[Benny Profane]

It's not necessary, but you should learn it to make decent curves (no way you're cutting them better with the lasso tool), and, as said above, sooner or later you will be in Illustrator, where it's very necessary

[Markzebra]

Yes on good quality imagery you can mostly get away with proper channel based masking, in practice it tends to be quicker. Smooth artificial edges produced by pen selections can be damaging to fashion images especially if those are used as the basis for color and tonal adjustments, and images are reworked several times. Thats unless you want to produce robots. As Benny has said there are times when proper curved selections are necessary (cars are one example), and thats where the pen becomes your friend. It's an important part of the tool box, learn it.

[One4UAll]

I should have phrased my question as, "Is learning the pen tool necessary *for retouching*"? I raised the question because accessing this forum on a daily basis since Oct., I could not recall one post that used the pen tool in topics I viewed/participated in. Further examination of the forum shows that out of about 660 topics since Oct., only 6 had a post that used the pen tool.

I don't doubt the sincerity of responders in insisting on learning the pen tool. Experts in this forum are adept with the tool. It's just that they haven't used it very much since Oct.

I've spent many hours learning this tool and have achieved a fair amount of proficiency, but enough is enough. I don't need to create paths to export to Illustrator or QuarkXpress. For me, the pen tool is only a more precise option to the polygonal tool.

All I can say is, If you're not compositing, or if you're not exporting to Illustrator or QuarkXpress, etc., you don't need to learn the pen tool. It depends on your objective. If the pen tool comes easily, fine. If it doesn't, skip it, until you absolutely need it for the above purposes, because then it will ensure your livelihood.

Responders in this topic have given me helpful links, esp. to YouTube tutorials, so go to YouTube & do a search on "pen tool." You'll get tutorials, galore.

[Swampy]

One4All, NOTHING in Photoshop is absolutly necessary to learn. There are so many other ways of making a selection. Everyone has their favorite so the pen tool is not the be-all-end-all.

I'm not surprised that if you searched on "pen tool" you may not have found many references in the RetouchPRO threads. I would guess that if you searched on "selection" or "make a selection" you will found hundreds and hundreds of posts that include the term because so much of manipulating or creating masks in Photoshop REQUIRES some kind of selection. To say that people haven't used the pen tool very much since October is an assumption based on bad information. You assume that they don't use the pen tool to make a selection because they didn't specifically say they did. As you said, "Experts in this forum are adept with the tool". Perhaps they are considered "experts" because they use all the tools that are available and continue to learn new and better ways to use them.

Creating paths to export to Illustrator or QuarkExpress is not the reason most folks use the pen too. That process is pretty specialized. But the use of the pen tool is pretty common, but nobody said you HAVE to use it.

It's entirely up to you. Use your selection tool of choice.

[mquest]

I couldn't agree more with Swampy.
As with everything you do in Photoshop, there is always another way to do it. But if you want to be a better Photoshop user, obviously you should have the aim to learn all of Photoshops tools, including the Pen tool.

I use the Pen tool on a daily basis for masking, but only in situations where i consider it to be more effective than the other tools i know.

[pixelzombie]

Originally Posted by One4UAll

I should have phrased my question as, "Is learning the pen tool necessary *for retouching*"?

YES it is necessary, but if this is just a hobby then do whatever it takes to get your required result...

[hermes]

This is my first post here so be gentle!

I would be lost without pentool skills, for me the pen tool represents far more than just another way of making a mask or selection.

I use a pentool for cutting out images that are either directly imported into a newspaper workflow and essential if they are needed with a transparent background.

For use we virtually have no choice in the matter, we are required to use it for images that breakout of a page onto the folio, we could not simply erase or mask an area, it has been tried before and the workflow doesn't work like that for us.

I have worked with Photoshop from day one and the pentool has become an easy tool to use, I would reccomend trying to get used to it as it's a good skill to master.

To me there is no comparson between the pentool and the mask or the lasso tool, the pentool is far more accurate and you if you need to use it you will be left with no other choice!

You can make a good selection from a pentool path but have you ever tried to make a path from a selection...it goes horribly wrong...
It's like using the screwdriver on a swiss army knife instead of the real deal, yes it will work but not as well as the correct tool for the job!

We do however mask images when we are building a montage etc but the pentool for me is one of the most important tools in my Photoshop box!

cheers....

[yelhsaneerg]

i am very intimidated by the pen tool...i just can't seem to get it even though i've tried various tutorials. I guess i just don't see why it's so special in the first place because masking seems to work perfectly fine for me. I'm sure i'll have to learn it one day but for now i'll stick to masking

[Swampy]

Originally Posted by yelhsaneerg

i am very intimidated by the pen tool...i just can't seem to get it even though i've tried various tutorials. I guess i just don't see why it's so special in the first place because masking seems to work perfectly fine for me. I'm sure i'll have to learn it one day but for now i'll stick to masking

yelhsaneerg... The pen tool is just another way of making a selection in order to create a Mask. It is not a masking technique in and of itself, just another way to get there. Use what you are comfortable with.

[studionewmarket]

well, I am also going through the same chapter of this very same book (btw fantastic book), and am thinking why a heck I didn't learn the pen tool earlier, imo it's a fantastic , and for certain jobs much faster than other ways of masking.
I guess we all have our own preferences.
Peter

[smak]

Some people also resist using layers and masks. They are not that hard to learn and benefit the user a great deal. Using the Photoshop bible, these topics just came up and were pretty easy to understand.