InDesign, Illustrator, Lightroom and Photoshop: Tips, Tricks and Techniques

Two hours of rapid fire tips, tricks and techniques to make your InDesign, Illustrator, Lightroom and Photoshop lives easier presented by two European superstars: Bart Van de Wiele from Belgium and Nigel French from England. Bart and Nigel, both in town to present at Adobe MAX, are taking time out from very busy schedules to be with us tonight. This is a special evening you won't want to miss.

Location and Parking

Secure underground parking is $5 flat rate. Enter from 9th St., which is a one-way street going east.

Meeting Notes

By Alvin Takamori

Although the Los Angeles InDesign User Group usually meets every other month, in October we held an extra special meeting downtown at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising with not just one, but two guest presenters for the evening. And they didn't just come from out-of-town. They came from out of the country. Bart Van de Wiele, Senior Digital Media Consultant, Adobe Systems visited from Belgium and Nigel French, graphic designer and photographer traveled all the way from England just to speak at our meeting, and where they were here, also attend some Adobe MAX thing.

Anyway, they were here at FIDM, in an upstairs classroom engaging in a lively back and forth exchange. Bart and Nigel took turns sharing various tips and tricks that they use in InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Lightroom. I'm not going to try to cover everything that they presented that evening, but here are a few of their tips.

Nigel suggested that it's a good idea to avoid a couple of Photoshop filters. To create a solarization effect, don't use the destructive filter. Preserve the original image. Add a Black and White adjustment layer, and create a Curves adjustment layer on top of that. Using the latter, form a parabolic curve to create the solarized look. Another filter to never use is the Mezzotint filter. To pixelate an image, go to Texturizer and use the Grain filter instead. It's more adjustable. Convert the layer into a smart object and you can always go back to edit it.

Want a better Graphic Pen effect? Take your image and create two separate layers. On each layer use the Stippled Portrait filter. On one layer, apply it to the highlights of the image and on the other layer apply it to the shadows.

Bart advocates preserving the original image and making changes as flexible and editable as possible. To that end, he suggested taking Photoshop images and adding a Black and White adjustment layer. To restore the color, use Luminosity as the blending mode. Now you can make changes to each color using sliders in the Properties panel and the original image is unaffected.

Shifting to InDesign, Nigel provided some advice on controlling text flow. In a typical layout, on a single page, the text might vary between running the width of the page, and being divided into 2 or 4 columns. Under Text Frame Options, select 2 column frame. That will set up a 2 column layout. Next, create a Paragraph Style. Under Paragraph Layout select Span All. This style can be applied whenever the text needs to span across the entire page. Usually this is header text so you can choose Style Based on Header. Generate another Paragraph Style. This time select Split Column. Apply this style wherever you need a 4 column layout.

Bart provided some quick Illustrator tips. If you have a complex object with many points and it's layered over multiple objects, it can be difficult to select specific points if you need to alter the shape. Especially if you try to select points individually. A more efficient way is to double click on the object, which shifts it into isolation mode. Now you can use the Lasso Tool to select whichever points you need. Select Save Isolation and now the selection of points is saved, and can be edited any time.

Need to divide multiple shapes, don't use the Pathfinder Tool. You can lose shapes. Instead, draw a line where you want to cut the shapes and under the Objects menu, go to Path and select Divide Objects Below.

Bart concluded with a memory draining trick, where you stack frames from a video and convert it into a smart object. Then when you select Medium for the Stack Mode any moving objects are removed from the image.

Nigel ended by teaching us a GREP Style to find and create fractions.

There were a lot of other tips and tricks that Nigel and Bart raced through over a couple of hours. They talked about colors. palettes, kerning and a whole lot more, They also did a brief question and answer session. If you want to know the details of any of this, you should've been at the meeting.

