It's a bit awkward to start with depending on how used to using a mouse you are for anything other than just pointing and clicking, but you soon get used to it. The above is literally a 2 minute job. Experiment with the mask drawing tools and see which one suits you best. I use PSP mostly and I prefer the lasso tool in 'Point To Point' mode. I just click around the area drawing the mask incrementally - short clicks for curves obviously and longer clicks for straight edges. It's a bit like dragging an elastic band around to create the mask. When you feather the mask, small images only require a few pixels feathering to hide any hard edges, while larger images often need to be feathered by quite a lot. I should add that a decent mouse makes a BIG difference! I use the Microsoft ball - less ones. Trying to use one with a ball will drive you nuts - the slightest bit of crap on the ball will make things well nigh impossible, and you'll be forever cleaning the ball.