Photoshop Selections

Part 2

Lasso

The Lasso tool is one of the ways we can make more intricate selections. There are actually 2 lasso tools: the freeform version and the polygon version. The flyout (hold down the mouse key over the tool) will show the version not currently in use.

The freeform lasso traces your selection as you hold the mouse button and drag around the outline of your selection. When the mouse button is released, the selection closes itself  using a direct line from the release point to the start point.

With the polygon lasso, best results are usually achieved with a series of mouse clicks, drawing the overall shape with a clicks and short lines.

Pen

The Pen tool comes with 5 options in the flyout: the basic pen, the selection arrow, add point pen, delete point pen and the convert point tool.

Vaguely similar to the lasso tools, the pen differs by drawing with points or nodes that have handles, creating Bezier curves which can be fine-tuned to create intricate curves later with the other pen tools or move tool as needed.

To draw a Bezier curve with the pen tool, click and drag the resulting handles to position the curve.

Reposition the node or control handles to modify the curve as needed using the Direct Selection tool, or change the curve node to a corner node with the Convert Node tool, by clicking the node once. Add nodes to a path or subtract them by clicking with the plus or minus versions of the pen.

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