Passive galaxy selection. Left: Passive galaxy selection using Guo et al. (2013)’s photometry of the 600 galaxies selected from the ‘combined CANDELS catalogue’ at 1 < z < 2. The empty red circles show galaxies with Santini et al. (2015) sSFR < 10^−9.5 M_⊙/year. The lines show the optimised passive galaxy regions at 1 < z < 2 obtained by using published CANDELS colours from Guo et al. (2013) and similar to the Williams et al. (2009)’s UVJ diagram region. At our survey redshifts, these apparent magnitudes permit us to select in a very similar way as the Williams et al. (2009)’s UVJ diagram region. Middle: Passive galaxy selection at 1 < z < 2, using the TPHOT photometry modified to ACAM depth and filter response. Right: Passive galaxy selection at 1 < z < 2, using the TPHOT photometry modified to GMOS depth and filter response. The empty red circles show galaxies with Santini et al. (2015) sSFR < 10^−9.5 M_⊙/year.