8. Fixing Exposure Problems

Lesson Overview

Photoshop Elements makes it easy to fix images that are too dark or too light and rescue photos that are dull, flat, or simply fading away.

Start with Quick Fix and Guided Edit and work up to Full Edit as you learn how to make the most of poorly exposed images, retrieve detail from photos that are too dark and liven up images that look flat and washed-out. Photoshop elements delivers powerful, easy-to-use tools for correcting exposure and lighting problems in all three Edit modes.

In this lesson you’ll be introduced to a variety of techniques for dealing with a range of common exposure problems:

• Brightening underexposed photographs

• Correcting parts of an image selectively

• Saving selection shapes to reuse in later sessions

• Working with adjustment layers and layer masks

• Choosing layer blending modes

• Using layer opacity settings

• Adjusting lighting controls manually

• Enhancing overexposed and faded photographs

You’ll probably need about one and a half hours to complete this lesson.

Learn how to make the most of images that were captured in unusual lighting conditions, retrieving detail from overly dark photos and putting the spark back into images that look dull or washed-out.

Find out how Photoshop Elements can help you save those faded memories—no matter what your level of experience—with a suite of powerful, easy-to-use tools and the versatility of three Edit modes.

Getting started

To start, you’ll import the sample images for this lesson to the CIB Catalog that you created at the beginning of Lesson 1.

1. Start Photoshop Elements and click Organize in the Welcome Screen. When the Organizer opens, make sure that your CIB Catalog is loaded (if you need to refresh your memory, refer to step 2 in the Getting Started section in Lesson 5).

2. Choose File > Get Photos And Video > From Files And Folders. In the Get Photos And Videos From Files And Folders dialog box, locate and select your Lesson08 folder. Activate the option Get Photos From Subfolders and disable the automatic processing options; then, click Get Media.

3. In the Import Attached Keyword Tags dialog box, select the Lesson 08 tag, and then click OK. Click OK to close any other alert dialog box.

Batch-processing the lesson files

As you discovered in Lesson 6, the batch-processing command lets you apply automatic adjustments to an entire folder of image files at once.

Before you start this lesson, you can follow the steps in “Fixing files automatically in batches” and “Adding the auto-corrected files to your catalog” on page 151 to set up automatic processing for the lesson 8 images. At the end of each of the exercises to follow, you can compare the automatic fixes to the results you achieve using various other techniques.

Adjusting images for tonal balance

Most image problems fall into two basic categories: color or exposure. In some photos, the two issues can be inter-related, and there is also some overlap in the tools and techniques you’ll use to correct them.

In the previous lesson, you gained experience recognizing and dealing with color deficiencies in your photos. This lesson will focus on exposure and lighting: issues that effect the tonal balance of your image.

Ideally, an image should have a good spread of tonal values from dark to light; any imbalance can result in a photo that is too dark or too light, has too little contrast or too much, or is lacking detail in the shadows, the mid-tones, or the highlights.

As with color correction, Photoshop Elements offers a range of tools for adjusting exposure that are available in all three Edit modes. In the exercises to follow, you’ll look at a variety of ways to get the best from poorly exposed images, retrieve detail from photos that are too dark, and liven up images that look flat and washed-out.

Brightening an underexposed image

Underexposed photographs tend to look dull and flat, or too dark—often across the entire image, but sometimes in just part of it. While the lighting auto-fix feature does a good job with most images, this exercise will teach you techniques that will give you more control for correcting exposure in problem photos.

Applying Quick Fix adjustments

The first technique you’ll learn makes use of the Quick Edit mode.

1. Use the Lesson 08 tag to isolate the lesson images, if needed; then, select the file ghent_ghirls.jpg. Click the arrow on the Fix tab and choose Quick Photo Edit.

2. Click the Smart Fix Auto button at the top of the Quick Fix panel. The photo becomes a little brighter overall, but the skin tones remain quite dark and flat. Drag the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights sliders in turn to set a value of 20 for each. As you lighten the shadows, note the detail retrieved in the dress of the second girl from the left. Watch the girls’ hair as you darken the highlights.

