brightening the exposure in PS

[asturias105]

Hi guys, i've took some photos and a lot of them are under-exposed. I'm thinking of brightening the exposure using photoshop.

My qn is, will brightening the exposure in PS actually degrade the quality of the pictures?

 

[Clown]

use the 'shadows and highlights' feature in PS CS.

 

[asturias105]

thanks clown. but i've only got ps7, don't have cs.
do i create a curve layer and adjust there?

use the 'shadows and highlights' feature in PS CS.

 

[Squid]

You may refer to following thread : http://forum.clubsnap.com/showthread.php?t=46308 for more information

 

[yanyewkay]

I normally dun use overlay. I use "screen" I feel it's better than overlay.

My comments on "overlay" and "screen"

When you use overlay. the bright parts get brighter but the darker parts gets darker and you get an overall increase of contrast and saturation.

this makes the darker pics somewhat 'funny' in my opinion. It's like pulling the contrast on both sides -> dark gets darker and bright gets brighter.

When you use screen. The darker parts gets brightened together with the already bright parts. Give the feeling of shifting the entire contrast up the scale.

These 2 techniques are not the same as adjusting the 'contrast' of the pics.

Just try it out. I use PS7 but I think should be same for PS CS.

 

[yanyewkay]

jsut realised the qn is whether it'll degrade the pic quality..

With any processing, the pic quality degrades everytime you jpeg it.
You be the judge yourself.

Before processing:

After processing:

I did a 2nd level of dodge/burn for the above pics to further brighten the faces of the people but will not post it here.

As you brighten, i think the noise/grain gets amplified too.. so you have to use a good noise reduction software (this also degrades the photo a little).

 

[asturias105]

thanks for the vv detailed explanation, yanyewkay!

 

[Flare]

Hmmm... for the picture, I thought maybe increasing the contrast a little by using the curve could yield a more natural looking effect...

 

[Clown]

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=90002 <-- the original manual version of shadows/highlights.

 

[rogersk8ter]

I use levels, it works all the time.