LVS Online Classes » In The Spotlight

Photoshop Elements 9: Make Your Photos POP!

lvs — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:28:40 +0000

In Photoshop Elements 9: Make Your Photos POP! online class you will learn to correct your photos for color and exposure problems! This intermediate class focuses on photo correction using Photoshop Elements 9. This class goes above and beyond the skills in the beginning series of online classes, Photoshop Elements 9: The Journey Begins.

Learn to convert your photos to make dramatic black and white images and use levels, color curves, and much more! Learn many sharpening secrets.

If your goal is to improve your photos, Photoshop Elements 9: Make your Photos POP! class for you. Please note that this is NOT a photography class. It is an application class, designed to teach you how to use the tools in Photoshop Elements to improve your photos.

Lesson 1

First Class Info
What is covered in this class?
Full Edit Auto Corrections
Auto Smart Fix
Auto Levels
Auto Color
Auto Contrast
Photo Filter
Using Layer Blend Modes to Fix Exposure
What is Opacity?
What is Tolerance and why is it Essential?
Correcting with Multiple Blend Modes
Shadow/Highlights Filter

Lesson 2

What is a Histogram
Diagnosing and Fixing Exposure
Info Palette
Brightness/Contrast
Using and Understanding Levels
Color Curves Review
Isolating Shadows and Highlights for Correcting
Straightening Crooked Photos
Scan and Divide
Desaturate vs. Grayscale: What’s the Difference?
Using the Convert to B&W Filter
Adjust Color for Skin Tone Command

Lesson 3

A Word about Graphics Tablets
New Images: Layer vs. Background
The Toning Tools: Burn and Dodge
Using Burn and Dodge for Shading
The Focus Tools: Blur and Sharpen
Using the Sponge and Smudge Tools
Digital Noise Removal with the Reduce Noise Filter
Smoothing with the Dust & Scratches Filter
Using Luminosity Blend Mode to Reduce Texture
Glasses Glare
Fixing Hotspots

Lesson 4

Selection Tools: What are my choices?
Select Menu
Refine Edge
Layer Selection
Using the Eraser Tool
Using the Magic Eraser Tool
Using the Background Eraser Tool
The Defringe Command
Adding and Editing File Info
Saving and Applying Custom Metadata Templates
Batch Processing: Using the Process Multiple Files Command

Lesson 5

Using Quick Fix Sharpening
Sharpening Basics
Using Unsharp Mask
Using Adjust Sharpness
Sharpening with the Emboss Filter
Sharpening with the Highpass Filter
Using an Edge mask
Splitting the Sharpening
Contrast Masking
Correcting Camera Distortion
Creating Poster Size Photos from your Digital Camera

By the end of this course, you will have the skills necessary to be able correct color and exposure problems on your own photos, and you will be able to sharpen your photos so they look their best!

Join Sara Froehlich as she continues to take you through the journey of discovery for Photoshop Elements 9 for Mac and Windows. Sara is the co-author of Microsoft Expression Design Step by Step and had done tech editing for two Photoshop Elements Missing Manual books. Sara’s waterfall photos were used in the book Music of Heartohopia and her artwork has been featured on several CD covers.

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Corel Painter 12 Online Classes

lvs — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:08:09 +0000

On May 11, 2011 the Corel Corporation released the newest version of Corel® Painter™ 12. There have been so many changes to this version, it’s almost like a brand new program, and as a result, new lessons are available here at LVS Online Classes.

Current Painter Users: For those of you who are upgrading from previous versions of Painter, there is a new course available which will familiarize you with the program changes, including, but not limited to:

The new Panel system
The new Document Window
Mirror Painting
Kaleidoscope Painting
Workspace Customizing (It’s better than ever!)

The class is called “Corel® Painter™ 12: Getting Up To Speed“. If you have taken any of my previous classes, be assured that these new lessons will be written with the same level of clarity and clear explanations you have come to expect. As usual, I will do my best to address any questions or concerns you have with this new program version.

Not sure you want to upgrade? The class consists of 5 lessons; in week 1, you will be able to download the first lesson, and in the second week of class you will be able to download all the remaining lessons, 2 through 5. If you wait to download and install the Corel® Painter™ 12 trial until the first lesson is available, you will be able to use the trial for the full 30 days while you complete the lessons, and thereby get a really good idea if this upgrade is for you before you spend your hard-earned money.

