In this video tutorial, watch as Dean Samed shows you his top five tips on how to use the pen tool in Photoshop. It is the sharpest and most precise way to cut out anything.
As the video starts Samed explains why he likes the pen tool so much. And the main reason is that the other cut-out tools in Photoshop do not work as well with precise and sharp cut-outs. The pen tool is a manual job but nothing comes close to its results. Samed then moves into a quick example of how he used the pen tool, with some really elaborate pen tool selections on things like roller coasters and computer wires. Being a user of the pen tool myself, I can see how much work has gone into these and it makes me shudder.
From there, Samed moves into his top five tips. His first one is to use shortcuts wherever possible. I think this not only applies to the pen tool but also to Photoshop in general. Shortcuts can speed any workflow up. If you want to learn all the shortcuts there are lists online which you could print out. When you use shortcuts your time spent working is reduced, and in the commercial world time is money. Another tip Samed gives us is to create your pen tool path one or two pixels inside the object. Being a composite artist I learned this very early on. If you try to create the path directly on the line of the object you usually get a halo. One or two pixels inside and you usually get a perfect selection. If you want to hear all the tips Samed gives out, be sure to check out the video.
This video is great for anyone who struggles to use the pen tool or someone who has never used it before but wants to make better selections.
