How to make a photo lighter in Photoshop. How to brighten a photo in Photoshop

When taking photographs, most of us are faced with such a problem as faded, desaturated colors, but what can I say, all photographs are one way or another subject to post-processing to one degree or another.

This can be a simple correction, color, shadows, contrast, etc., or even up to finishing drawing of individual elements, the sky for example. I can safely say that all photographs almost have to be forced to undergo processing, and it doesn’t really matter what photographic equipment was taken with shot, be it a Canon EOS-1D Mark for a quarter of a million or a Canon A3100IS compact for 4-something thousand, like mine (here I’m not comparing f*** with a finger!). Why can you say so? Just take it and compare the source code and the result of any photographer, and it will be clear that everything is corrected. Only “under-photographers” claim that if a photo is processed, then the photographer is a sucker. This is not true and there are many examples of this.
Okay, I got carried away with something...
There are a huge number of ways to return real saturated color to photos. The simplest is through the command Ctrl + U and just add saturation. And there are more cunning methods. One of them will be discussed. What is the difference between simple and cunning, just do an experiment with one photo and the result will be visible.
I have such a photo, just taken on my compact, as we can see, the color is quite dull, now we will correct it.

Open the photo, be sure to make a copy of the layer Ctrl+J.
Now, go to the menu Image-Mode-Lab. Here Photoshop will ask “perform flattening”, we answer “do not comply!“This is important.

Now call Curves using Ctrl+M.
Here the setting is quite subtle, but the meaning is the same, it is necessary for the curve in channels a and b to intersect in the middle, for this we shift the curve on the left and right proportionally, by the same distance. The method is almost universal, so the settings for different photos approximately the same.

If the photo looks terrible, with unnatural colors, then don’t be alarmed, it can be fixed.
Now we return the desired mode, menu Image-Mode-RGB, and here we also answer “do not flatten layers”.
In my case further actions not required. If everything is not going smoothly with your photo, then simply change the opacity of the modified layer (top), you can try changing the blend mode, for example Soft light,Overlap and the like. But in most cases there is no need to do anything, unless of course the photo is completely hopeless.
Here's what I got, before and after, respectively.

This method is not the only correct one!
Yes, and don’t overdo it with color, sometimes the eye “gets blurry” in the process and your little hands are tempted to add more colors.
The End.
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In general, photography is a very interesting hobby. You can improve your knowledge, for example, on the resource I shoot.net, the information will be useful both for a photographer and a novice hobbyist.

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Very often, novice photographers look at pictures taken digital camera They are disappointed that a photograph that is successful in many respects turns out to be spoiled by insufficient lighting of the main composition or its hiddenness. Fortunately, in the vast majority of cases, the image can be lightened quite well if you master the technique of how to make a photo brighter using Photoshop. Like many other things in working with data graphic editor, lightening photographs is a creative process and will be individual for each specific image.

1. In the simplest case, in order to make a photo brighter in Photoshop, you can use the Auto Contrast tool, and sometimes also Auto Tone. The Auto Contrast and Auto Tone tools are located in the Images section of the main menu and can be accessed by pressing Alt+Shift+Ctrl+L and Shift+Ctrl+L, respectively. Despite automatic processing, Photoshop does a very good job of brightening photos. If any of these tools gives an unsatisfactory result, then its action can be canceled by selecting the “Step back” item from the “Editing” section of the main menu or by pressing the key combination Alt+Ctrl+Z.
   
2. There is also an easy way to manually adjust the brightness. To do this, go from the main menu of the program along the path “Image” - “Correction” - “Levels” or simply press the combination Ctrl keys+ L.

   In the Levels window that opens, move the highlight and midtone sliders to the left until you achieve the desired lightness. Click the “Ok” button to save your settings.
   

3. Depending on original photo, best results can be achieved by adjusting the brightness and contrast, the settings window for which is called up along the path “Image” - “Correction” - “Brightness / Contrast”.

   In the window that opens, the brightness and contrast sliders are set to zero. You can shift them both to the right zone of positive values, and to the left with negative values, thereby changing the values ​​of these parameters.

