Using Paths in PhotoShop can be extremely useful at tracing images/shapes, or creating vector shapes. They can also be used to select awkward shapes, as opposed to using the lasso tools. The Pen is the main tool used when working with Paths, and this tutorial will show you how to get started using Paths in PhotoShop.

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The first thing we will do is to open a new document in PhotoShop.
We will start by selecting the Pen tool, once we have our new document opened. The Pen tool is used to create anchor points in paths, and we can set the first anchor point simply by clicking anywhere on the canvas, then we can click again on another area of the canvas. This will create a straight line path and will look something like this:

The great thing about Paths is the ability to create curves. We can do this by selecting the Convert Point Tool (shown below) and then click and drag one of the anchor points. You will notice a line emerge - these are the direction lines, which are used to modify the line segments of the path. As you click and drag, you will notice the line curve more and less. When you release the mouse button, the line will look something like this:

We can also modify the direction lines independant of each other. This will change the angle at which the line segments enter and exit the anchor point. To change the direction lines independantly, click and drag the end points, like so:

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Now if we pick this path back up by choosing the Pen tool again and moving over the end point, where we left off, we will see the difference that it makes to modify the direction lines. Also, when adding new anchor points with the Pen tool, we can click and drag instead of just clicking to create curved lines instead. Try this now:

We can also move our path by choosing the Path Selection Tool (A), and move individual anchor points with the Direct Selection Tool. Like most things in PhotoShop, it is best to get an understanding of how Paths work by simply experimenting and seeing for yourself. Play around with the existing anchor points to see what you can get. You can also add more anchor points with the Add Anchor Point Tool, and also delete anchors with the Delete Anchor Point Tool, surprisingly enough.

Once you are done playing around with this path, goto the Paths palette, which should be a tab on the Layers palette (if not, goto Window > Paths). You will see that the Path we just created is in this palette. If we right-click the path here, and choose Make Selection, we will be prompted with the following:

We will click yes and the shape we created should now be a selection. This is very useful when selecting awkward shapes, instead of using the lasso tools, as paths make it easy for us to be more accurate.

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