Typically, I’ll outline areas with a light pressure for a thin line and then go bold with a heavier stroke for the inside areas.

When your selection is complete, zoom in if needed to check edges for any clean up work.

Because you’re creating a mask, you can use the standard masking techniques of painting with black to select and white to deselect an area.

Use the X key to toggle between black and white, and paint over the areas you want to fill in or remove from the mask.

When completed, press the Q key again, or click on the Quick Mask icon and you’ll have a selection ready for whatever type of adjustment you want to make.

 

If you create a new adjustment layer with this selection, the mask will be applied to the layer automatically.

Of course, you can also use your Wacom tablet to create traditional selections by selecting one of the selection tools, such as the Lasso, Magnetic Lasso or Magic Wand with much more control than you would have with a mouse. Here the pressure sensitivity doesn’t come into play, but you have the fine control you get when holding a pen.

A tablet makes creating masks much easier as well. The major difference here is that you have already created you adjustment layer or added a mask to a layer. You use the same brush tool, painting black to hide or white to reveal, the adjustment being made on that layer.

Next time we’ll take a look at some of the other benefits of a Wacom tablet with image editing.

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