Personally I always either use the select brush tool and then make it better with the white/black brush or the pen tool and fill the selection. I feel like I might actually have to start to channel mask though for things like trees with lots of tiny branches/leaves etc. Or I'd imagine it would work better for cats whiskers too.
#What masking method do you find yourself using the most?
quaint ice
uneven elbow
Personally I always either use the select brush tool and then make it better wit...
For basic stuff yes the regular vector and raster masks in Photoshop work fine but for compositing and complex photo manipulation it gets tricky. It depends on the situation and what results you wish to achieve which just means that using the particular masking technique that will get you more accurate results while also being flexible and easily changeable
Personally I've seen myself using every masking technique often it just depends on what I'm doing
trail orchid
I use most either slect subject and refining with the "select and mask", or if the subject doesn't contain any fur/hair, I would use a vector mask (so drawing the cut with the pen tool). I often use a combination of the two where, for example, cutting out a person, I would neatly trace over the sharp lines, roughly go over the hair for example, turn the vector path into a selection, then a mask, and use select and mask, a simple brush or even the smudge tool at low strengh and size to refine the flicks of hair if needed.
I think all of them have a purpose, even using calculations method, depending of the image in place, If I were to cut out straight piece of furniture I would use the pen tool exclusively, If I were to cut out fur hats or fluffy dogs when it would be something else.