Fast & EZ exposure correction in Photoshop

[JeffR]

And presumably in any similar program that can handle layers. I just learned this trick today and wanted to share it. I've been using Photoshop for years and can get similar results, but my techniques for doing so have always been a lot more convoluted and time-consuming (curves, levels, brightness, all that stuff). This is a great timesaver.

Apologies to anyone who already knew this, and I hope I'm not the only one here who didn't.:scared:

Open your original and make a copy of the first (background) layer. Change the blending mode on your copied layer to 'Screen'. Instant improvement. To lighten the exposure further, simply copy the first copied layer. In the examples below, I used two copies of the background layer. Further adjustment can be made by varying transparency of the copy layers, of course. And that's it.

Here are two before/after examples.

This first pic is a careless and pretty disastrous snap of the neighborhood Good Friday procession. It might as well have been shot in a cave. After using this exposure technique, the end result is still crap, but it's at least crap with discernible visual information.



In the second pic, the exposure was deliberate, but still not a raving success.

[CC]

1. Great tip.

I haven't tried it that way but I will soon.

[DS1]

2. I'm partial to curves for this sort of thing

using an adjustment layer, of course :-)

[JeffR]

4. My preferred method too

Tho' lately I've been using levels adjustment more. I'm going to experiment with this timesaver as a first step, then use levels or curves for further adjustments, on the theory that I'll have less fussing to do once the broad strokes are already sorted out.

[F.Gordon]

3. Thank you

I love anything with software thingees that are quick and easy. I just tried this with Paint Shop Pro X and it worked the same as with this PhotoShop you speak of.