PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL: The Pen Tool made EASY

ASR: en

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hi folks Glynn here and in this short

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video I just want to take a few minutes

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to talk about the pen tool or as it's

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commonly called the dreaded pen tool

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because if you're anything like me when

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you first encountered the pen tool it

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just seemed really confusing it was

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intimidating I used to get frustrated

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with it to the point that for a long

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time I avoided using the pen tool but if

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you're around this kind of stuff long

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enough always kind of retouching store

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for photoshop you'll hear it all the

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time people telling you that the pen

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tool is the ultimate way to make crisp

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clean sharp selections now i'm not

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talking about making selections on

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things like hair you know flyaway hair

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because within Photoshop we have so many

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ways that we can use to make great

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selections of hair for example the

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refine edge and refine mask does a

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brilliant job most of the time when I'm

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come to talking about the pen tool we're

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talking about making selections of

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things that have got straight lines or

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curves in them you cannot get better

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than it so my goal by it by the end of

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this very short video is just to give

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you a couple of pointers that I'm really

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hoping will help clear up a few of the

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questions and frustrations that you have

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about using the pen tool now there's

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lots you can do with a pencil you can

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make shapes you can make paths and all

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kinds of stuff but all I want to do in

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this short video is talk about using the

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pen tool for making selections so when

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you first make when you first open up

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your pen tool from the toolbar make sure

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in the options at the top here you have

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it saying path you can either say shape

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path or pixels we're going to choose a

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path now when you started using it you

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realize that you could put dots down and

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the pen tool would just join them

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together and that's pretty damn good but

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that's no different using something like

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the polygonal lasso tool the pen tool

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comes into its own when we start making

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curves but that's where the confusion

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comes in because we know again we put a

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dot down another dot down and then we

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stock be able to pull these handles out

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when we're going around a particular

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object but it's pulling these handles

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around that starts to make things go

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kind of funky and weird and we kind of

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lose track of where we are so we end up

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deleting it and just carrying on using

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another method of the pencil once we've

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got frustrated with it so one thing I

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need to do before you start using the

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pen tool come over to the toolbar and in

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the toolbar choose the path selection

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tool a Scottish keyboard shortcut of a

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now when you go to that in the top

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you'll have some options available to

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you and it all depends what version of

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Photoshop you're using now I'm using

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photoshop CC people are using cs6 also

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might notice that the constrain path

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dragging which is the one that we want

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to look at here there's no tick in the

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box if you're using cs5 and beyond so

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before then you'll probably notice that

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it already is ticked well we need it to

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be ticked in the newer versions they've

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stopped putting the tick in there which

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changes things and makes and go a little

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bit funny so before you do anything put

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a little tick where it says constrain

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path dragging and that's going to make a

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massive difference now to how you use

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the pencil so for example recently i did

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this picture of an Aston Martin and I've

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done a couple of videos oh you might

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have seen on my youtube channel where

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I've done that this cartoonish can look

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but another one where I showed how I put

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in the sky and to do the sky which

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wasn't the original sky in the picture I

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had to make a selection of the car not

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an easy thing to select I couldn't use

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the quick selection tool and the reason

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being is it made a pretty good selection

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until it got to the roof line because

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the contrast between the sky and the

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roof was pretty similar so it did

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struggle to do it so the pen tool is the

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way that I went with it so look here's

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how we're going to do it we know we need

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to know when we're using the pen tool to

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keys on your keyboard that's all I want

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you to know and whether you're using

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Windows or Mac the first key you need to

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know is the command or ctrl key and the

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other key alt or option key those are

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the only two Kizer you need to know

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whoops turn off only to kezar you need

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to know to be able to master the pencil

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it's also worth knowing how you can kind

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of step backwards if you do something

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wrong so no the keyboard shortcut or

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even just come to the menu at the top

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go the long way around to be able to

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step backwards but here now is how I'm

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going to make a selection of this roof

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LA which is slightly curved but make it

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easy using the pen tool so what I do is

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I want to put a little dot just at the

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bottom this aerial and then I choose a

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part on the roof line here and

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experience will tell you how far along

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you can go but i'll choose maybe around

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about here so before I let go I need to

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tell Photoshop which way to go because

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when we're using the pen tool we're in

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control Photoshop wants to be clever but

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we're gonna tell it exactly where we

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wanted to go so before I let go on a

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tell Photoshop we need to move over

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carry on coming this way we need to come

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to the right so what I'm going to do is

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drag out just a small line to tell

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Photoshop this curve carries on going

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round to the right-hand side now once

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I've done that obviously if i look at

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the line i've laid down it's virtually

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straight and it doesn't follow the line

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of the roof but to make it full of the

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line the roof all i need to do is hold

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down my command on my control key and

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click on the line and then drag upwards

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and you'll notice that it starts to

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curve what you'll also notice is over on

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this side here this bar is extended now

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that's what you would have done if you

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were very familiar in using Photoshop

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you just just put that down and drag

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that out gone another dot dragged it out

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and you do automatically so this is like

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a way you can learn to see how those

