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A
Anonymous
April 2, 2017
Answered

How do I brighten (not whiten) a portion of a photo using gradients?

  • April 2, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 13997 views

How do I brighten or lighten (not whiten) a portion of a photo using gradients?

I have used "levels" and "brightness/contrast" to lighten or brighten the entire photo.

But I want to lighten only certain areas of a photo.

When I use the gradient tool it can whiten a photo.

However, I do not want to add white.  I only want to lighten certain areas of the photo.

E.g., I am trying to lighten some plantings in a night photo and leave the rest of the photo unchanged.

How do I do this?

Thanks.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer hatstead

toasted  wrote

How do I brighten or lighten (not whiten) a portion of a photo using gradients?

I have used "levels" and "brightness/contrast" to lighten or brighten the entire photo.

But I want to lighten only certain areas of a photo.

When I use the gradient tool it can whiten a photo.

However, I do not want to add white.  I only want to lighten certain areas of the photo.

E.g., I am trying to lighten some plantings in a night photo and leave the rest of the photo unchanged.

How do I do this?

Thanks.

  1. Use one of the selection tools, e.g. selection brush or lasso tool, to select the plantings.
  2. Then, place the selection on a separate layer (CTRL+J)
  3. Open a levels or brightness/contrast or gradient adjustment layer at the top, and clip the adjustment layer to the layer with the selection from step #2 (CTRL+G). The adjustment which you make will be confined to the selection

Another way to go about this is:

Duplicate  the background layer

Brighten the Background Copy layer the way you have been doing it with a brightness/contrast adjustment layer

The adjustment layer has a built in mask. Left click on the white rectangle. Then, using a black brush, paint where you don't wish to have the area brightened. If you go too far, correct with a white brush.

This technique allows you to be precise, esp. along branches, leaves, etc. The selection tools are cumbersome in this type of work.

4 replies

M
Mark_Sand
Inspiring
May 5, 2018

I duplicated the Background layer, and on the duplicate layer I used the Dodge tool with the default options

Range: Midtones, Exposure: 50-%.

Using a large brush size, 1300 px, I painted over the shadow to lighten it. Here is the result:

Because of the large brush size, this also lightened part of the cup, dish, and table.

To restore the original, I added a Layer Mask.

Using the Brush tool with a small hard brush size, I painted with black on the mask those portions  to restore the original. You might want to zoom in close while painting the mask.

Note that if you paint too far, restoring for example the original shadow in the wall, you can paint with white on that excess to restore the lightness from the Dodge tool.

Tip: If you set the Foreground/Background color swatches to their default black/white values, you can type "x" while painting the mask to toggle between black and white.

Here is the final result if you wish to save it to your PC.

hannat74176271
hannat74176271
Participant
May 6, 2018

Thank you Mark! I appreciate your help. The result is great!

M
Mark_Sand
Inspiring
September 18, 2017

From the look of the bottom portion of the chain on the left side, I'm guessing it is a silver chain.

If that is the case:

Here I used the Magnetic Lasso to select the right portion, then smoothed the selection 5 pixels.

Then applied a Hue/Saturation adjustment where I moved the Saturation slider all the way to the left.

Did the same on the left side.  Final result:

natashap64021260
natashap64021260
Participating Frequently
September 18, 2017

Thank you Mark. That is great. I am trying to replicate but I can only find quick selection not the magnetic lasso tool?

I have Elements 15

Natasha

M
Mark_Sand
Inspiring
September 18, 2017

Natasha,

I don't have PSE15, but I'm guessing you have to be in Expert Mode to access it.

If you want, you can right-click my result to save it to your PC.

M
Mark_Sand
Inspiring
April 3, 2017

Follow-up to the selection method in msg#1:

You might want to feather the selection before applying the adjustment. 

Here is with the selection unfeathered:

Here I feathered the selection 70px.

Of course the amount of the feather depends on the picture's resolution. A matter of trial and error.

A
Anonymous
April 3, 2017

Thank you hatstead and Mark Sand.

I got the effect I was after.  I wanted to brighten up a couple areas in a night photo as if I was

using a directional (background) flash at the time of taking the photo.

I used hatstead's first option and then the feathering Mark mentioned to get the effect I wanted.

Probably sounds pretty basic but it was the first time I used either effect.

Thanks again to you both!

hatstead
hatstead
Inspiring
April 3, 2017

You're welcome. Glad to help.

hatstead
hatsteadCorrect answer
Inspiring
April 2, 2017

toasted  wrote

How do I brighten or lighten (not whiten) a portion of a photo using gradients?

I have used "levels" and "brightness/contrast" to lighten or brighten the entire photo.

But I want to lighten only certain areas of a photo.

When I use the gradient tool it can whiten a photo.

However, I do not want to add white.  I only want to lighten certain areas of the photo.

E.g., I am trying to lighten some plantings in a night photo and leave the rest of the photo unchanged.

How do I do this?

Thanks.

  1. Use one of the selection tools, e.g. selection brush or lasso tool, to select the plantings.
  2. Then, place the selection on a separate layer (CTRL+J)
  3. Open a levels or brightness/contrast or gradient adjustment layer at the top, and clip the adjustment layer to the layer with the selection from step #2 (CTRL+G). The adjustment which you make will be confined to the selection

Another way to go about this is:

Duplicate  the background layer

Brighten the Background Copy layer the way you have been doing it with a brightness/contrast adjustment layer

The adjustment layer has a built in mask. Left click on the white rectangle. Then, using a black brush, paint where you don't wish to have the area brightened. If you go too far, correct with a white brush.

This technique allows you to be precise, esp. along branches, leaves, etc. The selection tools are cumbersome in this type of work.

A
Anonymous
April 2, 2017

Thank you hatstead.  I thiink I understand your solutions.  I will try out the 2 options you mentioned.

hatstead
hatstead
Inspiring
April 3, 2017

You're welcome. Let us know if you encounter a problem.

I should add, when using the mask, black hides, white reveals, hence you can "hide" by painting over an area with a black brush, and make corrections (reveal) with a white brush.

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