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At times, you might find that an image is simply too dark.
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That might be because the original was underexposed or because a reproduction
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was created a little bit too dark. But in any event, when you have an image
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that is just overall too dark, you may want to apply a quick adjustment, in
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order to bring out some more of the shadow detail in the image.
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I'm going to show you a very quick and easy method for instantly brightening up
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the image overall. This effect will brighten all values
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except black or white. Obviously, white can't be brightened
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anymore than it already is and the particular technique I'm going to show
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you will not affect black in the image. But any tonal values in between will be affected.
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Let's take a look at this very simple process.
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I'll start off by creating a copy of the background image layer.
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So, on the Layers panel, I'll drag the thumbnail for the background image layer
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down to the Create New Layer button, the blank sheet of paper icon at the bottom
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of the Layers panel. When I release the mouse, a background
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copy will be created. I can then change the blend mode for this layer.
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The default blend mode is normal, you can see that option selected, with the popup
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at the top left of the Layers panel. But I can click on that popup to change
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to a different blend mode. In this case, I want to use the screen
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blend mode. That will blend the values for my
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background copy with the background image itself, brightening up all pixel values.
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Again, except for pixels that were already either black, or white.
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I'll turn off the visibility for this layer and you can see it'l almost like a
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fill flash effect has been added to the image.
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We have an instant brightening of all of the detail within the photo.
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If you decide the effect was a little bit too strong, you can reduce the Opacity
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using the control at the top right of the Layers panel.
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Simply reduce the value for Opacity in order to dial back the effect.
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In this case, I think I'll tone it down just a little bit so we don't have quite
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as strong a brightening of the midtones within the photo.
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I can then compare the before and after by turning off the visibility for the
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background copy layer. There's the before and then I'll turn on
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the background copy layer again and that gives us the after.
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So with a very simple process, creating a background copy, changing the blend mode
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to screen, and then, perhaps reducing the opacity of that background copy layer,
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were able to pull out quite a bit of shadow detail in the image with very
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little effort.