Using the History Brush Tool in Photoshop

You can also use the History Brush tool to apply an image area from a different state or snapshot to your current state. You’d want to use this tool to restore a portion of an image to an earlier state, while leaving the rest of the heavily modified image alone. Just follow these steps:

1. In the History palette, click in the far-left column of the state or snapshot you want to use as the source for the History Brush tool.
An icon appears, indicating that Photoshop will use this state as the source for the History Brush tool.
In my example, I chose my original image just after cropping it.

2. Select the History Brush tool in the Tool palette.
You can also press Y or Shift+Y to select the tool.

3. On the Options bar, choose any other brush options you want to use, such as brush size and type, mode, opacity and flow percentages, and airbrush.
Having access to blend modes is one advantage the History Brush tool has over the Eraser tool and the Erase to History option.

4. Select the layer in the Layers palette and select the state that you want to paint on in the History palette.

5. Begin to paint.
Photoshop paints over the image in the layer with the image from the state you specified as the origin for the History Brush tool. I painted my original over my filtered image. (I used the Graphic Pen filter.)