Letter from Lynda  | | Hello everyone! This month, learn how to boost the business side of your web site, discover the power of black and white photography, and find out what monsters and late-night grocery shopping have in common (hint: watch our newest Creative Inspirations documentary). Read about some of our latest releases, news, and other projects: | Monstrous ambition, gigantic talent: Stefan G. Bucher, Designer, Illustrator, and Writer  Meet a truly monster graphic designer in our latest Creative Inspirations documentary, Stefan G. Bucher, Designer, Illustrator, and Writer. Stefan’s projects range from his Daily Monsters, to the Daily Letter on the PBS television show The Electric Company, to CD designs for Sting and Whitney Houston, products for the Echo Park Time Travel Mart (featuring canned mammoth chunks), to writing and illustrating his latest book, You Deserve A Medal: Honors on the Path to Love . Stefan is a prolific artist who is seemingly obsessed with finding impressive new ways to put ink on paper. Follow his journey from his first illustrations for The Donaldist (a magazine dedicated to the exploration of Donald Duck comics), through Art Center College of Design, world-class Portland agency Wieden+Kennedy, Madonna’s Maverick Records, and finally his own company, 344 Design. | Stay up to date with access to the Online Training Library®! We are constantly adding new software training courses and inspirational documentaries to help reach your creative and career goals. 
Douglas Kirkland and Gerd Ludwig discuss photojournalism, Chernobyl, and the business of photography  We continue our series with photography master Douglas Kirkland with Douglas Kirkland on Photography: A Conversation with Gerd Ludwig. A photojournalist best known for his work in National Geographic magazine, Gerd Ludwig has taken a special interest in Russia and the former Soviet Union—in particular, the people and stories surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Among many topics, Douglas and Gerd discuss the changing business landscape of photography and Gerd’s approach to photojournalism. Gerd also describes how and why he works in Chernobyl and details how he financed his latest trip. | The business side of web site publishing, from paid search advertising to SEO analysis We’ve launched two courses that delve into the business and profitability aspects of running a web site.  First, Google AdWords Essential Training teaches how to leverage the power of paid search advertising using Google AdWords. This course introduces search advertising, an overview of the AdWords platform and interface, and lessons on keyword research, conversion tracking, and campaign optimization. Plus, it explains the potential to reach customers with relevant messaging, and how to measure the ROI from their activities.
 Analyzing Your Web Site to Improve SEO analyzes each component of a web site—from keywords to content to code—and determines how to make improvements for search engine visibility. Using the accompanying checklist, you can apply the steps in this course to your own web site.
| Taking your iPad places We’re really excited about launching a series of iPad courses, starting with the basics in iPad Tips and Tricks with Christopher Breen, to iMovie for iPad Essential Training with Garrick Chow, both added to the library recently.  iPad Tips and Tricks is just that: expert tips for getting the most out of both the first generation iPad and iPad 2. Get productive on the iPad with effective tips for gesturing, typing, and adding content, as well as troubleshooting common device issues. Download and manage apps, configure email accounts, create presentations, set up videoconferences, plus learn how to use built-in and third-party solutions for opening and editing files, and streaming video and audio wirelessly.
 iMovie for iPad Essential Training covers acquisition of video-either through the iPad 2’s onboard camera or from external sources-and then creating projects, editing, and output.
| Of sound mind: Pro Tools 9 for film and audio production  In Audio for Film and Video with Pro Tools 9 , professional audio engineer Scott Hirsch shows how to create an evocative sound mix for a film or video, built from basic audio collected during the shoot and transformed into a final mix using Pro Tools 9. This course shows how to set up and optimize a Pro Tools session template for projects with unique requirements, record Foley and ADR audio, layer sound effects, perform corrections such as noise reduction and pitch shifting, mix for stereo and 5.1 surround sound, and finally, how to format and deliver the finalized mix, whether destined for DVD, movie theater, broadcast, or the web. | Get ready for back-to-school with Blackboard training Blackboard training has been one of the most popular requests from our academic members, and we’re responding with a definitive guide to Blackboard 9 from certified trainer and administrator, Patrick Crispen.  The goal of Blackboard 9 Essential Training for Instructors is to get educators and trainers up to speed in the system quickly, even if they’ve never used Blackboard before. The course provides in-depth tutorials on understanding and customizing a course site, managing students and assignments, and adding and organizing content. There’s extensive instruction in student assessment, and several ideas for encouraging student participation and collaboration.
Blackboard 9 Essential Training for Students, due out later this summer, will give students guidance in configuring a browser to work with Blackboard, accessing courses, participating in a virtual class, submitting assignments, checking grades, and more. | More WordPress course offerings   Since publishing WordPress 3 Essential Training with Morten Rand-Hendriksen last November, we’ve expanded our WordPress 3 offerings to include a number of specialized courses. This last month, we added WordPress 3: Building Child Themes (also by Morten), and WordPress 3: Developing Secure Sites with Jeff Starr. WordPress 3: Building Child Themes shows how to create a new theme based on a prebuilt parent theme in WordPress, and change the functionality, presentation, or styling of a site. In WordPress 3: Developing Secure Sites, Jeff illustrates various techniques for securing self-hosted WordPress sites, including site configuration, code modification, and the use of free plug-ins. | ’Photoshop for Designers’ series new installment  We’ve just released our second installment of a new series created specifically for designers who want to work with confidence in Photoshop, created by veteran lynda.com author Nigel French. The premise of the series: Nigel shows how a particular Photoshop feature works, and then demonstrates how that tool works in a real-world design project.