   If you check the “View” checkbox, you will be able to observe the change in the appearance of the photo in real time, which is very convenient for selecting the optimal parameters.
   

4. After the brightness of the image has been increased, it may be necessary to adjust the color tone or saturation. You can open it by going to “Image” - “Correction” - “Hue/Saturation” or by pressing Ctrl + U.

   In the window that opens, by moving the sliders, you can change and adjust the entire color scheme, and individual channels: red, yellow, green, cyan, indigo and magenta.
   

Hi all!

Today we will talk to you about... IN lately We are discussing the design of photographs in Photoshop. After all, on the eve of the New Year, we all want to please ourselves and our loved ones with beautifully designed photographs. But what if we have photographs that we would like to decorate beautifully and present to our friends, but which suffer in terms of quality. We all post our photos on social networks... But how often do we see that some people don’t even bother to rotate the photo! What can we say about quality?... Many of the posted photographs are such that you don’t even want to look at them - faded, inexpressive, dull... Others post interesting, but again faded photographs, with faded colors, on their websites. But this is your home site! Don’t you really want people to visit your pages? social networks or to your websites and enjoyed looking through your photographs? And it's so simple! That is why today we will devote our article to how to do bright photos . After all, making a photo brighter is actually VERY simple! In principle, just one tool is enough to transform your photos. But today I will show you not one, but two techniques - a couple of amazing, unique, one might even say, magical tools in Photoshop, with the help of which you can instantly transform and make your photo brighter and more saturated. Using any of them (your choice) you will achieve amazing results.

The reasons why photographs turn out faded are quite varied: a weak camera, poor camera settings, photography in automatic mode, insufficient lighting, etc., etc. But what we are now concerned about is not the causes, but how to correct the consequences, and also how to do this as quickly, simply and effectively as possible. That is why today I will tell you how, using just ONE action, you can make a photo brighter and more saturated. And we will use two different tools - “Curves” and “Levels”, the capabilities of which are simply unique.

Method No. 1. How to make a photo brighter in Photoshop using the eyedroppers of the Curves tool

There is one amazing opportunity that I advise you to definitely use in order to make your photos bright and rich. Be sure to use this very simple and rather tricky technique.

1. Open the photo in Photoshop. I prepared in advance this photograph, taken in Ukraine in the city of Kharkov:

Monument to Lovers, quite an interesting sculptural composition. But the photograph, as you can see, is very faded. Now we will quickly fix it and make it brighter, richer and much more attractive. What's the problem with this photo? Look at it carefully and notice that there are no absolutely black and absolutely white dots on it, all the colors are some kind of intermediate, grayish... But for us this is not a problem. We are professionals!

2. In the top horizontal line, click on the “Image” option, then move the mouse cursor over the “Correction” option, located almost at the very top of the drop-down list (second from the top), follow the arrow to the new window that opens, where we click on the “Curves...” option ( third from top).

3. Now the fun begins. In the window that opens called “Curves” right below graphic image In your photo you will see three pipettes: the first pipette is black, the second pipette is gray and the third pipette is white. Accordingly, each of them is responsible for displaying pure black, pure white and intermediate shades of gray in a photograph. To change the quality of a photo and make the photo brighter, more saturated, you need to use each of the eyedroppers.

We begin to transform our photo. First of all, click the mouse on the first pipette (black pipette), after which, when you hover the mouse over the photo, the mouse cursor changes and takes the shape of a pipette. Now click with the eyedropper (mouse) on the dark color in the photo. IN in this case The darkest places will be behind the girl's ear, or on the girl's chin. And instantly our photo becomes very bright and saturated:

As a result, we made the darkest area become completely black, and as a result, all the colors became much brighter.

4. Then we adjust the white color in the same way, that is, again click on the white eyedropper (far right) and click on the lightest place in the photo with the eyedropper. Purely visually, the photograph has remained virtually unchanged. It became just a little lighter and more natural:

5. All that remains is to adjust the intermediate (gray) shades. Click on the gray eyedropper (in the middle), and then on any neutral gray color in the photo, for example, on the girl’s forehead. The result is in front of you:

All the colors have changed, even the leaves in the background have become autumn-warm and acquired a beautiful reddish tint. All the colors began to play. The photo has become much brighter and richer.

