CreativeTechs Tips

Jason Hoppe’s first 10-Week Photoshop course was the success that kicked off our “free training” experiment. This time we’re taking things to a whole new level.

Want to enroll? Sign-up here: 6-Month Photoshop Course.

LIVE Webinar: www.gotomeeting.com/register/775748320
Date:Thursday, September 3, 2009
Time: 11am Pacific (Seattle) [Other Time Zones]
Duration: 90-120 Minutes

So what does a 6-Month Photoshop Course cover? Here is the tentative schedule. We’ve built this as an ongoing series of 5-week courses, building from basic fundamentals, up to some fairly advanced techniques. With a fun side-trip around the holidays for digital scrapbooking topics.

Course I – Photoshop Fundamentals
Sep 3 – Basics
Sep 10 – Layers
Sep 17 – Selections
Sep 24 – Masks
Oct 1 – Pen Tool

Course 2 – Color Correction
Oct 8 – Advanced Selections
Oct 15 – Color Correction pt1
Oct 22 – Color Correction pt2
Oct 24 – Cloning Basics
Nov 5 – Final Touches

Course 3 – Photoshop Fun
Nov 12 – Scrapbooking Techniques
Nov 19 – Brushes
Dec 3 – Layer Effects
Dec 10 – To Be Announced
Dec 17 – To Be Announced

Course 4 – Advanced Retouching
Jan 7 – Advanced Cloning Techniques
Jan 14 – Retouching Skin
Jan 21 – Retouching Hair
Feb 4 – Retouching Landscapes
Feb 11 – Repairing Digital Anomalies

Course 5 – To Be Announced!
Feb 25 – TBA
Mar 4 – TBA
Mar 11 – TBA
Mar 18 – TBA
Mar 25 – TBA

The dates may shift a bit as we get going. We’ll be fleshing out the details on the final five as that gets closer.

And yes, you can pass this offer along to friends, or even post it on your blog. Help spread the word. We need a minimum of 1,000 people enrolled to make this free class viable.

Read on for an extended Q&A, and to ask your own questions in the comments. We’ve left some open slots on our schedule, so if you have a topic you’d like to see us cover, mention it in the comments below.

Read the Full Tip »

I’m delighted to announce that instructor John Greengo will be leading a special 10-Week Digital Photography Course in our worldwide classroom starting in the first week of September.

Enroll via Email: Digital Photography Course Enrollment.

The free weekly webinars are free. In order to join us, you’ll need to sign-up for a special weekly email notification we’ve created for this course.

Here is the tentative schedule for this class. We may be adjusting this slightly as we get closer to the start.

Week 1, Sep 2 – Introduction
Week 2, Sep 9 – Digital Cameras
Week 3, Sep 16 – Lenses
Week 4, Sep 23 – Exposure I
Week 5, Sep 30 – Exposure II
Week 6, Oct 7 – Focus
Week 7, Oct 14 – Aesthetics I
Week 8, Oct 21 – Aesthetics II
Week 9, Oct 28 – The Gadget Bag
Week 10, Nov 4 – Full Exposure

And yes, you can pass this offer along to friends, or even post it on your blog. Help spread the word. We need a minimum of 1,000 people enrolled to make this free class viable.

Read on for an extended Q&A, and to ask your own questions in the comments. John is currently developing material for this extended course, so if you have a topic you’d like to see him cover, mention it in the comments below.

Read the Full Tip »

Tomorrow we’re trying something fun: an all-day online Photoshop Marathon. We’ll be rerunning recordings of Jason Hoppe’s full 10-Week Photoshop Course from earlier this year, with a couple live Q&A to keep things interesting.

Three Ways To Watch:

Method 1- GoToWebinar:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/643882369

Method 2- TweetChat:
http://tweetchat.com/room/creativetechs

Method 3- Ustream.tv:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/creativetechs
Read the Full Tip »

Every Flash project is different. Once you’ve covered the basics of moving around Flash, there is still so much more to learn. So, in the spirit of Retouch Tuesday we bring you our latest experiment in challenge-the-instructor-training: Finish My FLAH.

We’re asking you to send in your real-life Flash documents and concepts. If we find a couple good examples, we’ll invite a few couple participants from around the world to join Erik Fadiman for a personalized live Flash training session.

Send Your Files: CreativeTechs YourSendit Dropbox

Include a description of what you are trying to accomplish, and tell us challenges you are running into. Erik will pick interesting challenges and work one-on-one with a couple participants, while the rest of us get to watch and learn from the examples. This is an experiment. We know this concept works for Photoshop retouching. Will it work for Flash production too?

Today’s Illustrator webinar was quite an adventure! Ten minutes before the start of class, our Internet connection suddenly dropped (apparently because of a nearby maintenance crew). Luckily we managed to switch over to our slower emergency connection without too much chaos.

