Tutorial | How to Lighten and Brighten Your Photos
Over the next couple of months I will be featuring a series of tutorials on photo editing. Hopefully you will learn how to make your ordinary photos look extra-ordinary using a few simple steps! Today we will begin with one of the most basic techniques – Lighten and Brighten Your Photo. I will be using Photoshop CS5 for my tutorials, but this technique should be similar for Adobe Elements users.
Original Photo SOOC (straight out of camera)
It isn’t too bad in its original state. But it can definitely use some brightening up!
Here are some quick tips to give your photos a quick, simple brighten:
First we begin by duplicating the layer. That way, when we make adjustments, it will adjust the duplicate layers and the bottom layer will remain the original photograph you began with.
Step One: Duplicate Your Photo
1. Unlock your original photo, by double clicking Layer 0.
2. Duplicate your original photo, by right clicking and selecting, Duplicate Layer.
Step Two: Lightening Your Photo
1. Select the Duplicate Layer (on the top) and change Blend Modes from “Normal” to “Screen”.
2. If your image is too bright, adjust your Opacity Slider down to taste.
WOW!! Doesn’t that one step make a huge difference??
Now the photo is lightened, but now it lacks a little contrast in color.
Step Three: Add Contrast to POP
1. Select the “Screen: Layer (on the top) and change Blend Modes from “Screen” to “SoftLight”.
2. Adjust your Opacity Slider down to taste.
The opacity of the layers will be different depending on your photo. Just have fun, play around and tweak each photo until it looks best. (On this particular photo I used 75% Opacity on the Screen layer, and 30% Opacity on the Soft Light layer)
Before and After
Three simple steps made an incredible difference in this photo…
When you are happy with your final picture, don’t forget to save so you don’t lose your changes. Select “save as” and jpeg as your format. I like to name my file slightly different, so my original photo still stays intact. For example, this is how I would save as: IMG8015-lighten.
I hope this has been a help to you! Be sure to check back soon for another photo editing tutorial.
15 Comments
Chris
March 8, 2012Thanks for the awesome tips, I’ve only been using lighten showdow & it’s sometime too harsh, can’t wait to try this!!
Moi
March 8, 2012Thanks so much.This is so helpful.You are the best:)
Corinna
March 8, 2012Thank you so very much for this great and effective tutorial. I am a PSE beginner and happy to find easy tutorials to follow and learn thereby.
Cynthia
March 8, 2012Awesome tutorial, thank you.
Tetet
March 8, 2012This is so easy and useful! Thanks a bunch!
Vicky
March 9, 2012Thank you so much for this helpful tip.It’s a piece of cake.I would always lighten my photos the wrong way and end up with greenish or reddish ones.You’re the best!
Vera
March 10, 2012Wow. I love the simplicity of this method! Thank you so much for sharing
Gayle
March 11, 2012This was simply amazing! I made it into a Photoshop action and I’ve already gone back and fixed some of my photos and redone some layouts. They look sooooo much better! Thanks so very much!
Krista
March 12, 2012Doesn’t this technique make a HUGE difference? Great job on turning this into a time-saving step. I was thinking of making this an action as well!
aimee
March 14, 2012This is a very very nice tip and easy to remember. I tried it and i will definitely use this! thanks!
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Leticia
August 10, 2012OMG! Such a difference. I´ve just try this with a pic of my daugther, and was like magic! Thank you so much for the tip
Krista
August 13, 2012Isn’t this a miracle tip?? I use it on almost EVERY photo! Glad this helped you.
rachael
May 2, 2013What a lifesaver – I am always messing around with curves and levels, thinking I would achieve this effect, and NOPE! So thank you!!