- #How to cut something out in photoshop with pen tool how to#
- #How to cut something out in photoshop with pen tool trial#
If I deleted the background at this point I’d also lose the thumb. After tracing the entire outline of the main subject(hands + smartphone) I’m left with the thumb sitting outside of the path. In my example photo there is one small piece that isn’t directly connected to anything else – the thumb. You’ll need to do this plenty of times during the path creation process but it takes a little practice to get the motion just right.
Keep in mind that moving an anchor point will also adjust the previous path that it’s connected with. But I find it easier to keep the pen tool selected and just hold CTRL as needed. You can also grab this tool by pressing the “A” key as a keyboard shortcut. This will temporarily switch over to the Direct Selection Tool which allows you to manipulate and move certain elements of a path. After placing a new anchor point with the pen tool selected just hold the CTRL key. Chances are you’ll need to adjust various points a few different times. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll place each anchor point in the exact right spot every time. Now you can move each handle individually without affecting anything else. When hovering onto one of the bezier handles the pen cursor will turn into an arrow(the “Convert Point tool”). After dragging them out just let go and then hold the ALT key. One important point to make is that you can adjust each handle individually. It takes a bit of practice to learn how these mix together. The bottom handle adjusts the previous curve while the top handle adjusts the next curve. These are called bezier handles which adjust two separate pieces of a path. When you click to place a new anchor point onto the screen try to click & drag to get those two strange handles. The key is to make as few anchor points as needed – recognize each line segment as either a straight line or a curve. First I’ll trace the outside of the hands, then loop around and cover the inside area near the bottom of the palm. Then we can load the path as a selection, delete the background, and keep all the good stuff.įor my example we have two different segments that need to be removed. The final goal would be to trace the entirety of an object from one point all the way around. Whenever you click somewhere using the pen tool it will create a new anchor point which allows you to control the shape, size, and curve of a path.
The goal here is to create line segments called paths that connect between points called anchor points. Open your image in Photoshop and make sure the pen tool is selected. If you want to find a different resource take a peek at what GraphicStock has to offer.
#How to cut something out in photoshop with pen tool how to#
But ultimately you want to learn how to render photos because they will be the most challenging and the most rewarding. These graphics are often created by the pen tool, or at least have very similar shapes that can be outlined using the pen tool. When just getting started you might try practicing the pen tool on vector artwork.
#How to cut something out in photoshop with pen tool trial#
Feel free to try them out for yourself – they have a 7 day free trial and you can get access to over 250,000 graphics, images, icons, textures. And since everything is royalty-free the resources can be downloaded and used in any type of project without a gratuity payment. Their library is vast including a range of both raster and vector graphics which are perfect for customizing. No matter what tool is already selected just tap the “P” key to select the pen tool again.įor this tutorial demo I’ll be using a smartphone hand photo by GraphicStock. For now just recognize the pen tool icon which uses the keyboard shortcut “P”. We can access all of these tools using keyboard shortcuts to create a more efficient workflow. If you click & hold the pen tool new options will appear in a flyout menu. The icon looks like an old dip pen or fountain pen. The pen tool is located in the tools palette window. Getting StartedĪs long as you’re running a somewhat recent version of Photoshop from PS7-CC you should be able to follow along just fine. It may be a challenge at first but once you get the hang of using the pen tool it should feel naturally intuitive. There are many different techniques to accomplish this, but the pen tool is notably the most proficient and the most beneficial in long-term photo editing. In this tutorial I want to demonstrate the process of rendering an object from the background using Photoshop. Removing the background from an image leaves only the foreground which could be people, objects, scenery, or some combination of the three. This is useful for almost everything from digital graphics to web design and magazine covers. Rendering is the process of separating a particular object from the background so you have a completely clear image.