(acoustic music)
- [Helen] Hello and welcome
to this Design Cuts
video tutorial.
Today we're looking at making
successful cut
outs in Photoshop.
Before we get started,
I want to show you
where the image that
I'm using came from.
It's from one of our
Design Cuts collection
and this is 70 modern
vintage images.
And there're a whole lot
of really cool images
here and this same photographer
also has some flat layouts
that you might want
to have a look at
if you like these images.
So, over here in Photoshop I
have the image already open.
I'm gonna show you the
process for making a cut out
and then for
blending that cut out
into a series of backgrounds.
When you're making
cut outs in Photoshop,
you have a number
of tools to use.
You could use tools like
the quick selection tool.
But if you use the pen
tool and make a path,
then you have a few
more options, perhaps,
for actually using that
cut out in the future.
So, I'm going to
show you the basis
of using the pen tool
to make your path.
We'll start by clicking on
the pen tool to select it
and zoom into the area that
you want to start working on.
So, I'm gonna start around here.
With the pen tool selected,
I'll click and drag
just a short way
because I'm headed in a
sort of straight line here.
So, the handles don't
have to be too big.
I'll click and drag here
'cause I want to start
coming round this curve.
But this handle needs
to be straightened out,
so I'll hold down
the Alt key on a PC,
Option on a Mac, and
just straighten it.
That breaks the connection
between these two handles
and lets me adjust
them independently.
We come over here and make this
full curve just in one step.
Wherever possible,
you want the space
between successive anchors here
to be as large as possible.
You don't want lots of,
lots of anchor points.
You're not going to end
up with as smooth a result
as you will if you have
less anchor points.
So, I'm just going to click
and drag and click and drag.
There's a slight dent here
where these rollers
are around this shape
and I want to try and get
that into my selection.
So, click and then
just drag a little bit.
To send the handles
the other way,
hold the Alt or Option key.
To move the image, I'm
holding the space bar.
The space bar turns the
current tool into the hand tool
and that allows you
to move the image.
As soon as you
finished doing that,
just let go of the space
bar and you'll revert
to whatever tool it
was that you were using
before you pressed
the space bar.
It just saves a trip
to the tool palette
every time you need
to make a change.
I'm going to adjust
this point here,
so I'll hold down the
Control or Command key
and just drag it in.
The Control or Command key
allows you to get access
to any of the anchor points
that you've previously drawn,
so that you could adjust them
should you need to do so.
As soon as you're
done adjusting them,
let go of the Control
or Command key
and you'll go back to the
area that you're working on.
Now, I'm not going
to work all the way
around this shape with you,
I'm just showing you the
basics of using the pen tool.
Some people prefer to adjust
all these anchor
points as they go,
other people just do a
fairly rough pen tool line
around the shape and then
come back later and edit it.
And truly up to you what
your personal preference is.
One other thing that you
will need to make sure of
is that your working
on path here.
So, when you do
select the pen tool
make sure that of the options
in this drop down dialogue
that you have the
path option selected
so you're making a path.
It's an actual fact going
to be called a work path.
Now, when you've
finished your selection,
once you've come all the
way around the shape,
you'll just hover over
the starting point
and you'll see a little
zero, a little O,
in the bottom right corner
of the mouse pointer
and just click once to
complete that shape.
And, of course, I'm way
short on what I need to have
but I took the precaution
of actually making
this path a little bit earlier.
So, let's go to the path
palette and see what we've got.
This is the work path
that we're actually
working on right now and
when you make your path,
it's gonna be called
the work path.
The nice thing
about this path is
that it can be
edited at anytime.
You can go back here to
the direct selection tool,
click on any of
these anchor points,
and then adjust them.
So, it's fully editable.
That allows you to, for example,
make a rough selection, go
and have a cup of coffee,
and come back, and
then finesse it.
There's no rush
to get this right.
Whenever you create a work path,
I suggest that once
the work path is made
that you drag it onto
this new icon here
and turn it into a path.
That gives it a little bit
more stability in the document.
The work path
itself can sometimes
disappear in Photoshop,
depending on what you're doing.
Paths do not.
So, here's the selection
I made earlier,
so let's go and click on that.
I'm going to press Control or
Command zero to zoom back out.
And this is the selection that
I've made around my shape.
Now, this path, if I save
this document as a PSD file,
is going to be
saved in that file,
so it's easily accessible
any time in the future.
You'll just open up the paths
palette, click on the path,
and you'll see the path
around you're shape.
Now, having made your
path, you can now go ahead
and make your cut out.
And there are a few
ways to do that.
One of them is to go
to the last palette,
I'm going to unlock this layer.
In some versions of
Photoshop, you'll need to
double click on this layer
to be able to unlock it.
And I'm going to
add a vector mask.
To do this, I'll hold down
the Control or Command key
and click once on
the add mask icon
and that adds a vector mask.
The vector mask itself
is fully editable,
so you can edit it
using the pen tool,
and the direct selection tool,
and the path selection tool
as you would any regular path.
But it is masking out
the areas of the image
that we don't want to see and
leaving us with our cut out.
Now, there is another way that
you can approach this task.
Let me just delete
this vector mask
and let's go back to
the paths palette.
If you select your
path you'll see that
there's an option here to turn
your path into a selection.
