The Power of Disengage

Thankfully, Photoshop is extremely forgiving: It'll let you dorsum out of almost anything you practice, which is muy importante , peculiarly when you're getting the hang of things.

You've got several ways to retrace your steps, including the lifesaving Undo command. Just cull Edit→Disengage or press ⌘-Z (Ctrl+Z). This control lets you undo the very last edit y'all made.

If you need to get back more than i step, use the Stride Backward command instead: Cull Edit→Stride Astern or press Option-⌘-Z (Alt+Ctrl+Z). Straight from the manufactory, this command lets you undo the last 50 things you did, one at a time. If yous want to get back even further, you can change that number by digging into Photoshop'due south preferences, as the next department explains. You can step forward through your editing history, too, by choosing Edit→Pace Frontward or Shift-⌘-Z (Shift+Ctrl+Z).

Note

Photoshop only lets you undo changes back to the point when you outset opened the document you lot're working on, meaning you can't close a document and then undo changes you made before you closed it.

Irresolute How Far Back Yous Can Go

If you think you might someday need to get back further than your concluding 50 steps, you tin can make Photoshop remember upwardly to 1,000 steps by changing the program's preferences. Here's how:

  1. Choose Photoshop → Preferences → Performance (Edit → Preferences → Functioning on a PC) .

  2. In the Preferences dialog box ' sHistory States field, selection the number of steps you lot want Photoshop to remember .

    You lot can enter any number between 1 and 1,000 in this field. While increasing the number of history states might help y'all sleep amend, doing so means Photoshop has to keep track of that many more than versions of your certificate, which requires more difficult drive infinite and processing power. And so if yous increase this setting so notice that the programme is running like molasses—or yous're of a sudden out of hard drive infinite—try lowering it.

  3. Click OK when you lot're finished .

Turning Back Fourth dimension with the History Panel

Whereas the Undo and Stride Backward commands allow you move back through changes ane at a time, the History console (Figure 1-10) kicks it upward a notch and lets you lot spring dorsum several steps at once. (You can step dorsum through as many history states as you set in Photoshop'due south preferences—see the previous section.) Using the History panel is much quicker than undoing a long list of changes i by one, and information technology gives y'all a nice list of exactly what tools and bill of fare items you used to change the image—in chronological lodge from height to bottom—letting you lot pinpoint the exact state you desire to jump back to. And, every bit explained in a moment, you can also take snapshots of an image at diverse points in the editing process to make information technology easier to hop back to the state you lot want.

Afterward you brand a few changes to an image, popular open up the History console past clicking its button (circled in Figure 1-10, top) or by choosing Window→History. When you do, Photoshop opens a list of the last fifty things you've done to the image, including opening information technology. To leap back in time, click the step you want to get back to, and Photoshop returns the image to the way it looked at that betoken. If you hop back farther than you lot mean to, simply click a more than recent pace in the list.

Top: The History panel keeps track of everything you do to your images, starting with opening them. You can even take snapshots of an image at crucial points during the editing process, such as when you convert it to black and white and then add a color tint.Bottom: If you take a snapshot, you can revert to that state later with a single click. For example, if you've given your image a sepia (brown) tint and later changed it to blue, you can easily go back to the sepia version by clicking the snapshot you took of it, as shown here, without having to step back through all the other changes you made. What a timesaver!History states don't hang around forever—as soon as you close the document, they're history (ha!). If you think you'll ever want to return to an earlier version of the document, click the

Figure 1-10. Peak: The History panel keeps track of everything you do to your images, starting with opening them. You can even take snapshots of an image at crucial points during the editing process, such as when you catechumen it to black and white and and so add a color tint. Bottom: If you have a snapshot, you can revert to that country later with a single click. For example, if you've given your image a sepia (brown) tint and later changed it to blue, you can easily go back to the sepia version past clicking the snapshot yous took of it, as shown here, without having to step back through all the other changes yous made. What a timesaver! History states don't hang around forever—every bit before long as you close the certificate, they're history (ha!). If you lot think y'all'll always want to render to an earlier version of the document, click the "Create new document from current state" button at the lesser of the History panel (labeled in here). That way, you've got a totally separate document to return to then you don't have to recreate that detail land.