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bars affect the curve by was clicking

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and dragging up in the middle of it so

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once you've done that quite a few times

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you'll move on and just start dragging

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out these bars here so that you can

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create your curves a lot lot quicker but

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let's just carry on making the selection

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the roofline so I've done that little

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curve there I'm going to choose maybe

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over here and then before I let go on

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tell Photoshop we're going to carry on

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going this way to the right-hand side

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again that bar there needs to be curved

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to follow the line of the roof so i'm

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going to hold down my command key click

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in the middle and drag it upwards and

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you can see that it starts to curve and

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those bars on the dots other side of it

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come out words so let's just carry on

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making a selection

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roof lines i'm going to click Photoshop

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needs to go that way drag in the middle

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click up and drag and I'll just carry on

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working my way around like this now I'll

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just keep going keep going down to the

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right hand side click in the middle pull

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up to make it curve I'm going to carry

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on coming all the way down until I reach

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the wing mirror so click drag it telling

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me coming down this way here that line

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needs to be made to curve just a little

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bit hold on my command or ctrl key click

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in the middle and drag it upwards to

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eventually it follows the line of the

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roof all the way down here not to curve

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now but I still keep telling Photoshop

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which where we go in click in the middle

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drag it up to curve it until eventually

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we're going to come to the bit at the

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bottom here now whether winger is there

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is no curve this line here needs to take

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a sudden turn to the left so that we can

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go upwards so now I need to tell

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Photoshop right hold on a second we've

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got to make a sharp turn here and this

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is where we use our alt or option key so

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rather us dragging off the direction of

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the curve we need to say right put your

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brakes on hold down your option key

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click on that dot and tell it we're not

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going to go down that way we're going to

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come around this way and you can see

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when you hold down your alter your

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option key you can create very very

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sharp turns so again I'm going to bring

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it around to tell Photoshop we're going

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to continue up this way up the wing

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mirror so I only need to drag just a

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little bit like that come a little bit

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further of wing mirror I'll say right

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click there and the curve continues

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around the wing mirror to the right and

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just up a little bit like so and again I

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can come in with my command or ctrl key

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click and move this curve out and that's

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all you need to do just take control of

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Photoshop by dragging out a little bit

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on these lines here to say which way

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your curves going to continue to go then

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use your command or ctrl key to click in

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the middle and drag it upward so that

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you can line up exactly where you want

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it to be something like that okay so

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just to recap then we know that when

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we're using the pen tool to keep things

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nice and simple we just need to know two

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keys and our keyboard

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the command or ctrl key and the alt or

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the option key now when we're using the

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alt or the option key we know that we

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can create really tight corners now so

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if I hold that in the alt or option key

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click on a little point we can tell it

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we need to make a sharp turn we know

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when we use the command or ctrl key I

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can use that if I hold it down I can

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click on this the line and change the

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curve and just map it to where I'm

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trying to make a good selection around

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another use of the command or ctrl keys

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if you find that you put a dot down in

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the wrong place you can hold down your

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commander ctrl key click on one of those

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dots and you can reposition it so that's

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really really handy in a flexible and

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easy way to work now let me just make a

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very very quick path around here just to

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join these two ends up and just to say

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that whenever you make a path around an

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object within Photoshop that path will

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show up in the paths panel over on the

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right hand side here when you've got the

0:09:55.950,0:10:00.060
default layout within Photoshop and just

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like in layers you can double click on

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the name and you can rename it now if

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you wanted this path here to be turned

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into a familiar selection where you have

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those marching ants just at the bottom

0:10:09.900,0:10:13.950
of the paths panel here we've got this

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icon the third one from the left hand

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side if I click on that you'll see that

0:10:16.230,0:10:21.270
it becomes the familiar marching ants

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now as a little side note the great

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thing about that is if you're the kind

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of person that only works on jpeg images

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and you like to save your images as a

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jpeg if you want to make sure that any

0:10:31.680,0:10:35.790
time that you've spent making a

0:10:32.970,0:10:38.310
selection is nice and safe you can

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actually save your selections in the

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jpeg now you're not normally able to do

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that however if you do make a selection

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like you've got the marching ants now

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you then come to the pass panel and then

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click on the fourth icon from the left

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hand side that'll turn your selection

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into a path and you can then save that

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in your JPEG file for use later on so

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you can also work non-destructively in

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your JPEG images so there you go just a

0:11:03.810,0:11:07.260
quick video oh that's handy any

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questions you have by all means dropping

0:11:07.260,0:11:11.870
line to Glen and Glenda juice com or the

0:11:09.590,0:11:14.390
I'll see you next time on before I go

0:11:11.870,0:11:16.160
don't forget if you haven't already make

0:11:14.390,0:11:17.870
sure you click on the big subscribe

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button now so that you don't miss out on

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any videos any short ones like this that

0:11:19.730,0:11:24.080
I put out and also the weekly episodes

0:11:22.040,0:11:26.720
of my photography photoshop and

0:11:24.080,0:11:29.080
lightroom podcast right I'll see you

0:11:26.720,0:11:29.080
next time