You’ve improved the image substantially with just a few clicks. However, although the skin tones have been lightened, they are still a little cool.

3. In the Color and Balance panes, drag both the Hue and Temperature sliders just fractionally to the right. Take care not to make the image too pink or overly yellow; we set Hue and Temperature values of 4 and 54 respectively.

4. Commit the changes by clicking the Commit button () in the header bar of the pane in which you made your most recent adjustment.

5. Choose File > Save. Make sure that Include In The Elements Organizer is activated and disable Save In Version Set With Original. Name the new file ghent_ghirls_Quick, to be saved to your My CIB Work folder in JPEG format. Click Save. In the JPEG Options dialog box, use the slider to set the Quality to 9, and then click OK. Choose File > Close.

Adjusting exposure in Guided Edit mode

When you’re not sure exactly what adjustments a poorly exposed image needs, the Guided Edit mode offers three procedures for correcting lighting and exposure: Lighten Or Darken, Brightness And Contrast, and Adjust Levels—each with easy-to-follow prompts and instructions that make it easy for even a novice to get great results. You can improve your photos quickly, at the same time as learning image correction concepts and techniques that you can apply even in Full Edit mode.

1. In the media browser, select the image ghent_ghirls.jpg; then, click the arrow on the Fix tab and choose Guided Photo Edit. In the guided tasks menu, expand the Color And Lighting group, if necessary; then, click Lighten Or Darken.

2. Click the Auto button at the upper right of the Lighten Or Darken A Photo pane. For this image, the result is barely noticeable. Whether you use the Auto button or not, you can adjust the lighting controls manually. Drag the sliders to set the Lighten Shadows control to a value of 40, Darken Highlights to 20, and Midtone Contrast to 30; then click Done.

3. Choose File > Save. Make sure that Include In The Elements Organizer is activated and disable Save In Version Set With Original. Name the new file ghent_ghirls_Guided and choose the JPEG format. Click Save, and then click OK in the JPEG Options dialog box to accept the quality setting carried over from the previous exercise. Choose File > Close.

Once again, the adjusted image looks considerably better than the original; however, it would be ideal if we could treat the mother and daughters in the foreground separately from the city background, which still looks a little dull and flat.

Fixing exposure in Full Edit mode

Underexposure problems can often be caused by your camera automatically cutting down exposure to compensate for backlighting. In our example, the bright highlights edging our subjects may contribute to the problem in this way; their backs are obviously well lit, while the lighting on their faces and in the background is low and indirect. It’s also possible that the camera’s exposure settings were incorrect.

If your photo is a difficult case, more elaborate methods than those you’ve used in the Quick and Guided Edit modes might be necessary to achieve the best results. In Full Edit mode you can work with multiple layers and blending modes, and also make selections to isolate specific parts of an image for special treatment.

Using blending modes

In a multiple-layered image file, each layer has its own blending mode that defines the way it will interact with the layers below it in the stacking order. By default, a newly created layer uses the Normal blending mode: it will not blend with the layer below except where it contains transparency or when the opacity for the layer is set to less than 100%. The Darken and Lighten blending modes will blend a layer with the layers below it only where the result will darken or lighten the lower layers. Other blending modes produce more complex results.

If a photo is too dark, applying the Screen blending mode to an overlaid duplicate of the background layer may correct the problem. If your photo is overexposed, an overlaid duplicate with the Multiply blending mode can be a solution. You can adjust the opacity of the overlaid layer to control the intensity of the effect.

1. In the Media Browser, right-click / Control-click the image ghent_ghirls.jpg, taking care not to confuse the original file with the edited copies, and choose Edit With Photoshop Elements Editor from the context menu.

2. In Full Edit mode, choose Window > Reset Panels or click the Reset Panels button () at the top of the workspace. Hide the Project Bin and the grouped Effects and Content panels by double-clicking their header bars. Double-click the Hand tool in the toolbox, or choose View > Fit On Screen.

