Try This Handy Photoshop Trick to Lighten Dark Spots in Your Photos

Sometimes, to get the lighting right in-camera, we’ve got to sacrifice some spots to darkness. High-dynamic range photography, known as HDR, composites multiple exposures to draw out hyper-realistic details and evens out the lighting range. That kind of effect is possible to achieve in Photoshop, too—and with more subtlety than most HDR. Here’s how to do it:

How to Bring Back Shadow Detail

In this tutorial by Phlearn, we’re shown how to isolate parts of an image and lighten them up without unbalancing the lighting curves of the entire image. It’s easy:

  1. Create a duplicate layer.
  2. Click adjustments -> shadows/highlights.
  3. Click show more options.
  4. Leave the highlights at zero, and play with all the shadow options until you can see the details you want.
  5. Create a layer mask.
  6. Paint white over the details that need lightening, while the rest of the image remains as it was.

how-to-lighten-pictures

After a bit of practice, you’ll find it’s easy to gain an eye for balanced lighting and colors, and you’ll never again have to worry about imperfect lighting rigs or overdone HDR.

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