How to lighten the background in Photoshop. Whitening the gray background of photos in Photoshop. Lighten Layer Overlay

Most often, when processing photographs, we try to highlight the central object or character against the background of the surrounding world. This is achieved by highlighting, giving clarity to the object, or by reverse manipulation of the background.

But there are also situations in life when the most important events take place in the background, and it is necessary to give the background image maximum visibility. In this tutorial we will learn how to lighten dark backgrounds in photographs.

We will lighten the background in this photo:

We won’t cut anything out, but will learn several techniques for lightening the background without this tedious procedure.

Method 1: Curves Adjustment Layer

Method 2: Levels Adjustment Layer

This method is very similar to the previous one, so the information will be brief. This assumes that a copy of the background layer has been created.

Method 3: Blend Modes

This method is the easiest and does not require configuration. Did you create a copy of the layer?

Method 4: white brush

Another simple way to lighten the background.

We will need to create a new layer and change the blending mode to "Soft Light".

Take a white brush and paint the background.

If the effect does not seem strong enough, you can create a copy of the layer with white paint ( CTRL+J).

Method 5: Shadow/Highlight Adjustment

This method is a little more complicated than the previous ones, but it involves more flexible settings.

This concludes the methods for lightening the background in Photoshop. They all have their own characteristics and allow you to achieve different results. In addition, no two photographs are the same, so it is necessary to have all these techniques in your arsenal.

Our photos don't always turn out perfect. Sometimes the lighting sucks, sometimes a bad angle ruins everything. Agree, strangers and objects in the frame are unlikely to allow you to put an image on your avatar.

Surely you have often wondered how to make a white background in a photo? Today you can edit a photo in just a few minutes. All you need is a “Home Photo Studio”. By following the instructions below, you can easily learn how to process any photos.

Step 1. Download the utility

Before you start, you need a photo editor from the official website. Wait until the distribution downloads completely. Next, unpack the downloaded archive, after which the Installation Wizard will open. Based on its instructions, install the program components on your computer. For easy access to the editor, create a Home Photo Studio shortcut on your desktop. Launch the software and proceed to the second step.

Step 2. Upload a photo

Now you need to add the photo that you are going to edit. Click the "Open Photo" button. Find the picture in your computer's folder browser and double-click on it. As soon as it appears in the main window, you can start working. To learn how to create a white background in a photo, read on.

Step 3. Retouch

The first stage of working with photos is retouching. This means color correction, smoothing out wrinkles and much more. You can start by eliminating red eye. To do this, it is recommended to go to the “Defect Elimination” section. If you click on the pupils of the eyes one by one, you can thus color them in an acceptable color. To remove wrinkles and pimples, use the stamp tool located in the action panel on the left.

And if you want to improve image quality, then take a look at the “Enhancement Catalog” presets. Select from the suggested options the preset that you require - for example, improving saturation or highlight correction. Then simply apply the template with a double click.

Step 4: Change the background to white

It's time to figure out how to make a white background in a photo. The program has a special filter for this. To get to it, click Effects > Background Replacement. In the background selection column, select white. Next, you need to highlight the object in the photo using a dotted line. Once you succeed, double-click the selection. The area around the object will automatically turn white. After this manipulation of the background, you can apply masks or .

Step 5: Save the photo

All that remains is to save the photo in the format you need. Make sure to save all changes to the photo. After that, click File > Save from the main menu. Select an image format from the list: it can be JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc. Give the file a name and save it in one of the folders on your PC. You can also print the photo on paper of any format by choosing one of the options for placing the photo on a sheet.

Quite often, for various reasons: whether it is the unprofessionalism of the photographer, the imperfection of the automatic adjustment modes of the camera equipment, or unfavorable lighting in which photography is taken, the final photographs turn out to be too dark. The situation can be corrected using Adobe Photoshop and its basic tools.

You will need

- photo with a darkened background
- a computer with Adobe Photoshop installed

Instructions

Upload a file with a photo that needs background lightening. If necessary, pre-crop unnecessary edges of the frame and prepare the photo at the final size for work. If the photo is too dark, and even the lightest details and places in it look muted, try one simple operation.

Find the “Auto Contrast” item in the “Image” menu. This action will not lead to the loss of information on the photo, which distinguishes it from most other operations. Not a single detail will disappear from the photograph, and this is very important for subsequent processing. As a result of this action, the lightest areas will become as light as possible, the darkest areas will actually be the darkest, that is, the dynamic range of the image is optimized. Thanks to this, it becomes possible to correct errors made during exposure selection due to the camera’s automation or inept actions of the photographer. Usually the image becomes more legible and brighter after this operation.

Make adjustments to the overall gamma of the image. Apply the “Levels” command in the Image>Adjustments menu. You can also use the Ctrl+L key combination for this.

To even out the tonality of the picture, move the middle slider located under the histogram to the left until the illumination of the photo reaches the desired level that is pleasing to the eye. This correction method is safer than, for example, the standard Brightness/Contrast operation.

Tip added April 3, 2012 Tip 2: How to Lighten the Background Photos taken in low-light conditions with foreground subjects illuminated by the flash on auto mode will have a darkened background. This flaw can be corrected using Photoshop's color correction tools.

You will need

- Photoshop program;
- image.

