Lecture: Overexposed Photos

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How to Darken Photos

Directions:

Import a photo into Photoshop

Step 1: Add A Levels Adjustment Layer

With the image newly opened in Photoshop, click on the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Click on the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon.

Choose a Levels adjustment layer from the list that appears:

Select Levels from the list.

For Photoshop CS4 and CS5 users, the histogram and other options for the Levels adjustment layer will appear in the Adjustments panel. You can leave the Adjustments panel open on your screen but again, just ignore it because there's no need to make any changes.

If we look in the Layers panel, we see that Photoshop has added the Levels adjustment layer above the image on the Background layer:

The Levels adjustment layer sits above the Background layer.

Step 2: Change The Adjustment Layer's Blend Mode To Multiply

In the previous tutorial, we used the Screen blend mode to brighten the underexposed image. This time, our image is overexposed - the opposite problem - so to fix it, we'll use the opposite of the Screen blend mode - Multiply. Change the blend mode for the Levels adjustment layer from Normal to Multiply. The blend mode option is found in the top left corner of the Layers panel:

Change the blend mode of the adjustment layer to Multiply.

Multiply is one of several layer blend modes in Photoshop that darken an image, and simply by changing the blend mode of the adjustment layer to Multiply, the photo now appears much darker, with more detail and colors that appear more saturated:

The photo after changing the blend mode of the adjustment layer to Multiply.

Step 3: Lower The Opacity Of The Adjustment Layer

The Multiply blend mode often does such a good job of darkening an image that your photo can appear too dark afterwards, as is the case with my photo here. We can bring back some of the brightness and fine-tune the results simply by lowering the opacity of the adjustment layer. You'll find the Opacity option directly across from the blend mode option at the top of the Layers panel. I'm going to lower mine down to 50%, but you may end up using a different value for your image:

Lower the opacity value of the adjustment layer to fine-tune the results.

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