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One of the most oddly confusing tasks many of us undertake when working in Adobe Photoshop has to do with printing. We spend all sorts of time editing our photos and graphics, but when it comes time to output them to paper or another medium, so many of us play a guessing game. It’s understandable why we do this as the print setup process can be somewhat convoluted. While there are a lot of options and while they can seem overwhelming, there is a basic path to follow that’s much less complex. It’s that path I intend to share with you today.

In today’s post, I’ll work through the process of printing a photo via Adobe Photoshop, from start to finish. I’ll focus on the things that matter, such as image sizing, paper selection and printer selection, along with a few other important details. While there are many more options during this process that I won’t discuss, what I do cover should point you in the right direction and should assist you with printing out files in a straightforward manner.

The Demo Photo

I’m not sure if it’s important that I share exactly what the subject of the photo I’ll be using for this demonstration is, but I will anyway. The image below is of a bird landing. It has a default size of 6.4 inches by 4.267 inches and a resolution of 300dpi.

For the purposes of this post, I’d like to print the image with a size of 6 inches by 4 inches.

Resizing the Photograph

The first and probably most important thing I’m going to do is properly size the photo for printing. This is assuming that I’ve already gone ahead and completed any edits I’d like to make to it. Basically, I’m at the point of output, so editing things isn’t even a question anymore.

To resize the file, since it isn’t sized the way I want it already, I’ll head up to the Image > Image Size menu item and click.

When I do this, the Image Size dialog box will appear.

As things stand, the image is sized in pixels. Because I’m going to be printing it out to a certain specification (an actual physical size), I’d like it sized in inches. To do that, I’ll click on the drop-down box that’s value is currently pixels and I’ll change it to inches. Because both the width and the height dimensions are locked to one another, both values will change to inches. Also, since the width is currently 6.4 inches, I’d like to reduce that to 6. When I do that, since the dimensions are locked, the height of 4.267 will automatically change to 4.

When I’m finished, I’ll click on the OK button and I’ll see the actual image size in Photoshop reduce slightly. This is normal, since I shrunk things a little.

Selecting the Printer & Printer Settings

The next thing I’m going to do is choose the printer that I’ll be using to print this image out. Since I only have one printer hooked up to this computer I’m using, that’s going to have to be it. To access the printer selection area, I’ll go up to the File > Print menu item and click.

When I do that, the Photoshop Print Settings dialog box appears.

The area I’ll be working in first is the Printer Setup section and that’s in the upper right corner of the dialog box. I encapsulated it in red in the above screenshot. To choose which printer I’d like to use, I’ll click on the Printer drop-down box. In this case, I’ll be using my Brother HL-2230 series printer. This happens to be a black and white laser printer. If I were really printing this out for a legitimate purpose, I’d likely have a slick color printer that I’d choose.

The next thing that needs to get done is to choose how many copies of the print I’d like. In this case, one is fine. After that, I’ll choose the size of paper that I’d like the image to be printed to as well as the paper orientation. To access these controls, I’ll click the Print Settings button that sits directly below the drop-down. After I click that button, the Printer Properties dialog for the currently selected printer will appear.

Okay, so this is where things get interesting. The dialog that just opened pertains specifically to my installed printer. It also pertains to the printer I selected in the previous step. Unless you have the same printer that I do, you’ll see a different dialog with similar but different available settings. Since what I’m doing in this step is fairly straightforward, you shouldn’t have any problem following along and making the same settings in your own dialog box.

For Paper Size, I’ll choose Letter, which is 8 1/2 x 11 inches. Since the image is landscape in its orientation, I’ll choose Landscape for the print Orientation as well. The number of Copies has already been set to 1 in the previous step and since the file Resolution has already been set to 300dpi in Photoshop (under Image > Image Size), I’ll make sure this same resolution is set in this dialog box. Depending on what type of paper I’ll be printing to, I’ll make an appropriate selection for Media Type. In this case, I’ll keep this option set to Plain Paper. If I were to be printing out a high quality image to sell or hang on the wall, I’d likely print to glossy photo paper. If I wanted to see a preview of the changes I just made, I could click the OK button and it would show in Photoshop’s Print Settings dialog.

That’s looking good, although there are a few more areas that need attention.