If you'd like the top of the History console to include thumbnail previews showing what your image looks like each and every fourth dimension you salve the certificate—in addition to the thumbnail you automatically get by opening the image—open the History panel's menu and cull History Options. In the resulting dialog box, turn on Automatically Create New Snapshot When Saving. Clicking one of these saved-country thumbnails is a fast and easy manner to jump dorsum to the last saved version of the certificate.

Tip

Yous tin can also get dorsum to the final saved version of a certificate past choosing File→Revert (The Revert Command).

Taking snapshots of an image along the way lets you marking key points in the editing process. A snapshot is more than just a preview of the image—information technology also includes all the edits you've made upwards to that betoken. Think of snapshots as milestones in your editing work: When y'all reach a critical bespeak that you may want to return to, accept a snapshot so you can easily get dorsum to that version of the certificate. To have a snapshot, click the camera icon at the lesser of the History panel. Photoshop adds the snapshot to the height of the panel, just below the saved-country thumbnail(s). The snapshots you take appear in the list in the society you take them.

The History Brush

The History Brush takes the ability of the History panel and lets you focus it on specific parts of an image. So instead of sending the entire image back in time, y'all can use this brush to paint edits away selectively , revealing the previous state of your choosing. For example, you lot could darken a portrait with the Burn tool (High-Dissimilarity Black and White) and so use the History Brush to disengage some of the darkening if you went too far, as shown in Figure 1-11.

Here's how to use the History Castor to undo a serious burn you've applied:

  1. Open an image—in this example, a photograph of a person—and duplicate the prototype layer .

    You'll learn all nearly opening images in Chapter 2, but, for now, choose File→Open; navigate to where the image lives on your estimator, and then click Open up. Next, duplicate the layer by pressing ⌘-J (Ctrl+J).

  2. Activate the Burn tool by pressing Shift-O and so darken part of your image .

    The Burn tool lives in a toolset, so bike through those tools by pressing Shift-O a couple of times (its icon looks like a paw making an O shape). Then mouse over to your epitome and elevate across an area that needs darkening. Straight from the factory, this tool darkens images pretty severely, giving yous a lot to undo with the History Brush.

    By using the History Brush set to the image's earlier state—see step 4 below—you can undo all kinds of effects, including a little over-darkening from using the Burn tool.You can reduce the opacity of the History Brush in the Options bar to make the change more gradual.The Art History Brush works similarly, but it adds bizarre, stylized effects as it returns your image to a previous state, as shown in the box on page 566.

    Figure 1-11. Past using the History Brush set to the epitome's earlier state—see step 4 below—you can disengage all kinds of effects, including a niggling over-darkening from using the Burn tool. You lot can reduce the opacity of the History Brush in the Options bar to make the change more than gradual. The Art History Brush works similarly, but information technology adds baroque, stylized effects as it returns your image to a previous state, as shown in the box on page 566.

  3. Take hold of the History Brush by pressing Y .

    You'll learn all well-nigh brushes and their many options in Chapter 12.

  4. Open the History panel and then click a saved land or snapshot .

    This is where yous pick which version of the image you want to go back to. If yous dragged more in one case in stride 2, you lot'll see several Burn states listed in the console. To reduce just some of the concealment, choose ane of the get-go Burn states; to get rid of all the concealment where you painted, cull the Open country. To pick a country, click in the panel's left-hand column adjacent to a state, and you'll see the History Brush's icon announced in that column.

  5. Mouse over to your image and drag to paint the areas that are too night to reveal the lighter version of the image .

    To make your change more gradual—if, say, yous clicked the Open state but you don't want to erase all the darkening—but lower the Opacity setting in the Options bar. That way, if you lot keep painting in the aforementioned place, y'all'll expose more and more of the original image.

You can use the History Brush to easily undo anything y'all've washed; just pick the land you lot want to revert to in the History panel, and then paint away!

The Revert Command

If y'all've taken your image down a path of craziness from which you lot can't rescue it past using Undo or the History panel, you can revert dorsum to its most recent saved land past choosing File→Revert. This control opens the previously saved version of the epitome, giving you a quick escape route dorsum to foursquare one.

Note

If you lot haven't fabricated any changes to your prototype since information technology was last saved, you tin't run the Revert command; information technology's dimmed in the File carte du jour.

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