6. Confirm all changes by clicking on the “OK” button.

Compare both images again -

TO:

and AFTER:

Method number 2. How to make a photo brighter using the sliders of the Levels tool

1. Open the photo. This time we took a photo of deer taken in the Czech Republic at the Marianske Lazne resort:

2. We go in the same way through the “Images” option ->"Correction". But this time we select the “Levels...” option:

3. A window called “Levels” opens in front of us. Here is a histogram of our image, which shows which colors predominate in the image - black (dark), gray (medium) or white (light). Horizontally, the histogram reflects brightness levels - from 0 to 255, and vertically - the number of points corresponding this level brightness Under the histogram, as far as you can see, there are three sliders - again three colors: black (left), white (right) and gray (middle). By moving these three sliders, you achieve the same effect as last time: the photo becomes brighter and more saturated. What should you pay attention to here? Ideally, the histogram (“mountain” of black color) should start at the place where the black slider is located, and end where the white slider is located. If your photo is faded, gray, expressionless, then the histogram will be different, as in the image below:

Look again carefully at the histogram: on the left side we have empty space left, and the histogram itself (the beginning of the mountain) begins with a shift to the right. This suggests that there is not enough black in our image and that there are no completely black dots in this photo. Therefore, in this case, you need to slightly move the slider responsible for the black color to the right, so to speak, “to the foot of the mountain.” We do not touch the white slider, since in our case only dark shades are not enough. Thus, we shift the reference point, and an absolutely black color appears in the photograph, as a result of which all colors become colorful, saturated, and contrasting:

You can see that for this image we moved the left slider a little to the right and left the other sliders unchanged. You can move the black and white sliders yourself and see how the image changes, and you will immediately understand everything. Midtones (the slider in the center) are usually adjusted automatically after making such adjustments. But if you are not satisfied automatic setting gray slider, you can move it a little to achieve the desired effect.

4. After completing all actions, click on “OK”.

Comparing two images -

TO:

and AFTER:

For comparison, I show another example:

In this case, the photo is very dark, also faded, almost nothing is visible on it. As the histogram says, right side Almost all empty! This means that there are not enough light tones in this case and that there is no absolute white in this image. What are we doing? The same thing, but now we move not the left, but the right (white) slider, we shift it in the same way towards the center to achieve the effect we need:

As you can see, I moved the white slider almost to the middle of the histogram, and also moved the black slider just a little to the right. Thus, by moving the sliders closer to the center (to the base of the “mountain” or to the very beginning of the “mountain”), you can adjust the brightness and color saturation of faded photographs, both too light and too dark. After all, in the dark image the colors were mostly medium shades, and the photograph looked faded in the same way.

Compare both images -

TO:

AND AFTER:

Method number 3. How to make a photo brighter using both the “Levels” and “Curves” tools with a curvature of the black diagonal in S-shape

Another example for comparison.

1. I picked up another photo with sunflowers, taken in the western part of Ukraine. And again, our photo is quite pale, it does not reflect real, natural colors and shades:

In this photo it is even difficult to find a sufficiently dark or sufficiently light point. Therefore, we apply both of the above methods.

2. First, use the Levels tool and move both the black and white sliders a little closer to the center. Like this:

The photography has already become much better. Click "OK". Now we have really quite dark and light dots in the photo. In principle, you can stop now if you are satisfied with the result.

3. But we're now using the Curves tool and our eyedroppers. We carry out all the actions described at the very beginning - in the same sequence. First, click on the black eyedropper, and then with this eyedropper click on the darkest point of the photo, for example, on the trees. As a result, we get this image:

Photography just got better! Click on the white eyedropper, and then on the bright point photos. The result is quite optimal. We will not use the gray pipette in this case, since they are not shown in the photo. gray colors. And if you click on green or yellow shades with this eyedropper, then your photo will turn into something from the realm of fantasy - like sunflowers with purple or blue leaves. Therefore, we limit ourselves to only black and white pipette.