Choosing Print Quality & Alignment

The next step in the print process has to do with the two sections below the Printer Setup section. These two sections are called Color Management and Position & Size. In the Color Management area, I want to be sure to set the Color Handling drop-down box to Photoshop Manages Colors. After all, I did all sorts of work in Photoshop and had all the related color setting decisions made. Why would I want to bypass them and have the printer manage the colors?

The Rendering Intent option is an important distinction to make as well. Please read below to learn about the options available regarding this. At this point in time, the options are Perceptual, Saturation, Relative Colorimetric and Absolute Colorimetric.

“For most images, Relative Colorimetric rendering produces superior results. For others, Perceptual will be far better. These cases include images with significant shadow details where a slight lightening of the print is acceptable to open up the shadows. Also images with areas of highly saturated color can benefit from Perceptual rendering. If you see color banding in the soft proof with Rel. Color. selected, try Perceptual. With experience you will get a feel for which images best pair with each rendering intent.”

If you hover over each option in the Rendering Intent drop-down, you’ll see some text offered by Photoshop in the Description box right below. If I hover over Relative Colorimetric, I’ll see this text:

Compares the white of the source color space to that of the destination color space and shifts all color accordingly. Out-of-gamut colors are shifted to the closest reproducible color in the destination color space. Relative colorimetric preserves more of the original colors in an image than Perceptual.

Depending on your printer, some trial and error may be called for. That’s the only way you’ll know which one of these options will give you the best result.

After I’m finished with the most critical options in this section, I’ll move onto the Position & Size section below.

I’d like this image to be centered in the print. So, I’ll click the checkbox that’s labeled Center. If you look to the right of this box, you’ll see more positioning options. If you have certain specifications, go ahead and fill those in there.

I’m going to ignore the Scaled Print Size section because I already sized the image earlier in Photoshop. Because of this earlier work, I don’t see the need to do any additional scaling at this time. Of course, if you’re working on something special and it requires scaling after the fact, go ahead and make use of this option.

One very helpful feature that can be found in this print setup area is called Printing Marks. Let’s say I wanted to print this image out and then cut it out so all the extra white paper is gone and all I’m left with is the image itself. Sort of like a postcard where all you see is the photograph or drawing. If I were to do that, I might need some guides to assist me. I can set these types of guides up right inside of Photoshop. Take a look at this section.

There are a few check boxes that control which marks can be added to the printout. They are currently Corner Crop Marks, Center Crop Marks, Registration Marks, Description and Labels. Obviously, not each of these options adds marks to help with trimming the paper from the image, but most of them do. The Description and Label options add text to the printout.

I’ll go ahead and check the Corner Crop Marks and the Center Crop Marks boxes so you can get an idea of what these things do. Take a look below.

Do you see those lines around the image? Those are the crop marks.

Previewing the Printout & Printing

Okay, moving on to the final set of options that I’ll discuss in this post. I basically want to talk about one more area that has to do with how this image might actually appear after it’s printed. If I take a look underneath the print preview (the large white box) area, I’ll see three check boxes. These boxes are labeled Match Print Colors, Gamut Warning and Show Paper White.

These three options are merely meant to give you an indication of what things will look like after they are printed. This is fairly advanced and is extremely helpful. If I check the Match Print Colors, in my case, I’ll see the preview image turn to gray. That’s because I’m using a black and white printer. If I were using a color printer, that preview would show what the color printout would look like. If I checked the Gamut Warning box, I’d see a gray overlay on top of any area that’s outside the capabilities of the printer being used.

“A gamut is the range of colors that a color device can display or print. A color that may be displayed on your monitor in RGB may not be printable in the gamut of your CMYK printer. For instance, the nice blue on your monitor that prints as purple.”

This option should be used every time you print and its advice should be heeded. There’s no sense in sending something to the printer that the printer can’t print.

Finally, Photoshop offers a preview based on the type of paper you intend to print to. If I check the Show Paper White option, the print preview will update its look depending on that specific type of paper. That’s pretty awesome.

Finally, after making all the settings changes and after looking at the previews, I’ll go ahead and click on the Print button that’s down in the lower right area of the dialog box. Once I do that, assuming my printer is turned on, the image will print out and I’ll be a very happy camper.

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I hope I clearly explained how to set up and print an image using Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section down below. Thanks for reading!