New users of Painter: For those who are just starting out with Corel® Painter™ and have purchased Corel® Painter™ 12, I will be offering a brand new set of beginner’s classes. These classes will cover almost the same material as is covered in the other beginner’s classes, but these classes will be specifically written for Corel® Painter™ 12. This first level class which will cover the program basics is Corel® Painter™ 12: New Horizons Part 1

The second level class will continue where the first class ended and will be available for enrollment when registration opens for the late Fall semester. The name of the second level class is Corel® Painter™ 12: New Horizons Part 2.

If you use Corel® Painter™ IX.5, Corel® Painter™ X, or Corel® Painter™ 11, the other Painter class offerings will address your version.

If you have never taken my classes, you may be interested to read what some of my former students have to say about them.

Elaina Moore-Kelly has been teaching Corel® Painter™ classes here at LVS since August of 2008. In addition to using the program on a regular basis, she has also been a Beta tester for the past three versions of the program, Corel® Painter™ X, Corel® Painter™ 11, and Corel® Painter™ 12.

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Digital Painting Online Classes with Maureen

lvs — Sun, 29 May 2011 14:12:16 +0000

I have been painting with Corel® Painter for a number of years and decided to teaching the software a few years ago. It is a delight and pleasure to help others learn this somewhat complicated piece of software and enable their artistic flare to shine through. I’m always inspired by my students and enjoy seeing them grow and improve in their art.

Some students are a natural at painting, and some have to work hard at it, but all in all, they produce very fine work as is evidence by some of their art posted on my blog. I am currently teaching five classes and in the not too distant future, two or three classes in Corel® Painter 12 aptly named Digital Art with Corel® Painter.

Introduction to Painter’s Brushes – 1 & II

Corel® Painter is a great resource for digital painting. Would you like to learn all about Corel’s Painter brushes; how to apply them, mix, create your own and paint with them your very own masterpieces? This online class series is packed with lots of information and techniques and you won’t be disappointed. It’s a great stepping stone to learning about Painter’s fabulous array of brushes

The Art of Collage with Corel® Painter

Digital Collage is certainly a fun style of adding paint with images to create a a great looking image.

PhotoPainting & Portraiture I, II & III

The PhotoPainting classes cover a wide variety of styles of painting from basic cloning to blending images together and painting. There is so much you can learn about painting by taking these photo painting classes.

Exciting new classes coming soon!….

Digital Art with Corel® Painter 12

Corel® has released Painter 12 and it is very different from previous versions of Painter. I am happy to announce that classes will be available that cover all the new aspects of Painter 12 brushes. The class will also encompass all aspects of Digital Art from Basic Painting, Collage and Scrapbooking styles and PhotoPainting & Portraiture, inclusion of Photoshop and PaintShop Pro. There are two classes currently in the pipeline, but maybe three!

As soon as the classes are available, LVS Online Classes will announce them in the newsletter. If you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, do it now!

I look forward to seeing YOU in my Digital Painting online classes!

Maureen Eves-Lavis is the instructor of several digital painting with Corel Painter classes at LVS Online. The instructor-led online classes are 5 weeks long and run 6 times during the year. The schedule and available courses are listed here. Self-study classes can be joined at any time and do not have instructor support.

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Photography Instructor Al Mierau Gets Published!

lvs — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:28:29 +0000

Al Mierau is the Photography instructor at LVS Online Classes. Several years ago Al met Dr. Robert Berdan, PHD, via Viki Nygaard (an LVS Online Classes instructor) who was doing some work for him. Al was so impressed with Robert’s nature images that during one of his stays in Calgary he decided to meet this renowned photographer. Since that meeting, over the years Robert has always helped Al out whenever he required assistance of any kind.

Robert’s main site is Moods of Nature which is located here: www.moodsofnature.com

Some time ago Robert also started a site where other photographers could get their work recognized. The site is called The Canadian Nature Photographer and is located here
www.canadiannaturephotographer.com

Several months ago Robert asked Al if I would like to join the group of photographers who get published in his online magazine. He has also extended the invitation to any of any of Al’s photography students that he wished to refer. The content for articles does not have to be Canadian, but it has to relate to nature or outdoor photography in some way.

Al just had his first article posted on the The Canadian Nature Photographer site, entitled Drumheller Valley and Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta.

Al has his own renown status with the students at LVS Online Classes. His popularity is due to his friendly, positive and supportive behavior in the classroom. If you don’t believe us, just read what his students have to say!