4. But let’s add one more trick to our description, which also helps very well to correct the fadedness of photographs. In the same “Curves” window in front of you, the diagram displays all the changes that we made using pipettes: lines of red, blue and green flowers moved and took a new position. But you can also transform the black line (this is the channel line RGB). How?

I show you another very effective way improving the quality of photos. You need to put two points on this black line (see the screenshot below for details), and then, grabbing the upper right point, bend this line and pull it up a little. Now, grabbing the bottom left point with the mouse, you need to move this point down the same distance. As a result, the black straight line will become curved S shape:

Although, in my opinion, in this case this is already an unnecessary action, it seems to me that the photograph has become too contrasty, I would say that the contrast and color are already “off scale”. But I will leave the result obtained, if only for the purpose that you know and try to use this very effective tool - giving a black diagonal S-shaped.

So, compare the result of our work -

TO:

and AFTER:

Homework:

Select a few photos.

Make three photos sharper and more vibrant by using the Curves tool's eyedroppers.

Make three photos sharper and richer by using the Levels tool sliders.

Make three photos sharper and more vibrant by bending the black diagonal of the Levels tool and shaping it S-shape.

Let's summarize:

1. Did you find out how to make a photo brighter in Photoshop, using such unique tools as “Curves” and “Levels”.

2. Photoshop has a lot of different options for improving the quality of photos. You can make your photo brighter in other ways. The techniques described in this article are the simplest and most effective. And now you know how with one movement, as if by a wave magic wand, you can take bright photos.

3. Let us repeat once again what features can be used:

Apply the eyedroppers of the Curves tool;

Move the sliders of the “Levels” tool closer to the center;

Make the diagonal black with the Levels tool S-shape.

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The main problem with unprofessional photographs is insufficient or excessive lighting. Hence arise various disadvantages: unnecessary haze, dull colors, loss of detail in shadows and/or highlights.

If you get a picture like this, don’t despair - Photoshop will help improve it slightly. Why "slightly"? But because excessive enhancement can ruin the photo.

To work, we will need a problem photo.

As you can see, there are disadvantages: there is haze, dull colors, and low contrast and clarity.
This image needs to be opened in the program and a copy of the layer called "Background". Let's use hotkeys for this. CTRL+J.

Dehaze

First you need to remove unwanted haze from the photo. This will slightly increase the contrast and color saturation.

The haze in the photo has disappeared. Create a copy (fingerprint) of all layers using the keys CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E, and move on to enhancing the detail.

Increased detail

Our photo has blurry contours, especially noticeable on the shiny parts of the car.

1. Create a copy of the top layer ( CTRL+J) and go to the menu "Filter". We need a filter « Color contrast» from section "Other".

   

2. We adjust the filter so that small details of the car and background become visible, but not the color. When we finish setting, press OK.

   

3. Because there is a limit to how much radius can be reduced, you may not be able to completely remove colors from the filter layer. To be sure, this layer can be made colorless using the keys CTRL+SHIFT+U.

   

4. Change the blending mode for the Color Contrast layer to "Overlap", or on "Bright Light" depending on how sharp the shot we need.

   

5. Create another merged copy of the layers ( CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E).

   

6. You should know that when sharpening increases, not only the “useful” parts of the image will become sharp, but also the “harmful” noise. To avoid this, let's delete them. Go to the menu "Filter - Noise" and move on to point "Reduce Noise".

   

7. When setting up a filter, the main thing is not to go too far. Fine image details should not disappear along with noise.

   

8. Create a copy of the layer from which noise has been removed and apply the filter again "Color Contrast". This time we set the radius so that the colors become visible.

   

9. There is no need to desaturate this layer, change the blending mode to "Chroma" and adjust the opacity.

   

Color correction

1. Being on the topmost layer, create an adjustment layer "Curves".

2. Click on the eyedropper (see screenshot) and, by clicking on the black color in the image, determine the black point.

3. We also determine the white point.

Result:

4. Lighten the entire image a little by placing a point on the black curve (RGB) and dragging it to the left.

We can finish here, the task has been completed. The picture became much brighter and clearer. If desired, it can be tinted to give it more atmosphere and completeness.

From this tutorial we learned how to remove haze from a photo, how to sharpen it, and how to straighten colors by setting the black and white points.