How to Lighten Dark Images with Photoshop CS6 Lighting

The Photoshop program today continues to be one of the most popular editing tools  for various users, and this is because it does not require being a professional to use it.

Especially when making basic edits such as deleting objects. With a little perseverance and ingenuity you will be able to master a large part of the application’s functions , and if what you want is to illuminate a dark photo, today we are going to leave you all the necessary steps to achieve it.

Index( )

  1. How to light exposed photos in Photoshop CS6?
    1. Lighting the photo by levels
    2. curvy lighting
  2. What should you do to lighten photo shadows with Photoshop CS6?
  3. How to lighten only part of a photo in Photoshop CS6?

How to light exposed photos in Photoshop CS6?

Now, we are going to explain to you how you can illuminate exposed photos using the Photoshop tool, so that your photos are edited like a professional , for this you can do it through two methods that we are going to leave each of them in detail .

However, we are going to leave you with some very important small recommendations that you have to take into account before starting so that the edition is in a better way.

  • Never exceed the brightness too much, as this will make the photo or image lose some details, and we do not want to cause the opposite effect, and you would be overexposing the whole work.
  • Finally, although it is not mandatory, we recommend that you always work with the most up-to-date version of the Photoshop program, and you can find it on its official website. This is important, since Adobe constantly releases updates that will allow us to give our photos a better edition. .

Lighting the photo by levels

First of all, you need to find the image you want to lighten and open it with the Photoshop tool. To do this, go to the menu at the top and click on the file option, then select new file and look for the image you are going to edit.

A new document will then be created, and a single layered photo will appear. Now we will begin to illuminate and for this we will use one of the simplest tools, which will allow us to have better control and it is the adjustment by levels, this is found in the panel menu.

When you’ve added this adjustments layer, on top of the other layer that has our original photo, all you have to do is drag the slider to the left, and the photo will begin to lighten.

curvy lighting

The second definitive option that exists to illuminate our photos with the Photoshop program is through a Curves adjustment layer , which is a much more powerful tool than levels.

To brighten a photo with a Curves adjustment layer in Photoshop , simply click across the center of the diagonal line from the bottom left to the top right, and then drag to the top to brighten the photo.

What should you do to lighten photo shadows with Photoshop CS6?

As we go through the various sections of the tutorial, the concept with which we started becomes a little more complicated; however, the goal remains the same, to brighten dark photos with Photoshop .

To lighten shadows it will be necessary to use the Shadows or Highlights adjustment, which is a great   tool in Photoshop CS6 , and offers us a very quick and easy procedure to correct the lighting.

This tool works best when the subject or object being photographed contains a light source coming from behind, giving the subject a foreground that is dark. In areas where there are hard shadows, you can also apply the adjustment and it will be correct. Now, in order for you to have a better understanding of the tool, you will have to follow these simple steps:

  1. Find the image or photograph whose shadows you want to lighten.
  2. Once you find it select settings and then Shadows.
  3. Then a box with a dialog will appear, and automatically the correction will be applied in the preview.
  4. In case you don’t see any changes, then you need to make sure that the checkbox with the preview check is selected.
  5. The settings that are predetermined in said dialog box are in charge of correcting the images or photographs that are backlit. So you have to set the settings yourself by moving the slider to adjust the amount needed for shadow correction .
  6. While the percentage will be lower, the range of colors that will be affected will be much narrower. If you wish, you can establish a value directly in the text box, which will be the percentage.

How to lighten only part of a photo in Photoshop CS6?

So far we have already seen how you can completely illuminate a photograph and also how to illuminate shadows, so if what you want is to lighten only a specific part or area of ​​the photo, all you have to do is  add a new layer, with adjustments of curves, then you increase its atonement and with another layer mask you will place these adjustments to the specific area.

Finally, lightening dark photos or images with the Photoshop tool is something that can be a bit scary at first, but as you can see, it is easy to learn. And besides , thanks to the various functions that the program has, you will be able to illuminate some specific parts and thus achieve extremely striking results.