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Photoshop Crop Tool Tutorial

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on October 29, 2009

Since the first daguerreotype, photographers have cropped their images to hone in on the details that matter most. The crop tool does that, as well as straighten and more.

Edit Colors Independently in Photoshop

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on October 13, 2009

Shift one range of colors without affecting other colors. You may not even need a selection or mask!

Convert Colors to Black and White in Photoshop

News: Written by Deke McClelland on October 2, 2009

Learn how to convert a full-color photograph into the best possible black-and-white images, one range of colors at a time.

Get to Know Photoshop's Pen Tool

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on September 18, 2009

Experts use Photoshop's Pen Tool to get the best selections for difficult masking job. Easy? No. Best? Usually!

New dekePod: Vector Type in Photoshop

News: Written by Deke McClelland on July 29, 2009

Vector type in Photoshop is forever editable and super-smooth. See how it works in one short video.

Photoshop Tutorial: The Instant Liquid Diet

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on February 9, 2009

If you've used the Liquify tool, you know it's easy to play with but not's so easy to get realistic results. Photoshop expert Deke McClelland walks you step-by-step through a how-to on shaving away the pounds in Photoshop. The results are breathtaking.

It's Like a Little Ansel Adams Inside Photoshop

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on August 3, 2007

There are several ways to convert a color image to black and white in Photoshop. But CS3 has a lock on the best ways. Learn how to do it yourself.

Photoshop Tips: The Ins and Outs of Color

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on July 26, 2006

Most photographs look better after a little color balancing. Just go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance, right? Nope. Photoshop's most obvious solutions are rarely its best. Use other methods for standout results.

InDesign Tips: Do You Have Style?

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on May 3, 2006

If you could change one work habit and avert not just days, but even weeks, of boring manual labor, would you make the change? Learn how InDesign uses style sheets to automatically format paragraphs, characters, and objects.

Illustrator How-To: Number Crunching

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on August 26, 2005

When it comes to numbers, proper fractions, ordinals, and old-style figures separate the pros from the amateurs. Let Deke McClelland show you the easy way to set professional-looking numbers.

Illustrator How-To: Masks, Meatballs, and Robots

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on April 1, 2005

This how-to is not an April Fools joke, even though it does contain such an unlikely trio. Deke McClelland combines practical advice and his oddball sense of humor to make masking items in Illustrator CS mere child's play.

InDesign How-To: Editing Drop Shadows

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on November 19, 2004

InDesign apart from QuarkXPress. You can apply drop shadows to text or graphics with equal ease and then edit them to suit your taste. In this video tutorial, Deke McClelland shows how to work with drop shadows in InDesign.

Illustrator How-To: Using Stroke Offsets for Depth Effects

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on September 17, 2004

Adding strokes to type lends definition to text, but adding offset strokes adds dimension to text. In this video tutorial, Deke McClelland shows how to use the Transform Effect feature in Illustrator CS to add depth to text.

Photoshop How-To: Using the Lens Blur Filter

How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on September 10, 2004

New to Photoshop CS is the Lens Blur filter, an interactive menu that lets you add interesting visual effects to images. In this video tutorial, Deke McClelland gives a hands-on demonstration of how it works.

Michael Elins' Photo Painting Technique

Features: Written by Deke McClelland on May 2, 2002

To give me a sense of his underpainting technique, Elins walked me through a sample image. It involved the transformation of a photograph that Elins shot...

Photo Illustration: Michael Elins on Painting Images

Features: Written by Deke McClelland on May 2, 2002

It takes a village to raise a project. Artists, photographers, retouchers, designers, programmers, editors, musicians, engineers, animators, assistants, managers, directors, publishers, producers, and, yes, even clients have to be able to look at a job, communicate their ideas, and add their spices to the stew.