Farthest Attendee

The bona fide LAIDUG member who travels the farthest specifically to attend the meeting will receive her or his choice of any one deal at MightyDeals up to $50.00. Mighty Deals offers fonts, templates, apps, e-books, etc. You need to prove to us that you traveled farthest to attend this meeting. Having recently moved to the area from somewhere else won't cut it. Be prepared to show us indication of your current residence—perhaps a driver's license or a utility bill. Decision of the administrators of the Los Angeles InDesign User Group is final. Winner — Jehova Cuevas

Raffles

LAIDUG is supported by raffles of donated prizes. No one is required to participate in the raffles. Raffle tickets are: 1 for $3, 2 for $5, 5 for $10, 11 for $20, 24 for $40, 32 for $50 and 65 for $100. All major credit cards are accepted.

Raffle Prizes and Winners

Adobe Creative Cloud. 12 month subscription. Value $599.88 Winner — Alan Gilbertson

GoProof from Oppolis Software. 3 month subscription for 2 users. Value $300.00 Winner — Rick Torres
Proofing add-on for Adobe Creative Cloud. Version history tracks what has been changed and by whom.

Markzware. Any single product. 12 month subscription. Value $199.00 Winner — Kendell In (FC)
Choose one from the list below:
Q2ID (Quark to InDesign), Convert and open QuarkXPress files in InDesign.
PDF2DTP (PDF to InDesign), Convert PDF files to InDesign.
ID2Q (InDesign to Quark), Convert and open InDesign documents in QuarkXPress.
MT (Markzware), Convert InDesign documents to IDML files readable by InDesign CS4 through CC 2017.
FC (FlightCheck), Check native and PDF files for printing quality.

Expo Creative Asset Manager for Mac from Insider Software. Value $149.00 Winner — Angela De Leon
Digital asset manager that allows you to view, tag, search and manage images, icons, fonts, audio, video, app documents.

Suitcase Fusion 8 from Extensis. 12 month subscription. Value $119.95 Winner — Rick Torres
Font management program that allows you to organize your fonts from one plane—including system fonts, purchased fonts, fonts synced from Adobe Typekit, Google fonts, etc.

Font Agent Pro 8 from Insider Software. Value $99.95 Winner — Cheryl Stevens
Windows font management that allows you to organize, distribute and control your fonts.

InMotion Hosting. Web hosting and free domain. Value $90.00 Winner — Dave Snow
Web hosting company.

DTP Tools Cloud for InDesign. 6 month subscription. Value $77.40 Winner — Rick Torres
Suite of 14 different InDesign productivity tools.

Multi-Find/Change 3.0 from Automatication. Value $49.95 Winner — Rick Torres
Extension for InDesign and InCopy that allows you to manage and execute Find/Change queries in batches rather than one at a time.

Adobe Stock. 15 image licenses. Value $44.00 Winner — Angela De Leon
Royalty-free, high-quality photos, videos, and illustrations.

LA Web Professionals Group meeting tickets. Value $7.99 (four raffles) Winners — Rocie Carrillo, Jehova Cuevas, Priscilla Ochoa, Cheryl Stevens
Adobe user group that meets monthly with an emphasis on web design, marketing and the latest internet trends.

Adobe Goodie Bag. Winner — Jeff Marcus

About the Presenters

Nigel French

Nigel French is a graphic designer, photographer, and design teacher, based in Lewes, UK. He is the author of InDesign Type, and coauthor of The Type Project Book, and The Photoshop Visual Quickstart Guide. Nigel has recorded more than fifty titles for the LinkedIn Learning online training library, contributes regularly to CreativePro Magazine, and speaks at CreativePro Week and Adobe MAX. His website is nigelfrench.com.

Bart Van de Wiele

Bart Van de Wiele started his career as a graphic designer in 2001, specializing in print production and image retouching. As Solutions Consultant Manager at Adobe, Bart is responsible for a team of solution specialists that help support Adobe's business in Europe. He is also a trainer, worldwide public speaker, LinkedIn Learning author and about to publish his first book on Adobe design workflows. Bart is based in Gent, Belgium.