Photoshop Tutorial for Beginners
Learn how to use Photoshop’s Pen Tool. Only in this tutorial will you learn the Pen Tool Formula exclusive to PEN TOOL PHOTOSHOP. This Pen Tool Tutorial is recommended for Beginners through to Advanced levels of Photoshop user.
Video Tutorial Outline
- The Pen Tool Formula: Place anchor at a. determined by the slight gap at b. (between the Path Rubber Band and the shape you’re Pathing). Drag out a Control Handle c. to fill in that gap, till d. is lined up, whilst maintaining an even distance at both e. spaces (the curve apex).
- For accuracy or detailed areas: Zoom in till you see pixels. For lines across long stretches zoom out.
- TIP: Position Anchors correctly first time, undo immediately if you have to, use arrow keys to adjust Anchor placement. Advanced Pathers rarely need to go back and fix
Click here or the image below to download the exercise file
Pen Tool Tutorial Captions
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Welcome to PEN TOOL Photoshop. In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to path around an object and
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anchor placement.
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So, all the previous tutorials are fairly basic stuff. You’d see that anywhere on the internet.
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Everyone explains those exact same training methods and the concepts there. But one thing most
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tutorials, or pretty much no tutorial on the internet will cover is how to actually place the anchors.
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Like, why you would place them in a certain place and the logic on how you think about placing
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anchors. This is something exclusive to high-end retouch people who do this a lot, and have to
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get it right the right time and path really fast. This is the underlying way you approach pathing
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around an object.
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So, this formula might look a bit complicated, which is fine. It’s just something you would want
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to go over and over a few times. But later on, in the later tutorials, I’ll explain how applying this
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formula around an actual picture and the logic behind it. But, this is essentially the formula
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behind pathing fast and how to go back and fix up your placements.
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How it works is you just put a point anywhere on a line. Generally, I put a point on a flat area
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when I’m pathing something. Now, you see the rubber band, I’ve got this blue line here.
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What I’m looking for is this b, this gap here between the blue line, the rubber band, and the line I’m
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trying to path around. The bigger the gap, the harder it is to fill in the gap. So, I put a point here,
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and I click and drag.
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The way I know how far to drag these control panels out is I want to fill in that gap. So, I’m
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looking down where d is, and I’m looking that that gap is filled in. Then, as soon as I’ve filled
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that gap it, I’m looking where the letter e is. That’s how I know I found the apex. These two e’s
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are even and that’s the apex of that arc. I also use the arrow keys to budge it into place.
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Same with this next option here. They’re not always going to fit, this diagram isn’t going to be
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exactly the same every time. It doesn’t mean you have to put this point here every single time. I
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could put it further down. It really depends where you’re starting out. When you’re starting out,
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these anchors will be closer together, so they’re easier to manage.
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The main concept to understand from this tutorial is placing a point, and filling in the gap.
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The rubber band is the gap and when you click and drag, you close that gap up. And then these
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control handles, the distance between the circle and the line you’re cutting out should be
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relatively the same.
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You can see there’s a gap. Click and drag. Fill in the gap.
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Nudge that into place. Click and drag.
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Click and drag.
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And see? It’s not exactly following the diagram, but it really depends on where you put the
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anchors. You get the idea. It’s the same. It’s a gap. On this, I have a gap. Click and drag. And fill it in.
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Click and drag. And fill in the gap.
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So, in this case, I’m just filling in the previous gap and holding down the option key and change
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direction. Click and drag. Fill in the gap. I’m not worried about this area here. Hold down the
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option key. Change direction. I want the direction to come out this way. I don’t drag this really
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long. I just keep it relatively short.
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It’s about putting a point, leaving a gap between the rubber band and the line you’re cutting out,
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placing your anchor, clicking and dragging, fill in the gap, and then check the distance between
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the circles and the line you’re cutting out- the circles on the end of control handles. And that
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formula becomes quicker and quicker in time.
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This is probably just a little bit complicated. You could go over this tutorial over and over and
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probably understand a bit better. Or, you’re welcome to skip on to the next tutorials and I’ll keep
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covering it. Because, this is the principle concept of all this training, is where to place anchors,
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and how to place them, and to do it in one go. You don’t have to go back and undo, and click on
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this line and try to adjust it and fix it up. It just takes forever. When you’ve got to path a lot of
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objects, you haven’t got time to go back and fix things up, and click and drag, or add points and
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then move them. You’ll be there all day. When you’re doing a lot of work, you’ve got a lot of
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images to path out, you don’t want to be going back, fixing it up. It’s just not how a professional
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retouch artist really works.
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That was how to path around an object and place anchors. And I’ll cover it more in detail in later
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tutorials. I’ll see you in the next tutorial.