I have yet another technique for minimizing the appearance of wrinkles using Adobe Photoshop. I know I’ve written about this topic a good number of times already, but I think it’s a good idea to learn how to do the same thing by using different approaches. This approach is actually very similar to some of the others I’ve shared, but there are a few key differences. I’ll share those difference below.

This post is going to be about minimizing the appearance of wrinkles on the face, not removing them entirely. I think we can all admit that over a certain age, we’re all going to have wrinkles. In photography, the lighting can sometimes make those wrinkles stand out in a way that doesn’t look natural or very appealing (this is true even for younger people). As photo editors, it’s our job to help folks look their best while keeping any photograph we touch as realistic looking as possible.

In today’s post, I’ll be using an image of an older gentleman. In the photo, there are some wrinkles on the man’s face. Nothing too deep or awkward looking – just regular wrinkles. What I’m going to do is use the Healing Brush Tool and a new layer that sits on top of the photo layer to paint away the wrinkles. Then, I’ll adjust the opacity of the top layer so any changes I make blend right in with the image layer below. It really is a rather simple trick to learn, so let’s get on with it.

Today’s Demo Photo

This is the photo I’ll be using for today’s post. To keep things simple, I think I’ll primarily focus on the wrinkles on the forehead, under the eyes and around the mouth (the smile lines). Those are the ones that stand out the most to me. If you have your own photo you’d like to work on in a similar way in the future, just take the concept of what I’m doing here and apply it to your image.

Using the Healing Brush Tool

I’ll be using the same principles I already discussed in the post I wrote about the Healing Brush Tool in this post. So, to avoid writing the same thing twice, I’ll be pointing you to that previous post and only be touching on the specifics of the tool today. If you’d like to learn all about the Healing Brush Tool, please click the link below and enjoy.

Working With the Healing Brush Tool in Adobe Photoshop

In general, the healing brush works like this; you activate the tool, find an area that you can use as a source and then paint over whatever it is that you’d like to “heal” with the brush. Of course, there are a few more minor details that need to be considered, but that’s really it. So think about it this way. If you had a photo from above of some train tracks and you wanted to paint one of the tracks on top of the other track to “heal” the one you’d be painting over, you would hold down the Alt key on your keyboard and click on the “source” track. This is the track you’ll be pulling from. Then, once that area is in Photoshop’s memory, all you would need to do is click and paint over the other track just the same way you’d paint over anything else. The thing you need to be most careful of is the movement of the source area. The reason I used train tracks in the example I just gave was because train tracks run in parallel. So does the Healing Brush Tool (if the Align option is checked). If you were to take a source sample and then brush in circles, the source would brush in circles as well. If you experiment with this tool, you’ll see that there is a ghost source mouse pointer that runs in tandem with the painting brush. Don’t worry, it’s pretty easy to understand once you start using the tool.

The first thing I’m going to do for this project, since the image is already opened up in Photoshop, is to create a new layer that will sit on top of the background layer. To do this, I’ll click the Create New Layer button that sits at the bottom of the Layers panel. This is what the layers will look like when I do this.

After that, I’ll head over to the left toolbar and I’ll click on the Healing Brush Tool to activate it.

Directly after that, I’ll size the brush up in the options bar and I’ll be sure to give it some soft edges. Then, and this is the most important thing, I’ll make sure the All Layers option is selected in the Sample drop-down box. Since I’ll be doing the painting on an empty layer, it’s important that this option is selected because I’ll need to sample the layer underneath. In this case, I’ll also check the Align option that’s to the left of the Sample drop-down because I want to take advantage of the color gradients on this man’s skin. If I didn’t have the sample brush track the painting brush, things might look a little weird.

Once everything is all set, I’ll take a sample of an area directly above the left eyebrow by holding the Alt key down and clicking with my mouse. After that, I’ll paint over the wrinkle above the left eye.

Inside of the red circle is the area I just worked on. Next, I’ll go ahead and do the same thing over the areas I discussed previously. Here’s the result of that. Again, I’m not going overboard here. I’m merely doing this as an example of how the process works.

You can definitely see how the wrinkles have disappeared.

Minimizing the Wrinkles, Not Removing Them

The goal now is to actually bring some of the wrinkles back. If I were to keep the photo as it is, I don’t think I’d be helping this gentleman at all. In reality, he does have the wrinkles on his face, so I don’t want to remove them completely.