3. In the Layers panel you can see that the image has only one layer: the Background. Duplicate the Background layer by dragging it onto the New Layer button () at the lower left corner of the Layers panel.

The new layer, Background copy, is highlighted in the Layers panel, indicating that it’s currently the selected—or active—layer.

4. With the Background copy layer selected, choose Screen from the blending mode menu at the top of the Layers panel. The image becomes much brighter overall, but the girls still look underexposed. Duplicate the layer Background copy with it’s Screen blending mode by dragging it onto the New Layer button. At the top of the Layers panel, set the second duplicate layer’s opacity to 50%.

5. Choose File > Save. Make sure that Include In The Elements Organizer is activated and disable Save In Version Set With Original. Name the new file ghent_ghirls_Screen and choose the Photoshop (PSD) format. Make sure the Layers option is activated, and then click Save. If the Format Options dialog box appears, activate Maximize Compatibility and click OK.

6. To quickly compare the adjusted image to the original, toggle the visibility of the Background Copy layers by clicking the eye icon beside the layer thumbnails. When you’re done, close the file without saving.

In this exercise you’ve seen how using a blending mode can brighten a dull image. For many photos, however, applying a blending mode over the entire image can adversely affect areas that were OK to begin with. In this example, there has been no really “destructive” effect on the background—as there may have been had the buildings been brightly lit by sunlight—but the background does have a somewhat washed-out look and seems to compete for attention with the foreground elements.

About adjustment layers

An adjustment layer is like an overlay or lens filter over the underlying layers, perhaps darkening the photo, perhaps making it appear pale and faded, or intensifying its hues—but remaining separate from the image itself. Effects applied on an adjustment layer can be easily revised, or even removed, because the pixels of the image layers are not permanently modified. You can even copy an adjustment layer from one photo and paste it on top of the image layers in another—a real time-saver when you wish to apply the same treatment to several similar images.

Using adjustment layers to correct lighting

In this exercise you’ll work with the same underexposed photo that you used for the last series of exercises, but this time you’ll open the image from the Editor.

1. In Full Edit mode, choose File > Open Recently Edited File and choose the file ghent_ghirls.jpg from the menu.

2. Click the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer button () at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Brightness/Contrast from the menu. The Adjustments panel opens to give you easy access to the Brightness and Contrast controls. Drag the sliders or type in the text boxes to set Brightness and Contrast values of 100 and -50 respectively.

3. Click the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer button again, this time choosing Levels from the menu. Notice the new Levels 1 adjustment layer in the Layers panel. The Adjustments panel is updated to present the Levels controls.

4. In the Levels controls, drag the gray midtones stop under the center of the tonal distribution graph to adjust the mid-tones, until the tonal balance looks right to you. We set a value of 1.10.

5. Choose File > Save. Make sure that Include In The Elements Organizer is activated and disable Save In Version Set With Original. Name the new file ghent_ghirls_Adjustment and choose the Photoshop (PSD) format. Make sure the Layers option is activated, and then click Save. If the Format Options dialog box appears, activate Maximize Compatibility and click OK.

6. To quickly assess the effect of the adjustment layers, toggle the visibility of each layer by clicking the eye icon beside its thumbnail in the Layers panel. When you’re done, close the file without saving.

The beauty of adjustment layers is that you can return to adjust your settings at any time, as long as you save the file in the Photoshop format, preserving the layers.

If you reopen the file that you just closed and click the Brightness/Contrast layer, the Adjustments panel will show the Brightness and Contrast values set just as you left them. The adjustment is still live and can be refined; if necessary, you could even revert to the original image by either hiding or deleting the adjustment layers.

Correcting parts of an image selectively

Although our adjustment layers brought out color and image detail from the overly dark original photo, the background is now overexposed and lacking in tonal depth. So far in this lesson, all the corrections you’ve made have been applied to the entire image; in the next exercise you’ll adjust just part of the image selectively.

