[design] Photoshop Masking Techniques Everyone Should Know

2826.Can you name them without looking at the app?
In case you can't, here they are:

1. Magic Wand
2. Quick Selection
3. Quick Mask
4. Lasso/Magnetic Lasso
5. Eraser
6. Pen
7. Layer Mask
8. Channels

They have various approaches to doing the same thing – selecting things for changing them. Select it, then effect it, goes the maxim. And some are better than others; the eraser is the one the noobs use then abandon as they soon find there are things like the layer mask that allow you non-destructively edit things, so you always have the original to go back to.
While, generally, I personally don't recommend the eraser tool the beauty of Photoshop is that it offers enough tools to do any one thing that you can approach anything the way it works best for you.
I found this nifty article at Spoon Graphics' blog that summarizes it all very nicely:
http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/photoshop-masking-techniques-everyone-should-know#