Expand your lighting options and get the most out of your flash as photographer and teacher Brent Winebrenner takes a practical, hands-on look at the theory behind exposure, with a special emphasis on electronic flash exposure.

Even with today's automatic flash systems, there are good reasons to understand how flash exposure really works. Brent details these concepts in this course. The course describes how to calculate the true power of your flash and how to modify its output to match your needs, a technique that can extend battery life, reduce recycle time, and provide exposure control that is more predictable than fully automatic modes. The course concludes with several shooting scenarios during which Brent explores the creative use of gels, reflectors, and other light modifiers.

Topics include:
Understanding exposure basicsReviewing aperture, ISO, and shutter speedAdjusting strobe power and flash to subject distanceFinding the guide number of a strobeMaking calculations based on ISOUnderstanding power ratios

A Wacom tablet is a great addition to a photographic workflow. A pen and tablet offer more control over lighting and tonal adjustments, retouching, and even creative work like compositing. But are you getting the most out of your tools? In this course, Adobe Certified Instructor Kevin Stohlmeyer shows how to optimize your Wacom tablet for use with Lightroom Classic CC. He reviews each component of the tablet and Grip Pen and shows how to adjust preferences and customize your tablet to work best with Lightroom Classic CC. Plus, he explores how the Wacom tools extend the power of Lightroom's Adjustment Brush and healing tools, and how to get the most out of the ExpressKeys.

Topics include:
Changing the pen nibCustomizing the ExpressKeys, touch options, and moreModifying the Touch RingWorking with the Adjustment Brush and healing tools

What makes a photo work? When is an image considered successful? In this weekly series, photography expert Steve Simon critiques images captured by all levels of photographers, from hobbyist to professional. He provides insights about how the elements in an image affect its interpretation so you can decide what to include-and exclude-from the frame when out shooting or when cropping in post. Additionally, he shares technical and non-technical remarks, covering choices like aperture, shutter speed, and lighting. As he reviews images, he notes the strengths exhibited while also identifying opportunities for refinement, and points out changes that could vary the meaning conveyed in the final image.

Check back each week to watch as more critiques are added, covering new work from many different genres. This series is designed to help you discover how to improve your work as a photographer. By heightening your awareness through analysis, you can harness the information to enhance your photographic eye.

Need to understand the training requirements of your learners? A needs analysis is the first step of any ADDIE-aligned instructional design process. Join Jeff Toister in this installment of Instructional Design Essentials and learn the three-step process to conducting a needs analysis that will accurately capture and define the goals of your project. Jeff brings his 20+ years of instructional design experience to bear, and helps you set clear goals with project sponsors, gather data from participants quickly, and analyze the data to identify gaps in your current system and goals for your future one.

Topics include:
Setting project objectivesIdentifying the target audience for trainingSelecting data sourcesFacilitating focus groups and interviewsDesigning effective surveysIdentifying participant needsDefining learning outcomesPresenting results to project sponsors

Learn to use Toon Boom Animate and Toon Boom Harmony to create traditional animated scenes, complex digital character rigs, and even some cool special effects. Author and animator Dermot O' Connor walks through the Toon Boom Animate interface, introduces the program's drawing tools and color controls, and teaches techniques for drawing keys, breakdowns, and in-betweens in a traditional animation style, as well as creating keyframe-based digital animations. Then he shows how to set up, rig, and animate a character, and add finishing touches to your animations, such as moving cameras, sound, and effects.

Note: Dermot uses Toon Boom Animate to demonstrate these techniques, but Toon Boom Harmony and Toon Boom Animate Pro users will also benefit from the training.

Topics include:
Creating scenesDrawing and transforming objectsApplying color and inkDrawing keys and breakdownsEasing in and outNudging in 3D spaceRigging a characterAnimating with forward and inverse kinematicsMorph-tweening charactersAnimating camerasPerforming automatic lip syncsExporting movies and images

Learn how to create looping animations using analog elements that can be filmed with a camera and then refined in programs like After Effects. The "Phonotrope" technique shown in this course uses the rotations of a record player to create the illusion of motion.The Phonotrope was created by Jim Le Fevre in 2006. Owen Lowery provides instructions on creating paper animation loops by hand, then going back and forth from the computer to plan and execute a more advanced animation using After Effects and Photoshop.



