Lighting and exposing photographs correctly is the fist step in getting a perfect shot.  But it just doesn’t happen on the camera all the time.  Never fear – there are several tricks for fixing a too dark or too light image using Photoshop Elements.

Always start with an one-layer image.  If the image has more than one layer, right click on the layers palette and select Flatten.  You might want to duplicate your file before you do this, if there are adjustment details you’d like to preserve.

Keep in mind that, if you have blown-out highlights in your image (bright white areas with no detail), not even Photoshop can restore those!

For most photos, you will only need to use one of the following methods to improve the exposure.  Worst case, use one, then use a layer mask to apply another to problem areas only.  Need help with that? Post a comment and I’ll give you some pointers.

Correcting Lighting and Exposure Issues in Photoshop Elements – Quickest Method

• Check out this post about using PSE blending modes for the quickest possible exposure fix.

Using the Shadows/Highlights Function in Photoshop Elements to Correct Lighting Issues

• Use this method if the quick fix above is too drastic.
• From the Enhance Menu, select Adjust Lighting, then Shadows/Highlights.
• After lightening shadows and darkening highlights as needed, use the Midtone Slider last.

Correcting Tonal Issues in Photoshop Elements Using Levels

It will help to look over the first installment of my workflow series, reading histograms, if you haven’t worked with Levels before.

Although the Levels Adjustment looks intimidating, it’s really not so bad and can be quite helpful.  A little understanding of how the adjustment works might help.

Levels adjusts lightness and colors in your image by asking you to identify what is black and what is white in your picture.  After telling Photoshop where to look for black pixels and white pixels, Levels calibrates the brightness of the other colors accordingly and should give your image more correct color representation.

Levels Adjustment – Most Exact Method

• Add a Levels Adjustment Layer by clicking on the half-black half-white circle near the top of the Layers Palette
• Click on the Set Black Point Eyedropper to activate it, then click on a point in your picture that should be black.  The key words here are “should be.”  You are defining black for PSE, so something that you know should be black might not look like pure black to you.  That’s the problem you’re correcting, of course.

• You can always move the Levels Adjustment Dialogue Box by clicking in the dark Title Bar and dragging.)
• Next, click on the Set White Point Eyedropper to activate it, then click on a point in your picture that should be white.
• Finally, if you need to, click the Set Gray Point eyedropper and click on a point that should be what they call a “neutral gray.”  Imagine a color half-way between black and white, and play with it until your picture looks good.
• Instead of using the Gray Point eyedropper, try adjusting the Midtones Slider in the middle of the Input section.  Slide it a little to the left or right, until you’re satisfied.
• If you click more than once with any eyedropper, you will reset the Color Point each time.
• You can always click Reset to start from scratch.

The Levels Adjustment box also has a Auto setting which works quite well sometimes.  You might try this button first, before spending much time on the others.  Or, use it as a starting point for fine-tuning using the sliders.

Is this info helpful?  What other methods to you guys use for lighting improvements in Photoshop?

Erin