Correcting shadows and highlights

You can use the Shadow/Highlight tool to adjust areas in an image that are too dark or too light, without affecting areas that are already light or dark. You can save your options as a preset for future use.

Adding light to shadows

You can use the Shadow/Highlight tool to add light to shadows, without adding light to existing highlights. This is useful if you have a photo of a person standing against a bright background, and the person is in shadow. It is also useful if you have a photo taken indoors without a flash and most areas of the photo are shadowed, or a photo taken at night and some areas of the photo appear to be completely black.

To add light to shadows:

1. In Edit Mode, on the Edit panel, click Shadow/Highlight.

2. Drag the Brighten slider to the right to add light to the darkest areas of the image.

3. Do one of the following:

4. Click Done to apply your changes and close the tool.

5. Click Cancel to discard all changes and close the tool.

Adding shadows to highlights

You can use the Shadow/Highlight tool to add shadows to highlights, without adding shadows to existing dark areas. This can be useful if some areas of your photo are overexposed. For example, a photo taken in bright sunlight so that some areas of the photo lack detail or are too bright.

To add shadows to highlights:

1. In Edit Mode, on the Edit panel, click Shadow/Highlight.

2. Drag the Darken slider to the right to add shadows to the lightest areas of the image.

3. Do one of the following:

4. Click Done to apply your changes and close the tool.

5. Click Cancel to discard all changes and close the tool.

Tips for adjusting the shadows and highlights in your photos

You can make an image look unnatural if you add too much light to shadows or too many shadows to highlights. For example, if you have a close-up photo of a person's face there will be shadows on the person's face. If you eliminate too many of those shadows the person's face will look flat. You should leave natural shadows and highlights in your photos.

Related topics

• Using Edit Mode