Increasing brightness in only part of the image

[bboy121]

Hi there,

I am using PHOTOSHOP CS2, and I want to increase brightness in the middle of the image, but leave the border intact. How do I do this? Thank you.

[Noel Carboni]

There are a few ways to go about it...

1.  If it's just minor brightening of the parts you want people to focus on, I'd probably select the Dodge tool, set for Midtones, a large fuzzy brush, and a small pressure.  Then brush over the image to lighten the parts you want.

2.  You could select the parts you want to increase brightness in then use Brightness/Contrast.  Use a lot of feathering in the selection if you want the effect to fade out gradually.

3.  You could brighten the whole thing, then select the History Brush, and return the parts you don't want changed by painting over them.

4.  There are ways to do it with layers, masks, etc. as well.

These are just some ideas.

-Noel

[charlesb53337183]

Tried both can't do it. Be grateful if you could carefully explain items. For example, how specifically do you select just a portion of an image. I have a dark-skinned person and this happens all the time. I need to lighten his face. I've tried the  rectangular tool and tried the "select" item in the menu. And then went to brighten. Nope. Neither works ... and/or the brighten option is ghosted out along with other editing functions for the image.

[charlesb53337183]

Among other messages I get: "Could not complete brightness/contrast command because the selected area is empty."

[D Fosse]

The way to do this is with adjustment layers and masks.

A new adjustment layer will have a mask by default. A white mask reveals the adjustment, a black mask hides it. You simply paint in the mask to hide or reveal the adjustment.

You may need to click the mask thumbnail to target (activate) it. An active mask will have "brackets" around the icon.

It's pretty intuitive, you'll quickly get it.

[Nancy OShea]

It's unclear which version of Photoshop you have so I'm going to use an older approach.

1. Unlock layer by double-clicking it in the Layers panel.
2. Use Cmd / Ctrl + J to duplicate layer.
3. Use the marquee tool and a feather radius of 0 to select an area.
4. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels to brighten or darken the selection.

[the_wine_snob]

I would do similar to what has been mentioned, but would do this on an Adjustment Layer. Probably the best way to do this would be to make your adjustment, probably with Levels, Curves, or less control, but easier Brightness/Contrast.

Then, create that Selection, possibly a heavily Feathered Circle in the middle of the image. When you think you're close to where you want the Selection to take place, Save Selection as a Layer Mask for your Adjustment Layer. It will now all the Adjustment Layer to have its effect, and will restrict it in the outer areas of the image. If necessary, you can use Quick Mask Mode to do things like expand that Mask (Ctrl+T - Free Transform), or maybe add a bit of Gaussian Blur to "feather" it a bit more.

This allows for totally non-destructive editing of your image. Do a Save for the PSD with the Adjustment Layer and Masks.

Good luck,

Hunt

PS - you can create your Selection, that will be the Layer Mask first, and with it active, just add the Adjustment Layer, and the Selection will be the Mask for it.

[Noel Carboni]

Funny thing, Bill, I've always felt that changing pixel values can be rather CONstructive, especially when it takes you directly to the result without having to set up a bunch of layers and stuff.  

Just pulling your chain. 

-Noel

[the_wine_snob]

Since the pixels of the original have not been altered, until one commits the Adjustment Layers, such as with Merge, or Flatten, one always has the original residing as the Background, or similar. That is why it is referred to as non-destructive.

If one applies, say Levels to the Background, then the pixels are altered. Depending on several other factors, going back and altering the settings are not that easy. An Adjustment Layer (and/or its Mask), can be altered/adjusted ad infinitum. So long as one Saves_As PSD (or Layered TIFF), they can come back years later and tweak with ease. That is what I like about Adjustment Layers - adjustable forever, and trust me, I have needed to go back so many times.

Good luck,

Hunt

[Edit] one similar method would be to Ctrl+J (Duplicate Layer), make corrections to that, use a Layer Mask and possibly Opacity and Blending Modes. I use that, plus Adjustment Layers limited to the Dupe Layer, for a lot of retouching.

BTW - chain dutifully pulled! The comments above are for the OP, to show differences and different workflows.

Message was edited by: Bill Hunt - Added [Edit]

[Noel Carboni]

No worries, Bill.  I know the term "destructive" does tend to influence some folks.  Myself, I love to edit images, and I don't do a lot of painting, so what I normally do is go back to the original and re-convert, then color balance, etc. when I need another rendition.

The implication here (for everyone, I'm sure you know this Bill) is not to save back over the original image with a destructive edit.  Of course, with a raw file that's impossible to do, but many folks use JPEGs.  Always keep your original images intact!

-Noel

[the_wine_snob]

Yes, doing a Save, when one really wants a Save_As, can be horribly destructive, especially when they close the Image, and the Undos, and History are now, well history...

I strongly recommend editing Copies of original Assets. Your comments on RAW are good to take note of too!

For the video-editing crowd, I did a Tips & Tricks article on the differences between Save, Save_As and Save_As_a_Copy, as many had messed up their Projects, by choosing the work one, and wanted to "get back" to where they started. Luckily for many, PrPro has AudtoSaves, and those have helped. One thing to consider there is that PrPro's Project file (PRPROJ) is just an XML database, so it's easy to do AutoSaves in it, as one is NOT Saving large images, or AV files, but just a little XML database file. [Also, PrPro is a "non-destructive" editor, in that it only references and draws data from the original AV files, and then applies some instructions to the Export file.]

Hunt