You'll get hands on and color, cut, paste, and draw and, along the way, learn about the logistics of player speeds, frames, video capture, and lighting. In the final chapter, you'll get tips and inspiration for taking your Phonotrope to the next level with transparency and mixed media.

Topics include:
Introducing the PhonotropeUnderstanding frame and speed settingsExperimenting with drawing and play doughUsing Illustrator and Photoshop to plan a Phonotrope guidePreparing After Effects for a Phonotrope animationShooting, lighting, and editing animation footage

There isn't a time Brenda Romero doesn't remember working on games. She began tinkering on her own at age 5, and was employed full time at 15. Now she's an award-winning game designer, artist, writer, and creative director, and the longest continuously serving woman in the video game industry. In this Insights interview, we ask Brenda to look back on her career and answer the questions aspiring game designers really want to know. Do you need to code to build games? What is the impact of independent developers on traditional gaming? How does mobile affect game design?

Combining inspiration and hard-won advice, this course shows there is more than one way to approach game design and break into the industry.

This course will help Google Apps users transition effectively and efficiently to Microsoft Office. Author Nick Brazzi shows how to convert and migrate docs, email, spreadsheets, and other files from Google to Office, and explores the features in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint so that those familiar with Google's apps can be immediately productive on the new platform. He also covers Outlook, the Microsoft solution for managing email, calendar, and contacts, and online storage options that work well with Office, such as Dropbox.

Topics include:
Converting Google files to Office documentsGetting familiar with the Office interfaceWorking with Word: Track Changes, styles, and moreUsing formulas and functions in ExcelMaking charts and graphs in ExcelCreating presentations with PowerPointSetting up email in OutlookStoring files in the cloud

Developing software requires a collection of packages (aka libraries). Managing these packages can be a task all its own and usually requires a package manager. This course takes a look at some of the most popular tools for Windows package management: NuGet, Chocolatey, Boxstarter, and OneGet. Walt Ritscher shows how to integrate NuGet with Visual Studio 2015, the official Windows IDE, and work with NuGet packages. He also shows how to install and update Windows apps with Chocolatey, automate installs and reboots with Boxstarter, and manage all these third-party tools with OneGet (aka Windows 10 PackageManagement). Want to create custom packages not offered in any of these libraries? In the closing chapter, Walt explains how to create, publish, and install your own packages with the NuGet Packager extension.

Topics include:
What is a package manager?Installing NuGet in Visual StudioInstalling and managing packagesUpdating packagesWorking with PowerShell and NuGetFinding packages with NuGet Gallery and ASP.NET MVCUsing Package RestoreUsing the Chocolatey machine packet managerUsing Boxstarter for creating installation packagesUsing OneGet/PackageManagementCreating, publishing, and installing a custom NuGet package

Join Justin Seeley in a series of five-minute, self-contained tips you can use to instantly improve your design workflow. This series covers techniques for print, digital, and web design, addressing the tools that creative professionals like you use most. Learn new ways to leverage layer styles and vector shapes in Adobe Photoshop, work more efficiently with text in Illustrator, and embed videos and tweets in WordPress posts, and much more. Check back each week for a new installment, and a new design hack.

This course demonstrates how to build a web site that automatically adapts its layout to various screen sizes, orientations, and resolutions. Ray Villalobos shows how designers and developers can create a single HTML document and customize its display for desktop browsers and mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android phones, and tablets. The course covers creating a basic HTML5 structure and using reset templates, and styling the site with CSS.

Topics include:
Setting up testing servers and emulatorsCreating and formatting a site templateUsing free Google fontsPreparing graphicsCreating style sheetsLoading external pages with AJAXCreating mobile tabsDetecting mobile devicesUsing JavaScript to deal with scrolling and orientation changesTesting and debugging site code

Develop the skills you need to prepare and deliver an outstanding speech or presentation with our public speaking training. Author Laura Bergells offers practical insights that can help presenters prepare, open, deliver, and close their speeches. Along the way, discover how to project confidence, storyboard a speech, take questions, respond with thoughtful answers, and develop the creative story that adds life to a speech.

Lynda.com is a PMI Registered Education Provider. This course qualifies for professional development units (PDUs). To view the activity and PDU details for this course, click here.

The PMI Registered Education Provider logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Topics include:
Identifying your audienceDeveloping credibilityIntroducing an agendaExploring five strong opening techniquesDeveloping great body languageUnderstanding room dynamicsHandling questions and answersGetting feedback<br><br>The PMI Registered Education Provider logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.