Photoshop is great for editing photos, whether they're for print or for the web. The reason why I love Photoshop so much is because there are numerous ways to go about doing the same thing in the program. Additionally, Photoshop can be easy if you know the right steps to take, which I why tutorials can be helpful.
One great thing about Photoshop is that it can fix the mistakes that cameras make. While shooting a photo, just about everything can go wrong. You can move or the subject can move and you'll have a blurry photo. There could be too much or too little light. Just about anything can happen and mess up your photo.
In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to brighten a photo that came out too dark. This is a great technique to know how to do just in case you ever find yourself with dark photos. Now this won't fix photos that are completely black, but it can help when your subject is standing in the shade or there just wasn't enough light coming into your camera.
So let's begin.
Step 1) Open your photo you're going to use in whatever version of Photoshop you have. If you don't have a photo on your computer already, you can visit free stock photo websites such as sxc.hu or morguefile.com. (Just make sure if you post your photo on the web, you credit properly.)
Step 2) Flatten the image in case it's not already flattened and then duplicate the layer Layer > Duplicate Layer.
Step 3) Next we're going to blur the photo using the Gaussian Blur filter. To get to this step, you go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.
Step 4) Once the Gaussian Blur filter is up, make sure you have the Preview box checked. Also make sure the radius is set to 1.1 pixels. Click OK.
Step 5) Now duplicate the top layer again.
Step 6) Next, apply the Diffuse Glow Filter by going to Filter > Distort > Diffuse Glow. Before you click OK, make sure the values are as follows: Graininess: 4. Glow Amount: 4. Clear Amount: 8.
Step 7) Now change the Blend Mode of the two top layers to Screen using the Layers Channel. Just simply click the drop down menu and select Screen.
Then you're finished with brightening the dark portions of the picture. But now we're going to work on making the light portions even with the dark portions.
Step 8) Select the top layer and while you're selecting the second layer, also click CTRL on your keyboard.
Step 9) Group the two selected top layers by going to Layer > Group Layers.
Step 10) Next we're going to add a layer mask to this group by clicking the box with the circle in it on the bottom of the Layer Chanel box. Make sure the gray color is selected in the flipping color box.
Step 11) Finally, paint over the bright area with a medium sized brush.