So, you can turn a regular
path into a Photoshop selection
and if you prefer
to use a selection,
then it's easily
accessible from a path.
Whereas, the other
way around it's not.
It's not so easy to
get a really good path
out of a selection but
it's very easy to get
a good selection out of a path.
So, if we go back to
the last palette here,
we could, again, just click
here to add a layer mask.
In this case, because
it's a selection,
it's not going to
be a vector mask.
Before we go too much further,
let's have a look and see
how good our selection was.
I'll hold Control or Command
on a Mac and click here
on the new layer icon
because that allows me
to add a new layer
beneath the current layer.
White is my background layer,
so I'll press Control
Back Space on a PC,
Command Delete on a Mac,
to fill this layer with the
current background colour.
You'll see around this shape
that we have a
fairly crisp line.
That may not always be the
kind of look that you want.
Let's go back and let's get
rid of this mask for a minute.
I'm just going to delete
it but not apply it.
Going back to the paths panel,
I'm going to reselect my
path and I'm going to make
a selection from my path.
But this time, before
I create my mask,
I'm going to feather the edge.
I'm going to soften
the edge a little bit.
So, I'll choose select, and
then modify, and feather.
Now, this image doesn't
need a lot of feathering.
Even though it's really large,
it's about five and a half
thousand pixels in width
and about three and a half
thousand pixels in height,
a feather radius of about five
is going to be a
pretty good value.
So, I'll click okay.
And I'll click again
to add a layer mask.
This time the edges are
a little bit softer.
So, if you want to
blend your cut out
into an underlying
image, you may find that
a slightly feathered edge
will give you a better result
than a really crisp, sharp edge.
It's up to you but
that's how you would
add a feather to a selection.
Now, you can do that when
you're creating a mask
based on a selection;
but if you want to create
a mask based on a vector
path, then you can't do that.
So, that might tip
the balance for you
as to whether you use
a vector mask and have
really, really sharp edges
or whether you prefer
to use some feathering,
in which case,
you'll want to convert
your path into a selection
and then use a
standard bitmap mask.
When you're putting a shape
like this on a lighter surface,
you'll find that the
surface is going to throw
a little bit of it's
colour into the image.
And right now,
here, we've got some
really dark edges up here.
Some of your possibilities
for blending this shape
into a background are
to add a layer style.
So, I'll go back to my shape
layer and click the FX icon
and I'm going to
choose an inner glow.
For my inner glow,
I'm going to select
a white or light colour.
So, let's just go for white.
I'm going to set the
blend mode to screen
because that's a
lightening blend mode.
I'll increase the
size a little bit,
so that it's definitely
going to impact the image.
And I'll increase also,
perhaps, the opacity.
And what I'm looking to do is
to lighten this
edge a little bit,
to blend the shape
a little bit better
into the light background.
And see here, if I disable
the inner glow and enable it,
you're seeing the result.
I think the size
is way too much.
And I could probably have
done a slightly better job
of my selection in
the first place,
but the inner glow
will allow you to add
a little bit of lightening
around the edge of the shape
which will help blend it
into a lighter background.
Now, let's have a look
at a darker background.
I'm gonna press Alt
Back Space on the PC,
that would be Option
Delete on the Mac,
to add a black background.
And you can see that
this white lightening
is not working on
our black background.
So, let's go and
trash our inner glow
and let's go and
make a different one.
Inner glows are things
that appear on the inside
of an object and they don't
have to be lightening glows.
They can be darkening.
You just have to know
how to set them up.
So, we're gonna set
this up with a sort of
black colour here
or a darker colour.
And I'll set the blend
mode to multiply.
So, in this case, we've
turned our lightening glow
into a darkening glow.
And have a look along the edges
when I turn it on and off.
And you can see that
there's a distinct
difference in the edges
and it's helping us
blend this shape into
the black background.
You can also use colour glows.
And you might use a
colour glow, for example,
if you have a background
that is, say, a red.
Because anything
on a red background
is going to get a little bit
of red light thrown at it.
So, let's go back to
our inner glow here
and instead of the black,
we're going to go
and select a red.
Like, for example, the red
from the background as well.
I'm going to increase the size
but maybe decrease the opacity.
And what that does is
throw a slight red colour
into the edges of
the shape, again,
helping it to blend in to
whatever it is you
have underneath.
Now, you could even build
up these inner glows.
You could add quite
a sizable inner glow
but at a very low opacity,
if you wanted to throw
a little bit of
extra red in there.
So, there are some
of your options
for making cut
outs in Photoshop.
I strongly recommend that
you try to get a handle
on the pen tool if you haven't
already got a handle on it,
so that you can use
it to make cut outs.
Be aware of the difference
between using vector masks
and bitmap masks and being
able to feather the selection
when you use a bitmap mask.
And then, you're options
for, for example,
using inner glows to
blend the edges of a shape
so it fits better onto
a background whether
that be a solid
colour background,
which is the most
difficult to work with,
or just a dark
textured background
or a light textured background.
I hope that you've
enjoyed learning
these Photoshop techniques.
Let us know what you think
in the comments below
and give us a thumbs up if
you enjoyed this tutorial.
Until next time, I'm Helen
Bradley for Design Cuts.
