The Ultimate Cutout Tool: The Photoshop Pen Tool

When a subject and its background share similar colors — a person dressed in black standing in the night, say — our usual cutout methods like Quick Selection, Magic Wand, and channels all fail.

That's when we call in the ultimate cutout weapon: the Pen Tool. It demands patience, but pen cutouts are remarkably flexible. Today, Headbang shows us how the Pen Tool works.

Many people find Photoshop's Pen Tool hard to master — it really isn't. Today, let's focus on just one thing: how the Pen Tool builds selections.

HD video link:

https://v.qq.com/x/page/d0533wa49fl.html

The Pen Tool web game mentioned in the video:

http://bezier.method.ac

Pen cutouts are very flexible — most of the time they just take a bit more patience. Let's recap today's lesson:

1

Anchor Points

With the Pen Tool selected, left-click to place anchor points; the line between two anchors is our working path. Hold Ctrl and drag with the mouse to adjust an anchor's position.

2

Drawing Curves

Hold the left mouse button and drag to draw a perfect curve between anchors; use Alt + mouse to adjust the control handles between anchors and shape the curve exactly as you want.

3

Irregular Subjects

For subjects with highly irregular edges, place points close together as you go — keeping the distance between anchors small reduces error.

Author: Headbang

▲ Li Dawei (Headbang)

IPA 2016 China Photographer of the Year

Visual China contracted photographer

Tuchong contracted photographer

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