Creating a selection

In this exercise you’ll isolate our subjects in the foreground from the city backdrop so that you can treat these two areas of the image separately. To start, you’ll select the combined silhouette of the mother and her daughters and save the selection.

You’ve already explored some of the many ways to make a selection in Lesson 7. The choice of selection tool depends on the picture. With experience, you’ll learn to assess the characteristics of the area or object you wish to select, as well as those of the surrounding area. We’ll start with the Quick Selection tool, which automatically determines selection borders based on similarity in color and texture.

1. Open the original image file ghent_ghirls.jpg once again.

2. In the toolbox, select the Quick Selection tool (), which is grouped with the Selection Brush tool.

3. In the tool options bar, make sure that the New Selection mode is activated for the Quick Selection tool. Set a brush diameter of around 100 px (pixels).

4. Place the cursor just inside the hair-line above the woman’s forehead and drag a line down the face and body of the girl in front of her, and then to the left across the three younger sisters. The active selection automatically expands to surround the combined silhouette of our subjects; not bad for a quick first pass.

Next you need to refine the border to capture the silhouette as closely as possible. You’ll need to deselect a very small area of background between the hips of the two girls at the left, add the railing on which the group is leaning, and pay attention to the hair and highlight areas.

To refine your selection, you’ll alternate between the Add To Selection () and Subtract From Selection () modes of the Quick Selection tool. Buttons for these modes are located in the tool options bar.

5. Choose the Subtract From Selection () mode for the Quick Selection tool from the tool options bar. Keeping the Quick Selection tool active, focus the view on the space between hips of the two sisters at the far left. Hold down the Ctrl / Command key and press the plus sign (+) to zoom in to the image. Hold the spacebar and to drag pan the image as required.

6. Press the left bracket key ( [) on your keyboard repeatedly to reduce the brush size to 10 px and then drag in the fragment of background. The selection contracts to exclude the area. Alternate between the Add To Selection () and Subtract From Selection () modes and use a combination of clicks and very short strokes to refine the selection border around the deselected area.

7. Without being overly fussy, use the same techniques as you continue to refine the selection around the subjects’ heads and any highlighted edges. Your work will be much simpler if you use the keyboard shortcuts detailed in step 5 and in the margin Tip above to navigate in the image and adjust the tool settings.

8. Finally, pay attention to the highlighted areas on the arm and hand of the girl at the right, then add the other foreground element—the railing—to the selection, taking care to exclude the background areas framed by its uprights.

9. To soften the hard edges of the selection, you can smooth and feather the outline. Click Refine Edge in the tool options bar.

10. In the Refine Edge dialog box, accept the default settings. Move the pointer over each slider in turn to see a description of its action at the bottom of the dialog box. Notice that the Refine Edge dialog box has its own Zoom and Hand tools to help you get a better view of the details of your selection.

11. While you’re working on refining your selection, you can preview the results against a variety of backgrounds, each helpful in different circumstances. Move the pointer over each of the five preview mode buttons below the sliders to see the description, then click on each in turn to see the result in the Edit window.

12. Click OK to apply the default edge refinement to your selection; then, choose Select > Save Selection. In the Save Selection dialog box, choose New from the Selection menu, type Girls for the selection name, and then click OK. Once a selection is saved, you can always re-use it—after assessing your adjustments you can reload the selection to modify them. Choose Select > Deselect.

Using layer masks to isolate parts of an image

Now that you’ve created a selection including only the figures in the foreground, you can adjust the exposure and lighting for the subjects and the background independently. You could use your selection (even at a later date, now that you’ve saved it) to temporarily isolate part of the image for editing. Instead you’ll use the saved selection to create separate layer masks for the different areas in the image.

A layer mask can be permanently linked to a particular layer in an image, so that any modification made to that layer will be applied only through the mask. The parts of the layer protected by the layer mask are hidden from view when it’s blended with the other layers in your image. Layer masks can be edited by painting and erasing, so you can add to or subtract from a layer mask (and thereby, add to or subtract from the area that will be modified by an editing operation) without affecting the image pixels on the layer to which the mask is attached.

