History Painting

The History brush works just like the Brush tool, except it allows you to paint backward in time. After you specify a history state in the History palette, you can then paint with the History brush and restore parts of an image. I find the History brush especially useful when removing an image from its background with the Extract filter. Rather than restoring areas that were accidentally erased in the Extract dialog box with the Cleanup tool, I sometimes prefer to apply the filter, and restore those areas in the image window with the History Brush.

To apply this technique, complete your extraction by choosing Filter à Extract to open the dialog box, and click OK to apply the filter. As a result, the extracted image appears on its own transparent layer with no Background. F/Ctrl+click the Create A New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a layer underneath the extracted layer. Press D to reset the application default colors of black foreground and white background. Press F+Delete (Mac) or Ctrl+Backspace (Win) to fill the new layer with white. Doing so provides a clean canvas underneath the image for you to clearly see what needs to be restored. Choose Window à History to display the History palette. Then in the palette, click to the left of the history state positioned just before the Extract filter. Abrush icon appears next to the history state.

To restore the edges of the image with sharp clarity, choose a hard round brush from the Presets Picker in the Options palette and click the extracted image layer in the Layers palette. Make sure the brush opacity level is set to 100% in the Options palette and  begin painting in the areas of the image that need to be restored. As you add brushstrokes, Photoshop goes back in time and magically restores those areas.