Photoshop On Mac : How To Adjust Dark Photo With Photoshop

How many of you own a Digital camera with cybershot function? How many times of you took a picture with this cybershot which the result is very dark not good and you want to delete the file right away. Well.. dont just delete the file yet.. here I’ll share with you a very simple tutorial on How to Adjust Your Dark Photos to become more outstanding photo.

Take a look at this photo for instance.. I took this photo (well she’s the same model again from my previous tutorial) at the KLCC using SONY CyberShot T5 but the lighting is not like what I want, actually this happens sometimes when you’re lazy to set the correct setting on your CyberShot or you’re just lousy to do it.. BTW, on the second picture is better highlights + contrast.. No! I didn’t took the photo for a second time if that’s what you think.. the answer is Photoshop treatment! read on..

STEP 1 : Open the photo that you want to adjust File>Open. In this tutorial we start using a scenenary photos something like this..

STEP 2 : Go to Image>Adjustments>Shadow/Highlights. Adjust the ‘Amount’ of Shadows to be how many percent which you think the best, click the preview box several time or press ’space bar’ to see the effect. In this tutorial I increase the amount of shadows to 50% while amount of Highlights I leave it 0%.

Tips : the more percent the more dark shadows will reveal.

STEP 3 : Now you’ll see a brighter shadows and highlights on the photo. If you still not satisfied.. click the Show More Options box for more Highlights + Shadows adjustment.

Can you see the difference clearly?

STEP 4 : There you go..very simple right!! Checkout this two photos.. You see clearly so obvious the different after we done the adjustment of Shadows/Highlight where the sun reflection on water is become more brighter + the leaf stands out clearly.

STEP 5 : Hmmm.. actually you can make further adjustment by setting the Color/Hue/Saturation to make your photo more outstanding. Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation or press (Mac: Apple+U / PC: ctrl+U). Now adjust only the Saturation to the right means to increasing, the rest just leave it 0.

STEP 6 : Now.. you see the different after a few treatment? amazing right!! still not satisfied? Okay.. go to Image>Levels or press (Mac: Apple+L / PC: ctrl+L). Now as you can see the little tiny white thing on your right is light tone and on the left is dark tone while the middle is neutral tone. Adjust the light + dark tone by dragging the tiny thing towards the middle.

Tips : The less light tone you drag on the White arrow towards the middle the brighter the photo will be, while..the more you drag on the Black arrow towards the middle the darker the photo will be.

STEP 7 : There you go..Waalaah! Practice this simple tutorial on as many as your dark + ugly photos that you took until you master this valuable technique. But remember, this technique can only be apply when you using Adobe Photoshop CS + newer, old version doesn’t have this simple function yet..