1. Duplicate the Background layer by dragging it onto the New Layer button () at the lower left corner of the Layers panel.

2. Click the menu icon () at the right of the Layers panel’s header to open the Layers panel Options menu; then, choose Panel Options. In the Layers Panel Options dialog box, select either large or medium thumbnails—seeing the layer thumbnails can help you visualize the layers you’re working with. Click OK. If necessary, choose View > Fit On Screen or, if the Zoom tool is active, click the Fit Screen button in the tool options bar so that you can see the entire image.

3. Choose Select > Load Selection. Choose the saved selection Girls from the Source Selection menu, click the check box to activate the Invert option and choose New Selection under Operation; then click OK.

4. Make sure the layer Background copy is still selected, and then click the Add Layer Mask button () at the bottom of the Layers panel.

A mask thumbnail appears on the Background copy layer, showing that your active selection in the image window has been converted to a layer mask on that layer. The white frame around the mask thumbnail indicates that the mask is currently selected—any change you make right now will modify the mask, not the image pixels on this layer. To edit the image instead, you first need to click the image thumbnail.

5. Alt-click / Option-click the layer mask thumbnail to make the mask visible in the Edit window. With the mask selected, as it is now, you can edit it using painting and selection tools—or even the Text tool. Alt-click / Option-click the layer mask thumbnail again to hide the mask.

6. Click the image thumbnail on the masked layer; then click the eye icon beside the image thumbnail on the original Background layer to make the layer temporarily invisible. You can see that the protected areas of the masked layer are actually hidden from view. Make the Background layer visible again.

While this layer mask is active, any change made to the original Background layer will be visible only in the figures in the foreground; any change you make to the masked layer will be applied only the backdrop around them.

7. Make another copy of the original Background layer by dragging it onto the New Layer button () at the lower left corner of the Layers panel. Choose Select > Load Selection. Accept your saved selection as the Source Selection, but this time, leave the Invert option disabled. Choose New Selection under Operation; then click OK.

8. Make sure the new layer, Background copy 2 is still selected, and then click the Add Layer Mask button () at the bottom of the Layers panel. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the new mask layer.

If you keep the layer masks linked to the Background copy layers as they are now, they will remain editable. For the purposes of this exercise however, we’ve already refined our selection, and we have no other reason to keep the mask active.

9. Right-click / Control-click each black and white layer mask thumbnail in turn and choose Apply Layer Mask from the context menu.

The layer masks can no longer be edited; they have been applied to their respective layers permanently. The layer mask thumbnails have disappeared and the image thumbnails now show areas of transparency.

10. You’ll find it much easier to deal with layers—especially when you’re working with many of them—if you give your layers descriptive names in the Layers panel. Double-click the name text of Background copy 2 and type Girls as the new name for the layer. Change the name of Background copy to Ghent.

Correcting underexposed areas

We can now apply the most effective brightening technique from the earlier exercises to the subjects of our photo selectively.

1. In the Layers panel, make sure that the Background layer is visible; then, select the layer Girls and choose Screen from the blending menu.

2. Duplicate the Girls layer and set the opacity for the new copy to 25%. The figures are brighter and clearer, while the Ghent layer remains unchanged.

Adding more intensity

Now that the figures in the foreground look so much better, the shaded buildings behind them need to be adjusted to appear less dull and murky.

With the foreground and background isolated on separate masked layers, you’re free to apply whatever modifications you choose. There are no hard-and-fast rules; you might decide to emphasise the figures by making the background bright and pale (along the lines of the effect you achieved with ghent_ghirls_Screen.psd), or by making it even darker and more dramatic. For the purposes of this exercise, we’ll simply boost the contrast to increase the clarity of the architectural detail without really interfering with the lighting dynamics of the original image.

