How to adjust photo brightness and contrast
By Sekora Studios · Updated
Brightness changes how light or dark a picture looks. Contrast changes the separation between tones. Adjust them gradually and check both the brightest and darkest parts before saving.
Steps
- Open Adjust Image and choose a photo.
- Start with a small Brightness adjustment if the whole picture is too dark or too light.
- Adjust Contrast while checking that dark areas still contain useful detail and bright areas do not become flat white.
- Use the available Shadows and Highlights controls when a broad brightness change affects the wrong areas.
- Review the complete preview, then finish the edit and download your result.
Why do brightness and contrast need separate checks?
A photo can be light enough but look flat because nearby tones are similar. Increasing contrast separates those tones, although too much can make shadows nearly black and highlights nearly white.
A dark image may need a brightness adjustment before contrast becomes easy to judge. Change one control at a time so you can see what it contributed.
Can I recover an overexposed photo?
An adjustment can reveal detail that still exists in the file. A region recorded as uniform white has no texture for these controls to recover. The same limit applies to shadows recorded as uniform black.
These controls edit a finished image that your browser can open. They do not give you the additional sensor information or processing options of its original RAW file.
When should I use a dedicated tool?
Brighten Image and Darken Image are useful when you only need a quick overall lightness change. Use Adjust Image when you want to combine tonal controls and judge their effect together. Keep an untouched source so you can restart an edit.
More questions
Will contrast sharpen a blurry photo?
It can make edges more pronounced, but it does not recover missing focus detail.
Do these controls affect only a face?
These adjustments apply across the image. You cannot select only a face or background to adjust.