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C
Challenger Gibraltar
Known Participant
April 17, 2020
Question

History brush stopped working when I was almost done

  • April 17, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 936 views

Can anyone please help.

 

I loaded my raw image into PS desktop (Mac) I created a duplicate layer and turned it b&w, I then selected the history brush and started to paint of the butterfly bringing back the colour. I had spent an hour on it and was almost at the end when the history brush stopped working. I contacted help line via chat, they suggested using the quick selection tool and also select auto-enhance button at the top. I don't have a auto-enhance button, I have Enhance edge button. Anyway I tried their suggested method but the butterfly is too intricate for the use of the quick selection tool, so I am left with a butterfly that is not yet completed on a b&w background, can someone please help me. I am disbaled with a head injury so I need easy instructions please. Thank you for you help.

 

Paul 

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2 replies

K
Katie Houghton
Inspiring
April 17, 2020

You need to take a snapshot of the state you want to brush back to with the History brush. 

  1. Your orignal History panel will look like this.
  2. After you copy the layer take a snapshot of the current state. The Camera icon in the History panel creates a new state. It will say Snapshot 1, 2, etc. I changed the names for explanation.
  3. After you turn that layer B&W then take a snapshot of that current state.
  4. Finally move the brush icon in the History panel to the state you want to paint back into with the History brush.
  5. I make the B&W state so I can draw back to the B&W state if I make a mistake.
  6. If you did not want to use the History panel and History tool  you can also add a Layer Mask to the B&W layer then brush back into the layer mask (The layer mask is selected and you can tell since it has a bounding box around the layer mask and not the layer icon). When using the regualar Brush tool,  you brush black into the Layer Mask to hide the B&W layer or brush in white to show the B&W layer. When you hide the B&W layer you will see the color layer that is placed just below the B&W layer.
     


    I hope that helps and answers your question.
    Bojan Živković11378569
    Community Expert
    Bojan Živković11378569Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 17, 2020

    From what I can understand you want to reveal buterfly which is on layer beneath BW version of the same photograph. To create selection using brush you have several options:

     

    • Paint with brush on layer with lowered opacity above BW image. When you finish use Ctrl + click on layer's thumbnail to load content from layer on which you have painted as selection. Use selection to mask content on BW layer and to reveal colored buterfly.
    • Another method is to create layer mask for BW layer then to paint on it using black color to reveal colored buterfly beneath.
    • Press Q on your keyboard to enter Quick Mask mode then paint with brush. Once you are done press Q again and Photoshop will load selection which you can use to delete or mask content on BW layer.
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