1. In the Layers panel, select the layer Ghent. Choose Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Brightness/Contrast. Leave the Brightness setting unchanged, but increase the Contrast setting to a value of 50. Click OK. The buildings look clearer and more vibrant—without competing too much with the figures in the foreground.

With these few adjustments to the separate layers, the photograph now looks far more lively. There are still possibilities for improving the separated areas of the image; for example you could apply a Gaussian blur to the background to create a depth-of-field effect. There’s also more you could do with blending modes and layer opacity—you’ll learn more of those techniques as you work through this book.

2. Choose File > Save. Make sure that Include In The Elements Organizer is activated and disable Save In Version Set With Original. Name the new file ghent_ghirls_Layers and choose the Photoshop (PSD) format. Make sure the Layers option is activated, and then click Save. If the Format Options dialog box appears, activate Maximize Compatibility and click OK. Close the file.

3. In Lesson 7 you learned how to tile the image windows to best compare the results of different correction methods. Use that technique now to compare the six adjusted and saved versions of this photograph before moving on.

Improving faded or overexposed images

In this exercise, you’ll work with the scan of an old photograph—an image that could represent a valuable and treasured record of personal history, well worth preserving for posterity. An extreme case, this photo is not only overexposed, but also badly faded and in danger of being lost forever. The automatic fixes you applied to a copy of the image at the beginning of this lesson improved the photo markedly; in this project, you’ll try to do even better using other techniques.

1. If you’re in the Organizer, switch to Full Edit mode in the Editor by clicking the arrow on the Fix tab and choosing Full Photo Edit from the menu. Choose Preferences > General from the Edit / Photoshop Elements Editor menu. Activate the option Allow Floating Documents In Full Edit Mode; then, click OK.

2. Choose File > Open. Navigate to and open your Lesson08 folder, select the image frida&mina.jpg, and then click Open.

3. Click the Reset Panels button () at the top of the Full Edit workspace, and then double-click the Hand tool in the toolbox or choose View > Fit On Screen. Hide the grouped Effects and Content panels by double-clicking the header bar. If you don’t see the filename beneath the photo’s thumbnail in the Project Bin, right-click / Control-click the thumbnail and choose Show Filenames.

Creating a set of duplicate files

You’ll compare a variety of editing techniques during the course of this project. You can begin by creating a separate file to test each method, named for the technique it will demonstrate.

1. Right-click / Control-click the thumbnail image in the Project Bin and choose Duplicate from the context menu. In the Duplicate Image dialog box, name the new file frida&mina_Shad_High, and then click OK.

2. Perform step 2 twice more, naming the duplicates frida&mina_Bright_Con and frida&mina_Levels.

3. In the Project Bin, double-click the thumbnail frida&mina.jpg to make that image active and bring its image window to the front. If you can’t see the whole of a filename under a thumbnail in the Project Bin, hold the pointer over the thumbnail; the name of the file is displayed as a Tooltip.

4. Choose File > Save As. Select your My CIB Work folder as the destination for the new file, then activate Include In The Elements Organizer and disable the option Save In Version Set With Original. Type frida&mina_Blend_Mode as the new filename and select Photoshop (PSD) from the Format menu.

5. Click Save. Click OK to accept the default settings in any dialog boxes or messages that appear. Leave all four images open for the rest of this project.

6. Choose Window > Images > Consolidate All To Tabs.

7. Choose Window > Images > Tile.

8. Make sure that frida&mina_Blend_Mode.psd is the active image, and then click the Arrange button () at the top of the workspace. Choose Match Zoom And Location. Many of the commands in this menu are also available in the Window > Images menu.

Using blending modes to fix a faded image

A layer’s blending mode can cause it to interact with the layers beneath it in a variety of ways. The Multiply mode intensifies or darkens pixels in an image. The Overlay mode tends to brighten the image while preserving its tonal range.