In Photoshop for Designers: Type Essentials, Nigel French explains the fundamentals of working with type in Photoshop, distinguishing when it is appropriate to set type in Photoshop rather than InDesign or Illustrator and what makes Photoshop unique for certain type treatments. This course demonstrates essential techniques, such as entering and editing text; interacting with type layers; and adjusting the color, transparency, character and paragraph formatting of type. Exercise files are included with the course. | Exploring the beauty and power of black and white photography  Some of the most famous, powerful photographs in the world are black and white. Why? Because sometimes, color is too much information, and a scene simply looks better in black and white.
Join veteran instructor Ben Long in Foundations of Photography: Black and White as he describes why black and white images can be so powerful, and shows how to develop your black and white vocabulary. Ben goes on location to shoot several scenes, and shares several techniques for converting the resulting photos into black and white using Photoshop and other imaging tools. | Put Deke’s Techniques to work We are closing in on 30 episodes of our blog-based series, Deke’s Techniques, with nearly 50 episodes in all in the library. Introduced in January, this offering of bite-sized training is a cross between a weekly blog post, podcast, and project-based tutorial, presented in Deke McClelland’s signature step-by-step style. We feature a new free video every week, and lynda.com members have access to the entire, ever-growing collection of Deke’s Techniques directly from the Online Training Library®, including exclusive member-only videos. Mobile site is almost here. Really. | We get so many requests for a mobile web site, and really, we are almost there. It’s actually in alpha testing now! The purpose of this site is to enable members to watch our videos on most smart phones, including Android (OS 2.0+), Blackberry (OS 5.0+), and iPhone and iPod Touch (iOS 3.2+). One of our challenges is that we are very nit-picky, and want the site to be as flawless as possible before we release it to the public. If you’re interested in being one of the beta testers for the mobile site, write to betamobile@lynda.com and we’ll be in touch. | |  | Next ‘Live with Lynda’ webinar at NMC.org features Will Richardson Join me for my next ‘Live with Lynda’ webinar on Friday, July 29, noon Pacific Time. This month I’ll be talking with Will Richardson, author of the books Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education and Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. For more information, visit http://www.nmc.org/connect/2011/July/29. 
Hiring, hiring, hiring: lynda.jobs Yes, we’re still hiring! The quickest and easiest way to stay up to date on lynda.com career postings is to bookmark lynda.jobs. We use Jobvite to power our application process, so you are able to track your application process, and even link your application to your LinkedIn profile. If we don’t have a job that piques your interest, feel free to fill out a general application and let us know how you can make a difference at lynda.com. That’s just some of what’s happening at lynda.com this month. Until August, happy learning! |
 Keep an eye on the site for these and many other helpful new courses coming to the Online Training Library® and the lynda.com store soon: - Up and Running with Illustrator
- Building Android and iOS Applications with Flex
- Typography for Web Designers
- Douglas Kirkland on Photography: Shooting with a Medium-Format Camera
- Shooting and Processing High-Dynamic Range Photographs (HDR)
- Best Practices for Flash-based Banner Ads
- Illustrator Insider Training: Coloring Artwork
- RoboHelp 9 HTML Essential Training
- Mobile Web Design & Development Fundamentals
- Up and Running with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
- Final Cut Pro X Essential Training
- JavaScript Essential Training (2011)
- GarageBand ’11 Essential Training
- InDesign CS5.5 to EPUB, Kindle, and iPad
- jQuery Projects: Creating an Interactive Video Gallery
- After Effects Apprentice: Keying
- Layouts with CSS in Dreamweaver
- Gmail for Power Users
- Typography with CSS in Dreamweaver
- Building and Monetizing an Android Publishing App
| Testimonial of the month Still learning
I have now watched nearly 1,500 lynda.com videos and every time I open a new one, I learn something new—even if that video is on a subject I have already watched by another author. From the Photoshop CS5 training to the inspirational interviews, this is by far one of the best learning tools I have encountered. The knowledge these people are willing to share is wonderful.
—Mark H. Read more great feedback. @dhewlett Jane slightly accusatory in questioning credit card charges to a lynda.com - only to be amazed yet again by my shameless blatant nerdliness. @mariedavis @dhewlett Jane will just have to live with sharing you with lynda.com who is a nerd’s most awesome somethin-somethin on the side. | Tip of the month |  Nearly all cameras now come equipped with a black and white (or monochrome) setting. Ignore it. | | Preparing the camera from Foundations of Photography: Black and White Almost all cameras sold these days—from the smallest point-and-shoot to the most expensive DSLRs—come with a black and white (or monochrome) mode. The question is, should you actually use this preset black and white mode? Most of the time, the answer is no. There are a few reasons to avoid the black and white mode. First, there is no objective rule for what shade of gray corresponds to a particular color. The same color image can be converted to black and white in many different ways. What your camera shows you when shooting in black and white mode is just one possible interpretation of that color, and it may not be the one you had in mind. Secondly, using the black and white mode takes away some of your own artistic expression. Don’t let the camera’s conversion limit your thinking about what can be done with a particular scene. If you’re shooting in the black and white mode, you might look at the resulting picture, find it underwhelming, and give up on the shot. However, it’s possible, with a better black and white conversion, that the shot could actually be a very good black and white picture. Don’t let the camera make the choices for you. If you’re shooting in RAW mode, the black and white mode won’t matter, as the black and white mode is a post-processing function and will not affect your RAW image, even if the camera is showing you a black and white preview. The black and white mode will only affect your shots if you are shooting in JPEG. But even if you’re shooting JPEG, the black and white setting is not recommended, for the reason of editability. There’s a finite amount of editing you can do to an image before ugly artifacts appear, and black and white conversion in the camera uses up some that editability. If you want to do some additional edits after the camera’s conversion, you’ll have far less latitude in your image with which to work. Most importantly, learning to visualize in black and white is important, and not that difficult, so you simply don't need the crutch of a black and white preview. View sample movies from Foundations of Photography: Black and White | |
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