dsrt1684 Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 At my Arizona reception, we didn't pay for a photographer since we did that with our reception in Utah. So I just had my friends taking photos; however, the lighting wasn't good and the pictures are quite dark. I tried to pick ones that weren't so dark, but they still have a dark look to it, which doesn't seem to go well with the colors of the paper. Before, I start adding journaling and elements, I want to try and fix these photos. I don't know a lot about photography and lighting and brightness and contrast. I played around a bit, but nothing looked good. Anyone have any ideas on how to make the photos fit more with the colored background pages? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenniferZ Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 Try this to lighten your photos. Make two copies of your photos (you can do this right in your LO, or you can do it on each photo individually). The bottom layer will be your regular photo. On the layer above that one, change the blend mode to "Overlay." It will look really dark, but don't panic! We'll fix it in a minute. Lower the opacity of the overlay layer to about 50% for now. On the very top layer, change that blend mode to "Screen." Now, go ahead and adjust the opacity of the screen layer and the overlay layer. If it's too washed out, lower the opacity of the screen layer. If the details are too dark, lower the opacity of the overlay layer and bump up the screen layer. When you are finished you can merge all the layers, and if you want to tweak it some more, do a levels or a curves adjustment. I always check "Auto" and then if I don't like it, I either cancel it, adjust it a bit, start over and make my own adjustments, or stick with the original. HTH!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teecee Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Hi Katie, Jennifer gave you some great advice. Another thing you may want to try is to open your photo, make a duplicate and close the original. Then go to Enhance>Auto Smart Fix. If you don't like the results, just press CTRL+Z to undo. You could also try adjusting the brightness by going to Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Brightness/Contrast and adjust the sliders. You may also want to try Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Shadows/Highlights - again adjust the sliders. Sometimes you just have to play around with the different options. Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsrt1684 Posted December 24, 2015 Author Share Posted December 24, 2015 Ok, I will try that. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindarobin Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Yet another method: Open the Levels dialog box (Ctrl+L or Enhance> Adjust Lighting> Levels) Generally, you want to clip the end points, then move the middle slider to the left to brighten the mid-tones. This tool is like magic the way it can bring back the details hidden in the dark. You can find lots of articles with more technical details about histogram levels. Clipping the end points means bringing the outer sliders inwards to meet where the curve starts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Such great information from everyone and I always wanted to know more about levels, that's very helpful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terriscrapper Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Try this to lighten your photos. Make two copies of your photos (you can do this right in your LO, or you can do it on each photo individually). The bottom layer will be your regular photo. On the layer above that one, change the blend mode to "Overlay." It will look really dark, but don't panic! We'll fix it in a minute. Lower the opacity of the overlay layer to about 50% for now. On the very top layer, change that blend mode to "Screen." Now, go ahead and adjust the opacity of the screen layer and the overlay layer. If it's too washed out, lower the opacity of the screen layer. If the details are too dark, lower the opacity of the overlay layer and bump up the screen layer. When you are finished you can merge all the layers, and if you want to tweak it some more, do a levels or a curves adjustment. I always check "Auto" and then if I don't like it, I either cancel it, adjust it a bit, start over and make my own adjustments, or stick with the original. HTH!!! Hi I saw your post and it seems to work to a degree but I have a question...when I change the second layer to overlay it really doesn't change anything and its definitely not dark???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenniferZ Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Try this to lighten your photos. Make two copies of your photos (you can do this right in your LO, or you can do it on each photo individually). The bottom layer will be your regular photo. On the layer above that one, change the blend mode to "Overlay." It will look really dark, but don't panic! We'll fix it in a minute. Lower the opacity of the overlay layer to about 50% for now. On the very top layer, change that blend mode to "Screen." Now, go ahead and adjust the opacity of the screen layer and the overlay layer. If it's too washed out, lower the opacity of the screen layer. If the details are too dark, lower the opacity of the overlay layer and bump up the screen layer. When you are finished you can merge all the layers, and if you want to tweak it some more, do a levels or a curves adjustment. I always check "Auto" and then if I don't like it, I either cancel it, adjust it a bit, start over and make my own adjustments, or stick with the original. HTH!!! Hi I saw your post and it seems to work to a degree but I have a question...when I change the second layer to overlay it really doesn't change anything and its definitely not dark???? Can you post the photo you are trying to correct? If your photo is already light, the overlay layer won't do much. If your photo is dark and you are trying to lighten it, the overlay layer will make it appear darker, but will help retain details when you further lighten with a screen layer. I will be better able to advise when I know what you're trying to correct. Also, let me know the program you are using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terriscrapper Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Try this to lighten your photos. Make two copies of your photos (you can do this right in your LO, or you can do