1. Make sure that frida&mina_Blend_Mode.psd is still the active image. If necessary, double-click its thumbnail in the Project Bin to make it active. In the Layers panel right-click / Control-click the Background layer and choose Duplicate Layer from the context menu. Click OK in the Duplicate Layer dialog box, accepting the default name “Background copy.”

2. In the Layers panel, choose Multiply from the layer blending mode menu. Note the effect in the image window.

3. Drag the Background copy layer with its Multiply blend mode onto the New Layer button () at the bottom of the Layers panel to create a copy of the Background copy layer.

4. In the Layers panel, change the blending mode for the layer Background copy 2 from Multiply to Overlay, watching the effect of the new blending mode on the image. Set the layer’s Opacity value to 25%, either by dragging the Opacity slider or by typing the new value in the text field.

Adding a layer with the Multiply blending mode made the image bolder and the third layer in Overlay mode brightened it considerably. Taken together, our changes have made the detail in the photo clearer, but the contrast in parts of the image, particularly in the clothing, is still unimpressive.

5. Choose File > Save to save the file in your My CIB Work folder, leaving the file open. If a message appears about maximizing compatibility, click OK to close it, or follow the instructions in the message to prevent it from appearing again.

Adjusting shadows and highlights manually

Although both the Auto-fix and blending modes do a good job of correcting many fading images, some of your own photos may be more challenging. You’ll try three more techniques in the exercises to follow. The first involves manually adjusting the Shadows, Highlights, and Midtone Contrast of the image.

1. In the Project Bin, double-click the thumbnail frida&mina_Shad_High to make it the active window. Choose Window > Images > Float In Window; then double-click the Hand tool or choose View > Fit On Screen.

2. Choose Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Shadows/Highlights. If necessary, move the Shadows/Highlights dialog box so that it doesn’t obscure the image window. Make sure that the Preview option is activated.

By default, the Lighten Shadows setting is 25%. You can see the effect on the image by toggling the Preview option on and off in the Shadows/Highlights dialog box.

3. In the Shadows/Highlights dialog box, set the Darken Highlights value to 25%, and the Midtone Contrast value to +50%.

4. Adjust the three settings as needed until you think the image is as good as it can be. When you’re done, click OK to close the Shadows/Highlights dialog box.

5. Choose File > Save and save the file as frida&mina_Shad_High to your My CIB Work folder, in JPEG format. Make sure that the image will be included in the Organizer, but not in a Version Set. Click OK in the JPEG Options dialog box and leave the file open. Choose Window > Images > Tile.

Adjusting brightness and contrast manually

The next approach you’ll take to fixing an exposure problem makes use of another option from the Enhance > Adjust Lighting menu.

1. In the Project Bin, double-click the image frida&mina_Bright_Con to make it active. Choose Window > Images > Float In Window; then click the Arrange button () at the top of the workspace and choose Fit On Screen.

2. Choose Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Brightness/Contrast. Make sure that the Preview option is activated in the Brightness/Contrast dialog box. If necessary, position the dialog box so that it doesn’t block your view.

3. Drag the Brightness slider to –70, or type –70 in the text field, being careful to include the minus sign when you type. Set the Contrast to 70.

4. Adjust the Brightness and Contrast settings until you are happy with the look of the image. Click OK to close the Brightness/Contrast dialog box.

5. Choose File > Save and save the file as frida&mina_Bright_Con to your My CIB Work folder, in JPEG format. Make sure that the image will be included in the Organizer, but not in a Version Set; then, click Save. Click OK in the JPEG Options dialog box, but keep the file open. Choose Window > Images > Tile.

Adjusting levels

The Levels controls affect the distribution of tonal values in an image—the range of tones from dark to light, regardless of color. In this exercise, you’ll enhance the image by shifting the reference points that define the spread of those tonal values.

1. In the Project Bin, double-click the image frida&mina_Levels to make it active. Choose Window > Images > Float In Window; then double-click the Hand tool.

2. Choose Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels. Activate the Preview option in the Levels dialog box, if it is not already active. If necessary, drag the Levels dialog box aside so that you can also see most of the image window.

