>>1962627>>1962622>>1962618here is a basic tutorial i have made. perhaps it will explain.
using pen tool does work great for masks but it will still cut off part of the border (see bottom of tutorial), it just will not create aliasing like wand does. but no matter how you created the mask cut will always remove some of the border in the process. color to alpha does not, so pen tool -> color to alpha can give better results then pen tool -> cut if done correctly.
