Modifying history in Histroy Explory

[aworonow]

I zoomed in on a processed image, and was clicking successive steps applied (using the History Explorer). I found a step I wish I had not done. Is there some way to remove that step using the History Explorer? How about just modifying it?

What happens if I bring up the image just prior to the step I did not like, then bring up the process just after the one I regret and apply it. Will the History Explorer remain in its original form or will all the subsequent steps just disappear?

I guess I could just push buttons, but some guidance would be very helpful.

Alex

[Nocturnal]

I'm pretty sure the history stack does not work that way. Here is what I would do, assuming step n is the one you want to eliminate.

- load history explorer (HE)
- drag a process icon onto the desktop to preserve it
- use HE to bring the image back to step n - 1 or use Ctrl-Z to undo to the same step
- open the saved process icon
- either erase all steps from step 1 to step n and then drag the icon onto your image
    or
- drag/drop step  n + 1 to the last one onto the image, one at a time

There may be better ways that others can describe.

[Niall Saunders]

Hi Sander,

That's more or less how I tackle things - but, I also save individual Process Icons as Numbered (and named) steps (e.g. p04_DBE, or p07_Curves_msk_04). In the second example, the Curves Process was applied through an 'inverted' mask that was based on an Image Icon that I would have called "i04" (which would, in turn, have had a Process History associated with it.

All such Process and Image Icons get saved as I work through the steps I choose to execute on an image. I can also have a saved Process History icon that I might name "p01_to_p06" - this is quite common in my workflow where I perform CROP, DBE, BGN, CC, HISTO (to clip off the darkest 100 pixels in each channel) and HISTO again (to move into the non-linear space) - all of these steps being a typical "do these on the original MasterLight before doing anything else" stage at the start of my main image-processing exercise.

Of course, each of us will develop their own method of working. Personally, I like to be able to 'rewind the clock', and to try something entirely different to see if I get better results. However, I have seen others who simply keep throwing processes at an image, and a few CTRL-Z 'Undos' as well, until they finally get an image that pleases them - at which point they save a JPG version and dump everything else (sometimes even deleting all the raw data as well  )

[aworonow]

Big thanks to both of you.
I usually keep icons and even clone images at major points along the processing trail. The History Explorer does a lot of that automatically. One thing I have also tried is going back to some point in the HE and grabbing an image, cloning it and operating on the clone with the steps from the HE, leaving the original HE trail untouched. Any way. Thanks again,
Alex W.