How to set a constant opacity with the Pen tool in Photoshop?

Question

How to change the opacity of the shape pen tool in Photoshop without always having to go and click on the new shape? Every time you create a new shape the opacity goes back to 100, then I read that you can create a group and they stay the same opacity but then the color stays the same on all the shapes.

I am trying to vector a very detailed pen drawing and need the shapes to be low always so I can see the lines I am following in the layer underneath, but there must be a way to set the opacity low constantly to avoid always having to change the new shapes opacity.

Answer 1

If you don't want to draw your shapes under a group and set the opacity for the group once, you don't need to click on the layer every time. Opacity uses as default shortcut the number keys (1 to 0).

Press 1 to quickly set the opacity to 10%, 2 for 20%, etc. If you want to be more precise, quickly type 2 digits (type 0 7 to set it to 7%, for example).

There's no way to set the opacity of the shape before it is created, because it uses the default 100% layer opacity.