Fixing Underexposed Photos the Easy Way


This is a tonal correction for people who don't like making tonal corrections (more than 60 million Americans suffer from the paralyzing fear of MTC [Making Tonal Corrections]). Since this technique requires no knowledge of Levels or Curves, it's very popular, and even though it's incredibly simple to perform, it does a pretty incredible job of fixing underexposed photos.

Step One

Open an underexposed photo. The photo shown here could've used either a fill flash or a better exposure setting or both.

Step Two

Press Command-J (PC: Control-J) to duplicate the Background layer (this duplicate will be named Layer 1 by default). On this new layer, change the blend mode in the Layers palette from Normal to Screen to lighten the entire photo.

Step Three

If the photo still isn't properly exposed, just press Command-J (PC: Control-J) and duplicate this Screen layer until the exposure looks about right (this may take a few layers, but don't be shy about itkeep copying layers until it looks right).

Step Four

There's a good chance that at some point your photo will still look a bit underexposed, meaning you duplicated the layer again, but now it looks overexposed. What you need is "half a layer." (Half as much lightening.) Here's what to do: Lower the Opacity of your top layer to "dial in" the perfect amount of light, giving you something between the full intensity of the layer (at 100%) and no layer at all (at 0%). For half the intensity, try 50% (did I really even have to say that? Didn't think so). Once the photo looks properly exposed, choose Flatten Image from the Layers palette's flyout menu.

Tip

To fix an overexposed photo, try this same technique, but instead of using Screen (in Step 2), choose Multiply instead.


Before

After (using multiple Screen blend mode layers)



    The Photoshop CS2 Book(c) for Digital Photographers
    The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
    ISBN: B002DMJUBS
    EAN: N/A
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 187
    Authors: Scott Kelby

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