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PHP Web Designs I Online Class

lvs — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:25:58 +0000

PHP Web Designs I Online Class is for anyone that is interested in learning the basics of PHP and how to use it in your web pages for interactivity, form validation, and really cool effects.

PHP is a server-side scripting language that’s designed specifically for building web sites. You create pages with PHP and HTML. When a visitor opens the page, the server processes the PHP commands and then sends the results to the visitor’s browser. Learning PHP can open up new possibilities for your web site. Interactive features can be added to your web site including guest books, message boards, forms, surveys, and shopping carts. In this class you will learn the basics of PHP including syntax, variables, operators, loops, conditional statements, arrays, and functions. We will use a lot of simple basic examples that will demonstrate the concepts you need to master in order to write more advanced scripts later.

PHP is free to download and use, which is one reason why it is so popular. You’ll find that the vast majority of Web hosting accounts supports PHP. While many programming languages can be used to build Web applications, PHP is one of the few languages specifically designed for the Web. For this reason, it includes a lot of useful Web-related features including:

Easy ways to read and handle Web forms and cookies
Functions for creating and manipulating graphics
The ability to talk to popular databases such as MySQL
Functions for working with HTML

Lesson 1

PHP Intro
Displaying Output
Using Function
PHP Tools
Error Messages

Lesson 2

Data Types
Operators
for() loops
while() loops
include()

Lesson 3

Conditional Statements
PHP Server Variables
Handling Exceptions

Lesson 4

Indexed Arrays
Associative Arrays
Array Functions

Lesson 5

Forms
Error Checking
Emails
Cookies
Security

PHP Web Designs I Online Class is instructed by Yvonne Zaborac . Yvonne also teaches Build Your Website, Drupal, PHP Web Design, Podcasting, Web Accessibility, and Web Typography classes at LVS Online Classes!

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WordPress Basics Online Class

lvs — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:30:34 +0000

This WordPress Basics online class is designed to take you through the development of your own WordPress site. We will be doing a site on whatever “G” rated subject that you choose or you can use the material provided to make a Garden Club website/blog.

WordPress is a free, Web-based software program that anyone can use to build and maintain a website or blog. It began in 2003 as a simple open source blogging tool and was originally intended as an easy way to set up a blog. But, thanks to the efforts of a large “open source” community of WordPress programmers working to extend and improve its capabilities, WordPress has become much more than just a tool for bloggers. Today’s WordPress is really a “content management system” (CMS), which means that it can be used to run full-sized, social media-rich business websites or small, personal web sites.

What is a weblog? A weblog, or “blog”, is a personal journal on the Web. Weblogs cover many different topics. Your blog can be used to share information with relatives and friends. It can include recipes, graduation announcements, birthdays, or club news. Basically anything that you are interested in can be shared with others on your blog. You can allow others to post comments on your blog. The sky’s the limit!!

This class is for anyone that is interested in creating a personal, club, or group website and/or blog using WordPress. This class will teach you the basics of WordPress.

Lesson 1

What is WordPress?
What is a Content Management System?
Blogging Intro
Building a WordPress Site
The Dashboard

Reasons to Start a Blog

Lesson 2

Settings and Tools
The Visual Editor
Adding Pages
Themes and Widgets

Lesson 3

Categories and Tags
Adding Posts
Images
Managing Posts
Blogging Tips

Lesson 4

Comments
Discussion Settings
Moderating Comments
Eliminating Spam

Lesson 5

Image Gallery
Links and Link Categories
Menus
Polls

WordPress Basics online course is instructed by Yvonne Zaborac . Yvonne also teaches Build Your Website, Drupal, PHP Web Design, Podcasting, Web Accessibility, and Web Typography classes at LVS Online Classes!

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Writing Your Memoirs: Journaling to Essay to Memoir

lvs — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:00:41 +0000

Gain knowledge on how to maintain a journal, write a personal essay from a journal entry idea, and develop a memoir from the personal essay, plus the completion of a total of six journal entry, personal essay, and memoir writing assignments.

Writing Your Memoirs: Journaling to Essay to Memoir provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to maintain a journal, draw ideas from your journal entries to create a personal essay, and transform your personal essay into a memoir.

During the five-week course, handouts will be provided to assist you in completing your weekly writing assignments and enhance your memoir-writing skills.

