Deke McClelland

Photoshop How-To: Fill a Face Full of Words

Using one photo and three layers of text, you can create a powerful image in Adobe Photoshop.

Turn a Red Car to Gold in Photoshop

It's fun and useful to change the color of one object in a photo. While you can do it easily enough in Photoshop, the Hue/Saturation technique most people try usually doesn't work well. Instead, use my foolproof method.

Striking Starbursts Make Your Work Stand Out

Why settle for Illustrator's default starburst shapes when a few tweaks create something unique that will really grab attention? Here are two ways to go beyond the ordinary.

Photoshop How-to: Give a Horse Wings

Pegasus (a horse with wings) may be a mythical animal, but you can bring it to life in Photoshop.

Create Outer Space Inside Photoshop

Use Deke's techniques and it won't take long to turn an inky void into a starfield that would fit into any science fiction show.

Create a Reflection in a Broken Mirror for Seven Years of Photoshop Good Luck

Combine two images, add some of Photoshop's Smart Filters, and you'll end up with the most fortunate results: a reflection in shattered glass.

Photoshop How-To: Really Hot Type

Through the magic of Photoshop, make any text so smokin' you can almost see the heat rising off its molten letters. Bonus: You can go back and edit the type without burning your fingers.

Photoshop How-To: Turn Type Into Gold

Go for the gold inside Photoshop! Follow along with this video how-to and you'll end up with metallic type that looks much more realistic than the results of many other tutorials, yet is easy and fast to create.

Turn Text to Ice in Photoshop

Create your own typecicle with a combo of Photoshop's wind filter and some layer effects. Because it's done through smart objects, you can change the text at any point.

Make an Image Pop in Photoshop

Learn how to use Photoshop's Sharpen filters to enhance a photograph's detail.

Fix Mistakes In Photoshop

There's no Undo in life, but there is in Photoshop. There's also Revert and the ever-useful History panel. All three, especially the History panel, can go a long way toward fixing anything you regret doing in Photoshop. Here's how to use their full powers.

Save Bad Photos and Make Good Ones Great

Camera Raw is a free subprogram that runs inside Photoshop. It lets you "develop" photographs by exploiting every byte of the information captured by a digital SLR camera. Here's how to tap into Camera Raw's many features to make huge improvements in images.

Fix Skin Tones & Color Casts in Photoshop

Photoshop's Adjustment Layers is one of the oldest and best forms of nondestructive editing in Adobe Photoshop. Learn how to use it to fix a photo by adding saturation to skin tones and removing unwanted blue color casts.

How to Use Gaussian Blur in Photoshop

Gaussian Blur is a filter that blurs an image. But it's also the math behind the Feather command, drop shadows, and everything that is soft in Photoshop. And here's the crazy thing: You can sharpen an image using Gaussian Blur!

Throw Photoshop's Magic Wand Out the Window!

With Photoshop's Color Range command, you can select an image as easily as you can with the Magic Wand. However, Color Range gives you more flexibility and much better results.

Master Masking with Photoshop's Alpha Channels

Much can be said of masking: Masking is the art of using the image to select itself. Masking lets you apply the entire weight of Photoshop to the task of editing a selection. And masking, thy name is alpha channel.

Get the Best Web Images Out of Photoshop

Sure, you can turn almost any image into a GIF, JPG, or PNG with a simple Save As in Photoshop. But if you instead use Save for Web & Devices, you'll get smaller, better-looking images that are perfect for the Web.

Get the Wet Look with Photoshop's Layer Effects

When you combine Photoshop layer effects and take them beyond their defaults, you can end up with amazing results -- in this case, a photo that looks as if it's been covered in water droplets.

Make Smooth Selections in Photoshop

Don't like the jagged edges in your Photoshop selection? The Refine Edge feature can take care of that.

Control Light in Photoshop

In this tutorial on the Photoshop Curves command, you'll learn how to put highlights and shadows in all the right places.