Using the Fill to History Feature in Photoshop

If you can easily select the area you want to replace with a specific state, you can use the Fill to History feature. Suppose you didn’t like the sky in a particular image. You selected the sky area and then added clouds by using the Clouds filter. Now you want to put the original sky back, but don’t want to reverse any of the other edits you performed in the meantime. Just follow these steps to replace an area by using the Fill to History feature:

1. Select a state as the source for the Fill to History function in the History palette.
For example, select the state that has the original sky.

2. Choose the current state and use your favorite selection tools to select the area you want to replace.
For example, if you remembered to save your original sky selection when you originally added clouds, you can choose Select➪Load Selection and retrieve that selection.

3. Choose Edit➪Fill and then select History from the Use pop-up menu.

4. Click OK to fill your selection with the image area from the selected state.

When Photoshop won’t let you go back
Sometimes you may see a No symbol when trying to use the Eraser with the Erase to History option, the History Brush tool, or the Fill with History command. You must be sure that your current image is the same file size (same number of pixels) as the state you are trying to go back to. Actions such as cropping, trimming, using the Image Size or Canvas Size commands, or rotating any amount other that 180 degrees can prevent you from going back to a previous state. However, if you happen to have a square image, you can rotate in 90-degree increments and still use the Eraser with the Erase to History option.