actually feeling better than he has in a few months since treatment has begun.
On the geek side, with my laptop, inMotion speakers, and a 1/8 in. audio cable, I was able to bring some lighthearted comedy into a depressing hospital room with "Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again" (not to mention BBQ ribs via take-out from Texas Roadhouse). Thanks to everyone who has written me with caring sentiments.
I've been iconized!
Paul Sahner brings my cartoon self to life
Feb. 8, 2005
 A big thank you to Paul Sahner of IconizeMe.com for turning me into a cartoon character. So when you're searching for that perfect forum avatar identity, Paul's your man.
Macworld Expo, Jan. 10-16, 2005
Serious fun in San Francisco
Jan. 20, 2004
 (sniffle, sniffle, cough, cough) Well, it happened again. The darn post-Macworld flu/cold bug that seems to attack no matter how one prepares thyself. Nevertheless, last week was unbelievably productive, fun, and rewarding. Thanks to everyone who attended my Main Stage sessions on web visibility and travel tips! It was wonderful having such a nice audience, and as promised, the Travel Tip section now lives. You'll find all kinds of hardware, software, and service recommendations complete with links in case you have to buy something right this minute.
I'll have a lot more to say about Macworld once I begin to feel a bit more human, though I have to post just one photo to highlight my favorite moment of the week: I met Wil Wheaton! For those Star Trek fans out there he used to play Wesley Crusher. I don't care what anybody says, I liked the character (he was really cute then, and he's really cute now). He even autographed his new book for me, Just a Geek (and it's really good). (cough, sniffle) Okay, more on Macworld fun when I feel more human :(
Winter adventures in LA
The trek back and forth for DV Expo, West
Dec. 7, 2004
After a nice cup of french vanilla flavored oatmeal in my room (brewed in the strangest coffee pot ever), we headed over to the Staples Convention Center in downtown LA. It's almost amazing to me how a convention center morphs from the abandon-warehouse look into a brilliantly lit, booth-packed, glittering, sparkling expo. It was a good day. I had a good time hooking up all of the AV equipment (everybody else is afraid to mess with all the cables and electricity), and enjoyed testing out the big speakers with a little quality Velvet Revolver.
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| Expo hall before |
and after |
The highlight of my day thus far was finding out that my friend Gary-Paul Prince of Peachpit Press is an artist! And an amazingly good one! He has his own gallery and everything. It just goes to show you that if you take the time to listen to people, you can learn the most fasincating things about them.
Dec. 6, 2004
I wish Delta Song flew out of DFW. I really do. I hear all these tales of $5 shaken martinis made fresh in the aisle by your seat, stories of being presented with menus of gourmet food choices (???), the brightly colored leather seats, the cheerful trivia messages played over the PA. Instead, I flew American where there were no martinis and certainly no food. I had an uneventful flight and slept the entire way. The only exciting thing was passing Danny Glover in first class :)
 I had an interesting (though expensive--$42.50!) cab ride to my hotel with a driver from the Ukraine. With a heavy accent, he told me all about his recent two-week European cruise with his wife of 50 years. So we get to the hotel and oddly enough, it looks completely Russian. It's just gorgeous—very ornate and leaves me feeling as if I should don a ball gown. The hotel staff was amazingly attentive, and didn't mind sending up a coffee maker complete with spoons which will come in really handy seeing as though I brought an entire box of instant oatmeal packets along!
 My internet connection is really funky though. My hotel, the Millenium Biltmore, advertises free wireless. What they don't tell you is that it's only available in certain rooms and it only works intermittently. They also have rooms with both wireless and ethernet, which the manager was happy to move me to. After getting nested (this means taking out Altec Lansing speakers and setting up music with iPod), I started fiddling with my connection. It was only stable if I placed it on the shelf underneath the TV, and even then it would sporadically go from 5 bars of signal strength to 1 to nothing to 5 to 2 and so on. Arg. That's not gonna work. So after finishing up an article for MacTech that was due, I started playing with the ethernet connection and my new Airport Express. It worked like a CHARM and I had a strong signal everywhere in my room. The bad thing was that I could no longer send email. Turns out I had to turn authentication off in my Mail preferences and then it worked fine.
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