Of all days, today was the day that we received a slew of new visitors from two big referral sources. So to make up for today’s Internet glitch, we’re posting the Illustrator Week 7 class free for everyone to enjoy.

In return we ask is that you help encourage more great referrals! Visit Adobe’s Facebook page and Vectip’s Twitter feed to say that you really appreciate them spreading the word about CreativeTechs training:

#1: The Adobe Illustrator Facebook Page! Tell them it was good!

#2: Vectips Twitter Feed – Reply to say thanks for the Tweet!

Quality and quantity both help here. Let’s show our appreciation with some great feedback to them. Thanks!

PS. Anyone interested in signing up for other free weekly classes should visit our training calendar. Or if you are interested in purchasing full recordings of our past courses, visit our course purchase page.

At first glance, this tip may seem a little frivolous. Creating word-search puzzles isn’t a skill that is in high demand. Yet as we dig below the surface, this project is a great demonstration of InDesign’s ability to place Excel spreadsheets as a table. Which can be pretty handy for many types of information-heavy design projects.

This tip was written several years ago when one of our clients needed coaching in how to create word-search puzzles for a monthly magazine she produced. Read the Full Tip »

Digital photography fans can download the free monthly issues of PhotographyBB e-magazine in PDF format.

Link: PhotographyBB Online Magazine

PhotographyBB is a free online magazine composed by a hardworking team of volunteer contributing authors whose goal is to teach beginners all about digital photography and image processing.

The June 2009 edition features articles on photography techniques and issues facing today’s digital photographer. Readers will learn tips on composition and how keeping things simple can lead to great photography.

The issue also examines how to overcome photographer’s block when lack of inspiration occurs. Included is also a Photoshop® tutorial on creating an urban grunge type effect for dramatic impact.

Read the Full Tip »

The hardcover edition of Chris Anderson’s new book, FREE, ships tomorrow, July 9th. You can buy it in bookstores or download free digital editions that the publisher is releasing on the same day.

Normally, I would write about this after we have links for all the downloads. However, many of the free editions will only be available for a single week, and I don’t want you to miss out!

Currently Available:

AudioBook Abridged – MP3s (Free)

AudioBook Unabridged – MP3s (Free)

Online eBook – scribd (Free)

Online eBook – Google books (Free)

Kindle Edition – Amazon (Free)

Printed Book – Hardcover ($18)

The abridged audiobook was available early, so I downloaded and finished it over the weekend. I’m looking forward to my copy of the hardcover which is already on order from Amazon.

Check back Tuesday, and we’ll update you with links on this post for the other free editions as soon as we know where they are available. Read the Full Tip »

I’m delighted to announce a new 4-week Digital Photography Course starting in two week! This special course is taught by photographer John Greengo from the PBS series Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge. This 8 minute video gives you a great overview of not only the content, but the style in which John teaches.

Want to enroll? Us this link to enroll: Digital Photography Course Enrollment.

July 15: Week 1 – Overview.
July 22: Week 2 – Your Camera.
July 29: Week 3 – Your Technique.
Aug 5: Week 4 – Composition Secrets.

I’ve watched John teach. He does a remarkable job making technical photography subjects relevant, understandable and yes, fun.

We are very fortunate to have John joining us.

Read on for an extended Q&A, and to ask your own questions in the comments. John is currently finishing the course content. If you have a topic you’d like to see him cover, mention it in the comments below.

Read the Full Tip »

I’ve got a special request this week. Jason and I are working on our next big online course. If you’ve ever gotten something out of an online class from CreativeTechs, we need your help now.

I’m hoping you’ll take the time to answer three questions in the comments below:

1. What makes the CreativeTechs training approach different?
(How does our class format compare to local classes, training videos, or other online webinars?)

2. Where do you live?
(We want to demonstrate the size of our audience with the comments on this post. Tell us where you live, and what time of day you join in for class.)

3. Does this live worldwide format really work?
(This is the important part. What does the experience feel like to you? Can you help describe this format to someone who’s never seen it?)

We’re planing an ambitious 6-month Photoshop course that builds from basics into advanced retouching techniques. To pull it off, we need new space, faster Internet, and some key partnerships. I’m talking with people this week, and I want to point skeptics among them to your comments to demonstrate that this online training format works.

We need your testimonials to help entice experts to Seattle for our little worldwide classroom. And I need to demonstrate the reach of our current classes in order to attract the support and sponsorship we’re going to need to keep this live class experience free.

Thanks!

PS. Scroll down to a comment I posted over the weeekend for my boldest public declaration so far about where we’re going with our online classroom. Scary and Exhilarating!

PS2. I’ve been updating and revising this post all weekend. So if early commenters don’t seem to be responding to the same questions, that’s MY fault, not theirs.