Page 52 - Photoshop for Lightroom Users – Scott Kelby 2nd Edition

The Quick Selection Tool:
If you want to select a large object, or more than that, try using the Quick Selection tool (W; the fourth tool down in the Toolbar) to paint over what you
want to select (like I did here, where I painted over the rocks), and it selects it by sensing where the edges are (similar to Lightroom’s Adjustment Brush
with Auto Mask turned on). If it selects too much, press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and paint over the areas you didn’t want it to select and it will
subtract those areas from your selection (it does a pretty good job once you tell it where you messed up). So, once these rocks are selected, any changes I
make (brightening, darkening, sharpening, etc.) will only effect those rocks.