To lessen the effect of my corrections, I’ll simply head over to the Opacity slider in the Layers panel and push it to the left until it reaches 50%. Doing this does a great job at keeping a less dramatic wrinkle. It allows the wrinkle to appear, but it removes the darkness or severity of them.

And here is the final photo.

I think it looks pretty good. Photo editors for magazines do this kind of thing all day long.

The Lighten Blending Mode

There is one final tweak that one can make with projects such as this and this tweak can make a huge difference when working with troublesome images. If I were to apply the Lighten blending mode to the top layer, any pixels that are darker on the top layer than they are on the bottom layer would be removed. Conversely stated, only the lighter pixels on the top layer are kept when this blending mode is used. This is important because in cases like this, we’re trying to get rid of the darkness in the areas we paint.

“The Lighten Blending Mode takes a look at the base color and blend color, and it keeps whichever one of the two is the lightest. If the blend colors and the base colors are the same, then no change is applied. As with the Darken Blending Mode, Lighten looks at the three RGB channels separately when blending the pixels.”

And that’s it! That’s all there is to it.

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I hope I clearly explained how to minimize the appearance of wrinkles on someone’s face. If you have any questions regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Most things in Adobe Photoshop don’t really need to be learned. They actually just need to be made aware of. In other words, none of this stuff I talk about on this website is particularly difficult to grasp. It’s more of a case of just letting people know that certain things exist. Of course, certain concepts need to be understood to be taken advantage of, but most of the time, just seeing what’s available is good enough.

In today’s post, nothing too challenging needs to be understood. This is one of those, “Oh that’s so cool” moments I’m hoping people have. I’m going to show you how you can add multiple effects (or filters) to am image inside of the Filter Gallery feature in Adobe Photoshop. If you’re a big filter user and don’t yet know about this capability, you’re going to love this. Let’s just say that it will add extra dimensions to what you already do.

I’m going to open a photo of a flower into Photoshop and then turn that flower layer into a Smart Object so anything I do to it will be non-destructive. After that, I’ll enter the Filter Gallery, where I’ll apply one of the many filters to the image. Then, and this is where things get good, I’ll apply another filter. And then another. Finally, I’ll change the order of those filters to achieve different effects. What I hope to convey is that there’s an almost infinite amount of flexibility when it comes to the Filter Gallery in this application. The final look of a photograph is up to your imagination.

The Demo Photo

This is the flower photo I’ll be using for this post. The reason I chose it is because I think it can sustain many of the available filters in the Filter Gallery. As a matter of fact, I think it looks fairly artistic the way it is.

Creating the Smart Object

The first thing I’ll do after launching this file into Photoshop is to turn the flower layer into a Smart Object. As I’ve said many time, whenever working with filters, it’s a very good idea to use the Smart Object feature because it protects against destructive changes. Destructive changes are those that permanently alter a file.

To turn the layer into a Smart Object, I’ll right-click on it in the Layers panel and then click on the Convert to Smart Object option.

Opening the Filter Gallery

Pretty much all of the work I’d like to complete today will be contained in the Filter Gallery workspace. So I’ll need to enter that gallery. To do so, I’ll head up to the Filter > Filter Gallery menu item and click.

Once I click that, the workspace will appear.

Applying Some Filters

My goal today isn’t to make this image look wonderful. It’s merely to show you that multiple filters can be applied on top of one another right here in the Filter Gallery. To kick things off, I’ll go ahead and randomly choose one of the available filters from the Brush Strokes drop-down. The one I’ll choose is called Accented Edges.

Now this is important. When I choose this specific filter, a “layer” for it shows up down in the lower right corner. Take a look.

This is the layer I’m working in. I’ve decided to call this thing a layer because I’m not sure what else to call it. It looks and acts like a layer, but it’s in the Filter Gallery workspace. I’m not sure if that makes a difference or not. Anyway, if I decide to click on a different filter in this workspace, that layer will simply change to the new one I just clicked on. The new filter won’t get added to the area where the layer is. It will take the place of the first one I chose.

Let’s say I want multiple effects to be blended together in this Filter Gallery workspace. As you well know, just one filter is so boring. Let’s add some spice to things.

To add another filter to this same image, I’ll click the New Effect Layer button at the bottom of the palette.

Once I do that, I can go ahead and choose another filter to add. And if I do it once more after that, I can choose yet another filter. Let’s see how these new effects layers look.

