Watch the video above then read the instruction below which document the actions taken in the video. The video above is intended as a visual indicator of where to go next, the detail of the tutorial is contained within the textual content of the page below:

The History Tab/Window is one of the most helpful features with Photoshop, the History tab allows you to back-track through the actions taken to a point where you were happy with your image. This may not sound like much but being able to work with impunity liberates you to try things that are new of unfamiliar and still gives you the option to return to a previous point within the images history where you were happy with it.

The History Tab will also allow you to create Snapshots within you image so that you can return to a previous point even if you have taken many actions and exceeded the History Tabs capacity. It is very good practice to create Snapshots with the History tab when you have done a lot of work on your image but are about to embark on something you may not be expert at.

The video above is simply a short one that illustrates how the History tabs builds as actions are taken and how you can click on an action of snapshot to return to that point. You may have seen this happen in prior videos.

To start create a new canvas and do something.

In the video above the first few actions are fairly irrelevant as I am simply building up a few actions to demonstrate how we can back-track through the action simply by clicking on the action in the History tab.

I create a new canvas and then create a new layer to work on, for simplicity I just create a green circle and use the layer style to create a drop shadow. As I have taken actions on the canvas these have been recorded in the ever growing History Tab.

In the video I simply back-track to where I started by clicking on each action individually, you will see that as I do this the image regresses back to where we started. To go back to where we left the image I simply click on the last action taken and we jump back to end where we had all actions applied to the image.

After demonstrating how to move through the action I go back to the last action and right click on that action, in the options list I select New Snapshot which creates a marker in the History that I can refer to from any point in the image history. It is worth doing this when you are satisfied with your image but have further work to do, this will allow you to revert to the snapshot should the further work not be to your liking.

Simple but very useful, the History tab allows you to work and experiment without the fear of losing work.

<< Back | Home | Forward >>