Lesson 1

Course overview
Brief history of journaling
What is journaling?
Types of journals
Functions of journals
Journal entry samples
Step-by-step instructions on writing a journal entry
Handouts
Writing assignment

Lesson 2

Brief history of the personal essay
What is a personal essay?
Functions of a personal essay
Personal essay samples
Step-by-step instructions to writing a personal essay
Handouts
Writing assignment

Lesson 3

Guidelines to choosing a journal entry to develop into a personal essay
Detailed examples of journal entries and the personal essays derived from them
Handouts
Writing assignment

Lesson 4

What is a memoir?
Personal essays and memoirs: similarities and differences
Step-by-step instructions for developing a personal essay into a memoir
Handouts
Writing assignment

Lesson 5
Part A:

From journal entry to personal essay to memoir: pitfalls and how to avoid them
Handouts
Writing assignment

Part B:

Editing your memoir for publication submission
Handouts
Writing assignment

Writing Your Memoirs: Journaling to Essay to Memoir is instructed by Mary Cox-Pace.

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Tips for Making your Home Wheelchair and Mouth-Stick Friendly: Part 1

lvs — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 17:44:44 +0000

101 Tips for Making your Home Wheelchair and Mouth-Stick Friendly: Part 1 identifies tips for making every room in your home easier to function in from a wheelchair and offers ideas for creating a friendlier environment for mouth-stick users. Confined to a wheelchair and an avid mouth-stick user, the instructor offers practical suggestions derived from sixty years of personal experience.

Throughout the home, a person dependent on a wheelchair and the use of a mouth-stick can often face frustration when attempting to accomplish tasks in every room in their home. Sometimes quick and easy changes can facilitate greater independence, while other times more complex solutions appear to be necessary to achieve the specific goal.

Topics covered in part 1 of this online course include tips for making your kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, and clothes closet wheelchair and mouth-stick friendly.

This self-study course offers tips derived from sixty years of struggling to live an independent life without the use of fully functioning arms and legs. It’s a candid look at ways to gain autonomy in an environment that is possibly unprepared to understand your needs and unaware of some of the many ways to make wheelchair and mouth-stick access available.

101 Tips for Making your Home Wheelchair and Mouth-Stick Friendly online course offers valuable insights and ideas to persons confined to a wheelchair and using mouth-sticks to move and manipulate items in their house. This course also provides insights and tips which may be helpful to the family, friends, personal aides, and healthcare providers of an individual confined to a wheelchair and user of mouth-sticks.

Anyone with an interest in the independent living of persons using a wheelchair and mouth-sticks may benefit from this course.

Lesson 1
Introduction and Independence in the Kitchen

Cupboard
Utensils and Scissors
Plates
Pots and Pans
Refrigerator and Freezer
Counter Space
Stove Top
Microwave
Food Preparation
Cutting Board
Mouth-Stick Tips

Lesson 2

Independence in the Living Room

Multipurpose Table
Lamps
Coffee Table
Bookcase
Entertainment Center
Windows
Window Treatment
Phone
Plants
Thermostat
Air Freshener
Mouth-Stick Tips

Lesson 3
Independence in the Bedroom

Bed
Clock
End Table
Bureau
Phone
Curtains and Blinds
Electric Use
Vanity
Clothing Hooks
Slippers and Flooring
Mouth-Stick Tips

Lesson 4
Independence in the Bathroom

Soap
Toothbrush and Toothpaste
Wash Cloths
Towels
Shower Bench
Bath Mat
Clothes Hamper
Mirror and Sink top
- Nite Lite
Phone
Mouth-Stick Tips

Lesson 5
Independence in the Clothes Closet Hangers

Hooks
Shelves
Poles
Doors
Shoes
Scarves
Coats
Floor Space
Light
Mouth-Stick Tips

By the end of part 1 of this course the student will gain ideas to increase independence in the home for individuals using a wheelchair and mouth-stick.

101 Tips for Making your Home Wheelchair and Mouth-Stick Friendly: Part 1 is instructed by Mary Cox-Pace. Mary is a published author, editor, illustrator, teacher, and National Art Award Recipient. She was born with a birth defect (Arthrogryposis) and as a result is confined to a motorized wheel chair. She types all her manuscripts using a mouth-stick held between her teeth (29 cwam) and does her art work by holding a pen in her teeth. Mary has a PhD in Biblical Studies with special interests in religious freedom and personal growth.

