David Stiller’s blog

This is a Photoshop tip.  Sometimes the horizon in an otherwise perfect image is a bit off kilter — by two or three degrees, maybe — just noticeable enough to be annoying.  When I encountered something like this in the past, I used to do the following:  drag a guide down to where the middle point of the horizon should be; enter Free Transform mode; zoom in, in order to see what I’m doing; then rotate by hand.  Often, I would have to drag the center point in order to facilitate this rotation.  It was always a bit hit or miss.  Well, I recently discovered a much quicker approach.  Keep reading »

It doesn’t matter what application you’re in; sooner or later, you’ll run into a Save As situation where your file needs to be put into a deeply nested folder.  This may be different for Mac compadres, but in Windows, it usually starts like this:  click My Documents, click Multimedia, click Clients, click ABC Company, click 2006, click … you get the idea — until you find the folder you’re after.  Then it’s off to the next file.  Select Save As, and whoa!  “Didn’t I just … why doesn’t this remember where I saved my last file?”  So you start the drill down again.  It’s pretty tedious.

The best part is, as I write this blog entry, I can’t seem to reproduce the issue.  It’s like visiting the doctor to make your cold go away — but I know this has happened to me hundreds of times.  Here’s a quick workaround.  Keep reading »

I’m reviewing a dozen-page document at work for a trade journal.  I started on Friday and realized I’d have to finish this morning (Monday).  Did I note what page I was on?  Nope.  But was I able to find my place again?  Yup.  Keep reading »