The quick mask

This is something that I do not use very often, but it can be useful in certain circumstances and it is good to understand the concept. In an image where the colours are not distinguishable enough for a simple click selection, this is the easiest method to use.

Using the Daisy image with the mottled mauve background, select on an area of the background using the magic wand. Try different tolerances (as discussed on page 2 of this tutorial) to select as large an area as possible, hold down the shift key to add additional areas.

If necessary, go to the menu bar and try select > similar to increase the areas selected.

->

When you have most of the background area selected, don't worry too much about minor details because those can be fixed later. Go to the top menu bar and click on select > inverse this will reverse the selection so that Daisy becomes the selected area instead.

Next click on the quick mask button which is situated at the bottom of the tool bar (see marked area on image below). The area that we are trying to isolate, is covered with a temporary tinted red mask.