Using a QUICK MASK to make a detailed selection
Posted on 13. May, 2009 by Olson in Basics

In Photoshop you can make selections in many different ways but if you are looking to capture those small details and be very precise than this easy to follow tutorial will get you up to date and you will be making crazy detail selections in minutes . |
| Quick Mask is not a tool as such, but a mode you can enter when working with selections. The Quick Mask lets you create a ready-made mask,which you can edit or turn into a selection by painting with black or white colors. Using this masking technique, you are actually masking the areas you paint, so you must inverse the selection before making any adjustments. |





Click the Zoom tool and click to enlarge the area you want to select.
Click the Default Colors button to set the foreground color to black and the background to white.
Click the Quick Mask mode button.
Click the Brush tool.
Click here to open the brush options.
Click and drag to adjust the Master Diameter slider.
Click and drag to adjust the Master Diameter slider.
Paint over the areas you want to select.
The painted areas are covered with a red translucent mask.

Click the Switch Foreground and Background Colors icon to make white the foreground color.
Paint over any areas that you covered accidentally.
Click the Switch Foreground and Background Colors icon again to make black the foreground color.
Continue painting the area to select until the wholearea is covered in red.
Click here to turn off the Quick Mask mode.
Dashed lines indicate the area that was masked by the red color.
Click Select.
Click Inverse. The selection now includes only the area you painted in the Quick Mask mode.
If you need to make a selection slightly bigger all the way round, youcan do so using the Select > Modify > Expand menu command. A dialog will appear in which you can enter the number of pixels by which you wish to expand the selection. You can contract a selection by using the Select > Modify > Contract menu command. To make a selection larger by a specified number of pixels around it, choose Select > Modify > Expand from the menu. TO SOFTEN a selection and make its border less jagged, you can use If you need to modify just the border of the selection area you can select it using the Select > Modify > Border. This is useful for creating special edge effects, in combination with some filters, like Torn Edges. |
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tom
14. May, 2009
cool tip thanx
juju
16. May, 2009
……….thanks it helps me a lot……….
AjitKumar
14. Jun, 2009
The clarity and simplicity of the tutorial is wonderful.
jay gabutina
24. Jun, 2009
simple but so helpful…..many thanks!