i do marketing/customer support for a distributor of science education products. one of my main jobs is rewriting technical user manuals and sample experiments to make them easier for high schoolers (and their teachers) to understand. i needed to up my graphic skills for accompanying photos and making mock-ups of promotional materials. (i actually really enjoy my job and like talking about it.)

re: cropping and colorization, it depends on the image, and the amount of detail. if there are multiple people in the still, then i will color before cropping so i can use the same image to make multiple icons. that is only basic coloring, which i tweak once i've cropped.

thank you! yeah, i really liked how that one came out. (have you seen generation kill? it is really quite wonderful and superbly well done on all fronts: great writing, acting and direction. i highly recommend it.)

i think i'm getting to where i want to re: screencapping. i have only started trying it today, so it'll take me a few tries.