As you can see, I chose to add Accented Edges, Crosshatch and Spatter. Now let’s check out how this photo looks with the applied filters.

That’s kind of neat.

Changing the Order of the Effect Layers

Currently, I’ve got the Spatter effect as the top layer in the Filter Gallery workspace. You can see the result of that above. What if I want to change the look of the output and I don’t want the Spatter effect to be so prominent? Well, to minimize the effect Spatter is having on the overall image, I can just click and drag that layer to the bottom of the pile.

Now, the Crosshatch effect is on top and the Spatter one is at the bottom. Let’s see what the overall image looks like now. I’ll click the OK button to exit this workspace and I’ll save the file out.

Do you see what a difference that makes? Now the Crosshatch effect takes prominence. My point here is that it’s possible to add multiple effects to the same file in Photoshop, without much work. If I didn’t like what I saw, I could always click and drag one or more of these effect layers down the trash can below to remove them or I could add more layers if I wanted to.

I know I didn’t get into the settings for each effect. I didn’t think those were important for this post. I wanted to stay focused.

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I hope I clearly explained how to apply multiple Filter Gallery effects to the same image in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions regarding this post, please leave them for me in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Masking is an essential part of working in Adobe Photoshop. It allows us to non-destructively edit something out or into a photograph or a number of other things. While masking can be a tricky concept to pick up during the first few minutes of learning, things begin to flow rapidly after a few moments of that learning.

I’m sure you’ve heard of layer masks and layer masking. I’ve talked about these things a bunch on this website. The thing is, what I’ve primarily be discussing is the pixel based form of masking, which is great, but has its pitfalls. The greatest pitfall is that these types of masks rely on the pixels of an image, which, as you know, can look distorted if an image is resized.

An alternative to pixel based masking is something called vector based masking, which doesn’t rely on pixels. Like vector images, these masks rely on mathematical algorithms to produce crisp, sharp lines no matter the size. Here’s what Adobe has to say about vector masks:

A vector mask is a resolution independent path that clips out the contents of the layer. Vector masks are usually more accurate than those created with pixel-based tools. You create vector masks with the pen or shapes tools.

While I won’t be getting into how to use the Pen Tool per se in today’s post, I will be discussing how to use that tool to mask out the background of an image. In all honesty, the Pen Tool is a beast unto itself and this post wouldn’t be big enough to handle all I have to say about it. As a compromise, I’ve decided that I’d use today to focus primarily on the topic of masking something out. I’d like to keep it simple.

In today’s post, I’m going to open a photo inside of Adobe Photoshop. Then, I’ll use the Pen Tool to go through the process of masking the background out of a photograph that contains a camera. I purposefully chose the camera picture because it’s got more straight edges than curved. The reason for this is because the topic of creating curves with the Pen Tool, while fairly simple and straightforward, needs space to breath. That will have to wait for another time. I may touch upon it below though. What I really want to impress upon you is the fact that vector masks exist and that they are extremely simply to take advantage of for all types of purposes. One such purpose might include cutting an object out of one photo to include in another. You’ll see what I’m referring to below.

Today’s Demo Photo

Again, for this post, I chose a photo of a camera. Notice the straight lines.

This image shouldn’t take too long to work with.

The Easiest Vector Mask Ever

Okay, so we already know that vector masks can be created with the Pen Tool. The issue is, there are many methods for using this tool in conjunction with the mask itself, so which one is best? In this section, I’m going to give you a quick example of how this camera photo can have its background “removed” from it.

The very first thing I’ll do (after opening the photo in Photoshop) is to head up to the Layer > Vector Mask > Reveal All menu item and click.

Once I click that menu item, I’ll notice a new vector mask thumbnail appear in the Layers panel, to the right of the layer thumbnail.

Now, both the thumbnail and the vector mask thumbnail should already be selected. If I move over to activate the Pen Tool in the left toolbar, I can begin working.

Here’s how it’s going to work. I’m going to click on the canvas with the Pen Tool a few times in an area that surrounds the camera. This will create what’s called a “pen path.” The first click won’t make a change. The second click will make everything disappear. The third click will bring back a portion of the photo and every successive click will shape the mask area. This is the final product.

