How to use the new Curvature Pen tool in Adobe Photoshop - Olivias Blog

Tuesday 14 July 2020

How to use the new Curvature Pen tool in Adobe Photoshop

Among the most striking innovations in the latest version of Adobe Photoshop, the Curvature Pen tool stands out. It first appeared in Adobe Illustrator, but it finally came into the hands of photographers, who can finally forget about the torture of the original tool. Let's see how we can take advantage of the Curvature Pen.

I have already said it on other occasions. The Pen tool is a personal nightmare. Maybe it's the one I hate the most. It was the first thing I learned in Photoshop. And I never used such torture again. I have to say in my defense that my teacher was a graphic designer and not a photographer. We do not need such a tool unless we seek absolute precision.

If we want to make selections we have many more tools at our fingertips: Lasso, Rectangular frame ... and different techniques and functions such as Color Gamut, Focus Area, or the same brightness masks. All in order not to have to use the Pen. But now, with Curvature Pen everything has changed (what a little descriptive name). It is much easier. And we have another agile and fast tool for our most complex selections.

Pen Properties


The Pen tool is a vector drawing tool. In Adobe Photoshop clipping path service can be bitmap and vector images. The former is obviously photographs and the latter are images made up of shapes and layouts with a very important feature: they can be resized without losing quality. And the Pen tool is your guide. Allows you to make straight, curved, and combined paths. And all with absolute precision.

What if it is to make paths why do people use it for photography? Because it allows us to combine lines and curves and achieves, according to consulted photographers, a naturalness in the cut that no other tool gives. They speak of much more realism. And best of all, these layouts can be converted into selections with a simple click.

Product photographers, those who illustrate the catalogs of supermarkets and department stores, are the main supporters of the Pen. Surely with this new addition, other photographers can appreciate its qualities and bet on it on several occasions. I come up with portraits, architecture ...

And let us not forget. The easiest way to convert the path we make into selection is to right-click inside the path and choose Make Selection ... And if we don't want to use the Curvature Pen and we want to tan with the classic tool, we can always play with this application.

How to Use the Curvature Pen


For those of us who are lazy and don't want to spend hours with the classic Feather until we have mastered it, Curvature Feather is a real discovery. It greatly simplifies your process. And for some purists, it may not elicit the same sensations precisely because of its ease of use. But I promise you that the precise layouts will no longer be torture.

It seems like a smart tool. In some cases it reminds me of Magnetic Lasso, but with much greater control. In fact, we can change any failure a posteriori before converting the layout into a selection. We could even save and use it later when we resize the image and want to avoid having to make a new selection. And on top without losing quality.

All the possibilities of Feather


The first thing is to choose an object that we can trace with Curvature Pen. In the example of photography, I am going to work with the sculpture.

The keyboard shortcut is P. If we don't have it in view, just right-click on the Pen tool or press for more than a second with the left button.

Now we have to make the path, which is made up of lines and curves. The change of direction is marked with nodes (vertices). The objective is to get the layout with the fewest points possible.

We click on the first point of the chosen object (the sculpture in this case) and go up. Based on our experience we will make more or fewer nodes. We simply click and the curves are automatically generated.

If there is a change of address we will double click on that point. In the example, if you look at the shoulders of the sculpture, you will discover that I had to do it.

The tool follows the shape of the sculpture. At first, it will not be accurate, but do not worry about it. Then we can correct any problem with little effort. The objective is to close the route.

Now we can modify any point just by clicking on it and trying to adjust it as much as possible. We can even remove it by marking it and hitting the Delete key.

And of course, now you have to convert it into a selection, as I have indicated above.


The end is another selection

What some of us took an hour can now be solved in just a few minutes with Curvature Pen. Finally, there is a tool for drawing as agile as any other selection tool. And assess if as photographers it is really useful and gets that realistic touch that graphic designers talk about so much.

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