it on each photo individually). The bottom layer will be your regular photo. On the layer above that one, change the blend mode to "Overlay." It will look really dark, but don't panic! We'll fix it in a minute. Lower the opacity of the overlay layer to about 50% for now. On the very top layer, change that blend mode to "Screen." Now, go ahead and adjust the opacity of the screen layer and the overlay layer. If it's too washed out, lower the opacity of the screen layer. If the details are too dark, lower the opacity of the overlay layer and bump up the screen layer. When you are finished you can merge all the layers, and if you want to tweak it some more, do a levels or a curves adjustment. I always check "Auto" and then if I don't like it, I either cancel it, adjust it a bit, start over and make my own adjustments, or stick with the original. HTH!!! Hi I saw your post and it seems to work to a degree but I have a question...when I change the second layer to overlay it really doesn't change anything and its definitely not dark???? Can you post the photo you are trying to correct? If your photo is already light, the overlay layer won't do much. If your photo is dark and you are trying to lighten it, the overlay layer will make it appear darker, but will help retain details when you further lighten with a screen layer. I will be better able to advise when I know what you're trying to correct. Also, let me know the program you are using. Hi Jennifer, I'm doing a photo book for our sorority and we work this soup kitchen...I am kind of at the mercy of others taking photos on their smart phones, I use pse13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenniferZ Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Try this to lighten your photos. Make two copies of your photos (you can do this right in your LO, or you can do it on each photo individually). The bottom layer will be your regular photo. On the layer above that one, change the blend mode to "Overlay." It will look really dark, but don't panic! We'll fix it in a minute. Lower the opacity of the overlay layer to about 50% for now. On the very top layer, change that blend mode to "Screen." Now, go ahead and adjust the opacity of the screen layer and the overlay layer. If it's too washed out, lower the opacity of the screen layer. If the details are too dark, lower the opacity of the overlay layer and bump up the screen layer. When you are finished you can merge all the layers, and if you want to tweak it some more, do a levels or a curves adjustment. I always check "Auto" and then if I don't like it, I either cancel it, adjust it a bit, start over and make my own adjustments, or stick with the original. HTH!!! Hi I saw your post and it seems to work to a degree but I have a question...when I change the second layer to overlay it really doesn't change anything and its definitely not dark???? Can you post the photo you are trying to correct? If your photo is already light, the overlay layer won't do much. If your photo is dark and you are trying to lighten it, the overlay layer will make it appear darker, but will help retain details when you further lighten with a screen layer. I will be better able to advise when I know what you're trying to correct. Also, let me know the program you are using. Hi Jennifer, I'm doing a photo book for our sorority and we work this soup kitchen...I am kind of at the mercy of others taking photos on their smart phones, I use pse13IMG_3121.JPG On this I used the Overlay/Screen Method and then I tweaked the curves just a bit to keep it warm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terriscrapper Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Try this to lighten your photos. Make two copies of your photos (you can do this right in your LO, or you can do it on each photo individually). The bottom layer will be your regular photo. On the layer above that one, change the blend mode to "Overlay." It will look really dark, but don't panic! We'll fix it in a minute. Lower the opacity of the overlay layer to about 50% for now. On the very top layer, change that blend mode to "Screen." Now, go ahead and adjust the opacity of the screen layer and the overlay layer. If it's too washed out, lower the opacity of the screen layer. If the details are too dark, lower the opacity of the overlay layer and bump up the screen layer. When you are finished you can merge all the layers, and if you want to tweak it some more, do a levels or a curves adjustment. I always check "Auto" and then if I don't like it, I either cancel it, adjust it a bit, start over and make my own adjustments, or stick with the original. HTH!!! Hi I saw your post and it seems to work to a degree but I have a question...when I change the second layer to overlay it really doesn't change anything and its definitely not dark???? Can you post the photo you are trying to correct? If your photo is already light, the overlay layer won't do much. If your photo is dark and you are trying to lighten it, the overlay layer will make it appear darker, but will help retain details when you further lighten with a screen layer. I will be better able to advise when I know what you're trying to correct. Also, let me know the program you are using. Hi Jennifer, I'm doing a photo book for our sorority and we work this soup kitchen...I am kind of at the mercy of others taking photos on their smart phones, I use pse13IMG_3121.JPG On this I used the Overlay/Screen Method and then I tweaked the curves just a bit to keep it warm. Thank you...when you used the overlay did it darken? I had tried levels...there is so much glare in background! Thanks for your help!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenniferZ Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 On Overlay it got pretty dark; Screen lightens it up. The lights in the background were way blown out, so I used layer masks to remove the changes made by the Overlay/Screen method. Then I saved that as a copy, re-opened the JPG and adjusted the curves a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terriscrapper Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 On Overlay it got pretty dark; Screen lightens it up. The lights in the background were way blown out, so I used layer masks to remove the changes made by the Overlay/Screen method. Then I saved that as a copy, re-opened the JPG and adjusted the curves a bit. Thank you so much!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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