Quick Mask Channel Selection

When select­ing large areas with the mag­ic wand it’s com­mon to leave a few pix­els here and there through­out the areas uns­e­lect­ed. Changing the Magic Wand col­or sim­i­lar­i­ty tol­er­ance is the first step, but it does­n’t always do the job.

Sometimes eas­i­er and more effec­tive is drop­ping into Quick Mask mode after using the Magic Wand tool. If, in the ruby over­lay, you still can’t tell if pix­els are select­ed, uns­e­lect­ed, or par­tial­ly select­ed, use the Channels palette. On the Channels palette, turn off all chan­nels except the Quick Mask chan­nel. Your selec­tion will now be ren­dered in high-contrast–mostly in black and white. Any holes in your selec­tion will be as obvi­ous as stars on a moon­less Midwest night.