Instructions

Load a picture whose background needs lightening into Photoshop. Use the Levels option in the New Adjustment Layer group of the Layer menu to add an adjustment layer on top of the image. With RGB selected in the Channels list, drag the gray slider below the histogram to the left. During the setup process, focus on the state of the darkened background fragments. Having lightened the dark areas, click on the OK button.

As a result of the correction made, not only the background turned out to be brightened, but also those objects that were well lit even without Photoshop. To reduce their brightness, use masks and transparency to adjust the degree to which the adjustment layer is applied to the highlights, midtones, and shadows of the photo.

For separate adjustments, you will need to create three copies of the adjustment layer. This can be done by duplicating it twice using the Ctrl+J key combination. Turn off the visibility of all filter layers.

Use the Color Range option in the Select menu to select the shadow area in the original image. To do this, select the Shadows item in the Select list. Turn on the bottommost adjustment layer and fill its mask in the selected area with black using the Paint Bucket Tool. Now the correction applies to the entire image except for the dark areas.

Invert the mask using the Invert option of the Adjustments group of the Image menu. An adjustment layer processed in this way only affects the shadow area in the photo. Double click on the layer name and rename it “shadows”. This will help you avoid confusion when finalizing the layers' transparency.

Turn off the visibility of the shadow adjustment layer, go back to the background photo and use the Color Range to select the midtone area. To do this, select Midtones from the Select list. Turn on the visibility of the next adjustment layer in sequence and edit its mask so that it affects only the selected fragments of the image.

Change the mask of the last remaining layer, which should brighten the highlights in the photo. By adjusting the Opacity parameter for each copy of the filter layer, adjust the adjustments to individual areas of the image. To avoid making the illuminated object too bright, set the Opacity parameter of the layer that affects light fragments to the minimum value.

Save the lightened image using the Save As option in the File menu.

Sources

Fixing a Dark Photo

How to lighten the background - printable version

How to lighten a photo using Photoshop

1. Select the photo with which to work and open it in Photoshop (I have CS2) as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig.1

Or first open Photoshop and there, through the “File” - “Open” menu, look for and open the required file.

2. This is what the photo looks like in Photoshop (Fig. 2) - dark, not colorful and with a gloomy gray background. This is what we will fix.

Fig.2

3. Let's move on to processing the photo. Open the menu “Image” - “Correction” - “Levels...” and move the rightmost (white) slider to the left, about ¼ of the scale. And click “Yes” (or “OK”, depending on which Photoshop)

Fig.3

At this stage we have illuminated the background. But, as you can see, in the corners of the photo the background is still sadly gray. And so, let's move on.

4. Open the menu “Image” - “Correction” - “Replace Color”

Fig.5

This is what the "Replace Color" menu window looks like:
Fig.6

Select the eyedropper with a plus sign and “poke” it on the dark gray areas of the photo (in the middle and in the corners).
Fig.8

This is roughly what you should get.
Rice. 9

Next, we work in this window with the “brightness” parameter. The scale slider needs to be moved to the right, but see for yourself what value it is. The photograph should not lose its “Face”  there should be no unnatural shadows or severe loss of color. The background may not become white-white, but it will clearly become lighter, which is what we need. Click “Yes” and proceed to the next step.
Fig.10

5. Open the menu “Correction” - “Hue/Saturation”

Rice. 11

We work with the “Saturation” scale (we dabbled with “Brightness” in the previous steps). Here everything is just slightly move the slider to the right.

Rice. 12

This is what we got. Let's compare it to what it was originally.

To

After

But would you agree that it is better to immediately get a white background when shooting than to waste time on clipping the object? Moreover, in the case of “shaggy” objects this is very, very difficult. How to avoid unnecessary problems during processing and get a white background already at the shooting stage? It's very simple, everything is based on one single postulate:

The background should be overexposed by 1.5 - 2 stops.

Then it will become pure white, since it will simply go beyond the range of brightness that the sensor is capable of recording. Now the second question: how to technically implement this? There are several ways.

Method 1. Additional background lighting.

In order for the background to become white, it needs to be additionally illuminated, moreover, stronger than the object being photographed. Here's one lighting scheme I use when shooting subjects against a white background:

In this case, the background is illuminated by two softboxes to obtain the most uniform white field. At home, you can use, for example, a table lamp to illuminate the background. The lighting scheme for the object itself can be anything, depending on the shooting task. Example of a photo taken with background lighting:

Method 2. Using a background with light.

In this case, the light source is behind the background; the background material in this case works for transmission, and not for reflection, as in the previous example. This scheme allows you to make do with light sources of lower power, since losses during reflection are always higher than through transmission. For light sources to work effectively, the background material should not be too dense. This could be, for example, white fabric or milky-white plastic, plexiglass. The lighting diagram is given below. This technique is often used when shooting on a stage to illuminate the plastic background from below.

An example shot with a similar lighting scheme

Method 3: Using a softbox as a background.

This method can be considered a variant of the previous one. A flash with a softbox is used as a background. This requires almost minimal power as the light is directed directly into the camera. The disadvantage of this method is that when shooting large objects or people, softboxes of appropriate sizes are required. For small items it can be used at home.

I hope that now it will not be a problem for you to get a pure white background in a photo during the shooting process, without the use of graphic editors.