In this week's free episode of Deke's Techniques, Deke demonstrates how to trace a complex object in Photoshop without relying heavily on the often unintuitive Pen tool. Being able to select a complex object---like this week's light bulb--without relying on the Byzantine manipulation of anchor points and control handles is a very handy way to trace stuff in Photoshop. For those of you who, like me, find the Pen tool somewhat daunting, this week's technique is an early holiday gift from Master Deke.
http://youtu.be/DD465EpG24Y
Though pen tool is a just perfect choice for getting a better result but I am agree with you that its daunting as well. Thank you for sharing an alternative way of tracing an image here.