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Photoshop Elements 9: The Journey Begins Part 3 Online Class

lvs — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:42:39 +0000

Photoshop Elements 9: The Journey Begins Part 3 is the third part of the Photoshop Elements 9 Basics online classes, which covers both the Windows and Mac versions of Photoshop Elements 9. You must have completed Photoshop Elements 9: The Journey Begins Part 1 and Photoshop Elements 9: The Journey Begins Part 2 to take this online course. This online class builds on what was learned in the first and second courses, and picks up where the second class left off.

In this online course, we will learn to use Elements brushes, which are an integral part of the photo editing tools, we’ll learn some advanced layer mask tricks, and you will learn to use the photo editing tools for color and exposure corrections. You’ll also learn the clone and healing tools, which are essential skills if you want to learn to restore old or damaged photos.

Lesson 1

Using Elements Brushes
Brush Color Modes
Making Custom Brushes
Saving Custom Brushes
Using the Preset Manager
Color Replacement Tool
Brush Modes

Lesson 2

Using the Crop Tool
Using the Rule of Thirds
Creative Cropping with the Cookie Cutter
The Photo Filter
Correcting with the Color Curves Filter
Understanding Levels
Using the Convert to Black and White Filter
Adjust Color for Skin Tone Filter
Basic Sharpening
Using Unsharp Mask
Using the Adjust Sharpness Filter
Adjustment Layers

Lesson 3

The Healing Tool
Spot Healing Tool
Clone Tool Basics
Working with the Vector Shape Tool
Creating a Workflow
Advanced Layer Masks

Lesson 4

Photomerge Features
Photomerge Group Shot
Photomerge Faces
Photomerge Scene Cleaner
Photomerge Panorama
Photomerge Exposure
Photomerge Style Match
Scanning Tips

Lesson 5

Layer Styles
Using Layer Styles
Editing Layer Styles
Downloading and Installing Layer Styles
Working with Patterns
Saving Pattern Libraries

By the end of this online course, you will know how to use and understand Elements brushes. You’ll understand the clone and healing tools, and will also have the skills to correct your photos and be ready to move on to the next class.

Photoshop Elements 9: The Journey Begins Part 3 is instructed by Sara Froehlich

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Introduction to WordPress Themes

lvs — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:09:18 +0000

At the end of the Introduction to WordPress Themes online course students will have created two distinctly different child themes for their WordPress based web site.

WordPress is best known as a blogging platform but in the past year it is gaining popularity as a content management system (CMS). Web sites based on CMS are extremely easy to update and maintain. Adding or changing the content of these web sites is a simple as filling out a form. This simplicity makes a CMS based website, like those based in WordPress, an ideal choice for:

people who don’t have a lot of technical expertise
organizations with a rotating leadership like school groups, associations and non-profits

Although a very basic WordPress installation is easy to complete, it is very basic. A basic WordPress installation is not going to be sufficient for a professional presence. WordPress is very flexible and powerful -once you understand how to customize it with themes. The content of a WordPress web site comes from a database, it is the theme that displays that information for your readers.
In this introduction course to WordPress themes, we will work on modifying the default WordPress theme to reflect the branding of your group or business. Here are some examples of what you can do to make your theme truly your own.

Incorporate your branding colors and logo
Take control over how tall your header is
Incorporate slideshows into your theme
Want a left side bar, a right side bar or none
Create a custom footer

Best of all you can do these customizations if you understand HTML and CSS. More in-depth customization requires PHP and best achieved working with a theme framework. In the Intermediate WordPress themes we will work with a theme framework.

Lesson 1

What is WordPress
Installing WordPress to your web hosting account
Introduction to Twenty Ten theme

Lesson 2

Parent- Child Themes
Required elements of child themes

Lesson 3

Basic Theme Design
Importance of Color and Typography

Lesson 4

Suggested elements of Child theme
Introduction to page templates

Lesson 5

Power of Plugins to add features to your web site
Putting the final touches on your theme

Introduction to WordPress Themes online class is instructed by Bean Fairbanks. Bean has served as a small business consultant for over ten years, assisting small business owners, non-profit organizations and community groups by obtaining, organizing and presenting the information that they need to succeed. This has covered the spectrum of needs assessments, satisfaction surveys, web sites, e-commerce sites, newsletters, branding, promotional materials and of course a variety of databases.

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