While this method did the job, it didn’t do it well. First of all, who in the world clicks around a photo they can’t see? As I mentioned above, the image disappears after the second click. Also, because of the random way I masked this photo, I wasn’t near the target at all. I can see see a lot of the background and some of the camera has been removed. I’d have to spend way too much time editing the path if I did things this way. I do want to show you a few things before I go any further though.

First, take a look at the Layers panel. You can see the path I just made in the vector mask thumbnail.

Next, I’d like you to see the path in the Paths panel.

And finally, I want you to see how each handle along the path can be manipulated. If I choose the Path Selection Tool (the black arrow) from the left toolbar, I can click on any handle and move the entire path area.

And if I click on the Direct Selection Tool (the white arrow) in the left toolbar, I can select just one (or more) handle(s) along the path and move only it or them.

So, as you can imagine, I do have the ability to modify the path after the fact. The problem is, that’s a terrible job to have. I’d have to add all sorts of anchor points and then try to fit them into small spaces. Trust me when I say this – there’s a better way.

Creating a Vector Mask, the Better Way

In this section, I’m going to create the path before applying the vector mask. Things will be much better this way. I’ll need to remove the path I just made though, so I thought I’d show you the process for doing that.

Basically, there are two really easy ways to delete vector masks. First, you can simply click and drag the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel down to the little trash can at the bottom of the panel or you can click and drag the vector mask path layer in the Paths panel I showed you earlier down to the trash can at the bottom of that panel. It’s up to you. They both do the same thing.

What I’m going to do now is reverse things. I’m going to first start off tracing the camera with the Pen Tool and then I’ll apply the vector mask when I’m finished. And after that, I’ll show you a few tricks that can really help when it comes to dealing with curves and the edge between the object and its background. This last part is going to slightly delve into how to use the Pen Tool, but I’ll try not to go too far.

To create the outline I want around the camera, I’ll use the Pen Tool. I’ll click at every corner I come across as I work around the circumference. Actually, the more I click right now and the more anchor points I include, the more accurate the outline will be. Here’s what I quickly came up with. I didn’t go nuts with this because I’m trying to save time.

Now that I have the outline done, I can create the vector mask. To do so, I’ll head up to the Layer > Vector Mask > Current Path menu item and click.

Now look at the result. Isn’t this much better? With the menu item I just used, I told Photoshop that I’m working on a layer and that I’d like to create a vector mask within that layer. Then, I said that I’d like to use the current path I just created with the Pen Tool for that vector mask.

At this point, I can do whatever I want with this camera. I can drag it over into a new file or do something with it in the current file. It’s up to me.

Editing the Mask

When using paths with vector masks, I think you’ll find things quite flexible when it comes to editing. The first thing I’d like to discuss is what to do when you encounter a curve in whatever it is you’re attempting to mask. Here’s the rule; when you get to a curve, click and drag. That’s it. Take a look below.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that I’m beginning to create a path around a curve. I clicked to set the first anchor point and then when I clicked a second time, I didn’t let go of my mouse button. I continued holding it down and then I dragged away from the curve. When the handles appeared, I knew I was on the right track. This technique will take some practice, but you’ll get it soon enough. You’ll also likely need to click to adjust other handles as you work. To do this while you’re in Pen Tool mode, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard to switch from Pen Tool to the Direct Selection Tool. That’s the one you want to use when moving handles. Again, this line of thought is edging towards how to use these types of tools, which I don’t want to get into today. I just thought this one tip would help.

The next tip I have for you really will make your life easier when creating path based vector masks in Photoshop. As you can see from the camera above, the background is transparent. When it comes to refining masks (editing them later on), it helps to make the background somewhat opaque. To change how visible the masked background is, I’ll need to go to the Window > Properties menu item and click. I’ll need to make sure the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel is selected first though because Photoshop needs to know which Properties panel to open up.

Inside of this Properties panel is a Density slider. If I push the Density slider to the left, the background that’s been hidden will become more visible.

Now, if I wanted to use some other tools to edit the path so it more accurately follows the edge of the object I’m trying to outline, I can do that with no issue at all.

I think I’m going to stop here. Rest assured though, I’ll be covering the Pen Tool and the other vector based tools a lot more on this website, so get ready!

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I hope I clearly explained how to create a vector mask in Adobe Photoshop with the Pen Tool. If you have any questions regarding this post, please leave them for me in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!