The Levels graph represents the distribution of tonal values across all the pixels in the image, from darkest at the left to lightest at the right. A trough (or gap) in the curve indicates that there are few (or no) pixels mapped to that part of the range; a peak shows the opposite.

As you can see from the graph, this image has no black pixels, very few tones of less than 50% brightness, and far too much information clustered at the light end of the scale.

3. In the Levels dialog box, drag the black triangle below the left end of the graph to the right; the value in the first Input Levels box should be approximately 105. Drag the white marker from the right side of the graph until the value in the third Input Levels box is approximately 250. Drag the gray marker to set the mid-tone value to approximately 0.85. Click OK to close the Levels dialog box.

4. Choose File > Save and save the file to your My CIB Work folder in JPEG format as frida&mina_Levels. Make sure that the image will be included in the Organizer, but not in a Version Set. Click Save; then, click OK in the JPEG Options dialog box and leave the file open.

Comparing results

You can now compare the six versions of the image: the original file, the four files you edited, and the image that was fixed automatically at the start of this lesson.

1. Choose File > Open. Locate and open the file frida&mina_Autofix.jpg from the My CIB Work folder; then repeat the process for the original file from your Lesson08 folder, frida&mina.jpg. The Project Bin should show six open files.

2. Hide the Panel Bin and the Project Bin by un-checking their names in the Window menu; then, choose Window > Images > Tile.

3. Select the Zoom tool; then, in the tool options bar, activate Zoom All Windows. Click in any of the image windows so that you can see enough of the photo to enable you to compare the different results. Choose Window > Images > Match Zoom and Window > Images > Match Location; then, compare the six versions.

4. Choose Preferences > General from the Edit / Photoshop Elements Editor menu. Disable floating documents, and then click OK. Choose File > Close All. Save any changes to your CIB Work folder if you’re prompted to do so. Congratulations! You’ve finished another lesson. Before you move on to the next chapter, take a few moments to review what you’ve learned by reading through the questions and answers on the next page.

Review questions

1. How can you create an exact copy of an existing layer?

2. Where can you find the controls for adjusting the lighting in a photograph?

3. How do you change the arrangement of image windows in the work area?

4. What is an adjustment layer and what are its unique advantages?

Review answers

1. You must be in Full Edit mode to copy a layer. Select a layer in the Layers panel and choose Layer > Duplicate Layer. You can access the same command in the Layers panel Options menu or by right-clicking / Control-clicking the layer in the Layers panel. Alternatively, drag the layer to the New Layer button. Whichever method you use, you get two layers identical in all but their names, stacked one above the other.

2. You can adjust the lighting for a photo in Full Edit, Guided Edit, and Quick Edit mode. In Full Edit, you can use the Enhance > Adjust Lighting menu to open various dialog boxes that contain the controls. Alternatively, you can choose Enhance > Auto Levels, Enhance > Auto Contrast, or Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Color Curves. In Guided Edit mode, choose operations from the Lighting and Exposure pane. In Quick Edit mode, you can use the Lighting pane in the Quick Fix panel.

3. You cannot rearrange image windows in Quick Edit and Guided Edit modes, which display only one photograph at a time. In the Full Edit workspace, there are several ways you can arrange them. Choose Window > Images, and select one of the choices listed there—you can access the same options and more by clicking the Arrange button (). Another method is to drag the image window title bar to move an image window, and drag a corner to resize it (provided Maximize mode is not active).

4. An adjustment layer does not contain an image; instead, it modifies some quality of all the layers below it in the Layer panel. For example, a Brightness/Contrast layer will alter the brightness and contrast of any underlying layers. One advantage of using an adjustment layer instead of adjusting an existing layer directly is that adjustment layers can be easily modified or even removed. Toggle the eye icon for the adjustment layer to remove or restore the edit instantly. You can change a setting in an adjustment layer at any time—even after the file has been saved. An adjustment layer can also be copied and pasted into another image to apply the same settings there.