History Brush Issues

[cvc505]

I have an action that was created to soften the skin in a photo. However, the instructions say that once the action is complete I should go back to a point in the history and using the history brush clean up the eyes ect.

When I try to do this I get an error message that says " Could not use the history brush because the current canvas size idoes not match that of history state." I know the action is good because I have seen others use it without issue. My problem is I have no idea what this error is talking about.

Platform is windows xp, Photoshop is PS7.0

Thanks for any suggestions.

Cvc505:(

[Andrei Doubrovski]

Most probably your action uses well known algorithm:
1) blurs the image > 2) creates history snapshot > 3) returns to the initial (just opened) history state > 4) sets the "blurred" (step 1) history snapshot as reference state for the History Brush > offers you to history-erase from step 4 to step 1.

In case you have resized document before playing the action, the History Brush doesn't work because the document size in step 4 differs from that in step 1. To solve the problem you:
- either resize image after retouching
- or resize the image > save it as PSD (to avoid quality loss) > reopen it to clear the history > play the action.

If you need help on the histories here are flash movies about History Brush (http://simplephotoshop.com/photoshop_tools/history_brushf.htm) and History palette (http://simplephotoshop.com/photoshop_interface/historyf.htm)