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Use Levels to Lighten a Dark Image

by Cliff Ping

Digital cameras and phone cameras are great but sometimes the picture you took is too dark. How can you fix this!

I will show you in this video how Levels can be used to bring a dark image back to life. The steps I discuss in the video are listed below.

press the words to the right to view the video:  lighten dark image with levels

Step 1: Select Image>Adjustments>Levels. (Ctrl+L)

Step 2: As you evaluate the histogram of the dark image, you can see that the right-most side of the histogram is far away from the white triangle position.

Step 3: You want to select the white triangle and drag-it to the left, until it is at the edge of the histogram. The image highlight information will improve dramatically.

Step 4: Next, select the black triangle and drag it to the right a little.

Step 5: Now, select the middle triangle and darken the midtones of the image by adjusting its position to the right or lighten the midtones of the image by adjusting its position to the left.

Step 6: Click OK and you’re finished.

Cliff Ping can train you on how-to better use your Adobe and Microsoft software. Get started with Cliff or ask him a question by sending him an e-mail at CliffPing@gmail.com