History Brushes

[Rick]

I'm a Photoshop 5.5 novice (as you can tell by my restoration efforts), there is one aspect that makes my teeth itch.

How in the world do you use the history brush? I've tried following the techniques that were stated in the various books on restoration.

I tried using the technique for the "brother and sisters" photo for the various wrinkles and creases and tried using the history brush set to Contiguous @ 15-20%.

When I tried to get rid of the crease, (not knowing what to expect) and all I got was a brown line and i could not figure out what else to do from there since this was never mentioned in any of the books that I've read.

am I forgetting a step?
Thanks in advance,

Rick

[thomasgeorge]

Rick, Try this: with the photo open, run the dust/scratch filter on the photo to eliminate most of the "junk". I begin with Radius and Threshold settings at "0" then adj. first the radius to do the gross cleanup then tweak the Threshold . Next click the Rt pointing radio button arrow at the top of the History pallete and select New Snapshot. There should now be two history states at the top of the History"box". In the History pallete box click on "Open" to restore the active window photo to the state it was in before you ran the Dust/Scratch filter. Now left click on the bottom snapshot eye icon box in the history pallete ,select History brush with the size you want and a soft edge and paint away Be sure you are using the Newest snapshot as your source and that you are NOT using the Art History brush, unless of course ,you are applying some special effects. Hope this helps. Tom

[thomasgeorge]

Rick, OOPs!! I ment LEFT click on the radio button arrow. Sorry, suffered another terrible "train of thought " derailment again. Tom

[DJ Dubovsky]

Rick,

Anytime you use the history brush, Photoshop wants to know how far back in your history pallette you want to paint back in.

To do that you need to click in one of the little boxes to the left of what ever history level you want to bring back. This could be the opening snapshot or maybe you want to bring something back seven history steps ago. Just click the little box next to that step (don't activate the step just click in the box to the left) You will see a history brush appear in the box next to the history layer you chose. This means anything you paint with the history brush will look like it was when it was in that state. If things don't quite work out, check your options maybe the modes not set to normal or maybe your opacity isn't set to what you want. Hope that helps

DJ

[Doug Nelson]

Does anyone actually use the 'art history brush'?

Examples?

[thomasgeorge]

Doug, I've tried using it but,well, ..... perhaps it is necessary to cut ones ear off as a prelude to the proper operation of said tool. What I did with it could possibly result in my being tried by the world court for crimes against good taste. Tom.

[DJ Dubovsky]

I haven't really seen a need to use it myself. I can see the potential if you are doing an artistic rendering but not so much for basic restoration. I could be wrong and maybe someone out there knows a good way to use it besides smearing up a good picture. I'm eager to learn.
DJ

[akj]

Hi Guys

Just thought I would share with you want I know about the art history brush.

You are right DJ, there probably isn't much use for it in photo restoration. From what I've read the key is to use very small brush sizes otherwise it will obliterate your image. I've only played with it a couple of times, but I've attached two images where I've used it to turn a photo into a "painting".

It was a while ago so I'll try to remember what I did:

1. Go to art history brush and get a really small size brush
2. Paint over the entire image
3. Go to Filter--Artistic--Dry Brush
4. Go to Filter--Texture--Texturizer--Sandstone
5. If the texture filter was overdone do Filter--Fade and adjust the slider to where it looks good.
6. If you've lost detail in key areas such as eyes, etc. switch to history brush and paint back detail.

Produces kind of an interesting effect.

Amanda

[akj]

Here's another example:

[DJ Dubovsky]

I like that one even better. Beautiful dog. American eskimo?
DJ

[akj]

You're close--samoyed. Kind of like an American eskimo, but bigger.

[kathleen]

this is a thread i have been hoping for. amanda, in the past i've done several google searches looking for products of the art history brush, and what few I found I did not like nearly so well as what you've done here.

going to copy and save your instructions. thanks so much.

hey dj, i thought your explanation on the history brush was really clear and good. gold star.

[akj]

Kathleen, I'm glad I was of help to you! So many others have helped me out on this forum that it makes me feel good to give back. Gee--now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside

Amanda

[DJ Dubovsky]

Kathleen_Thanks for the comments on my instructions. I usually need things explained very simply to understand them so I tried to do that. Sometimes if you can simplify something it makes it less intimidating. Guess it worked.

Amanda_I couldn't tell the size and that was the first thing that popped into my head. I love the samoyed breed. They are so beautiful. I have a close cousin, a Siberian Husky.
DJ

[farron]

History Brushes

Hi,

This is sort of off topic, but when I saw the PS History Brush mentioned, it reminded me that I just ran across a tutorial a few days ago which shows how to duplicate this function in PSP7:

http://www.cableone.net/philc/whosays/History/History.htm

Thought it might be of interest.

Farron