How to Lighten Night Photos

Welcome to this tutorial on how to lighten up dark photos in PaintShop Pro.

In this example I will demonstrate how easy it is to restore visibility to a dark photo. This is a common occurrence when photos taken at night with a flash are shot far away from the subject.

1. First, open the image in PaintShop Pro and make sure that the Edit workspace is active.

As you can see, it’s very difficult to make out what the image actually is; so let’s add some light and reveal the scene.

2. From the Adjust menu select Brightness and Contrast, and then Fill Light/Clarity.

3. Since the image was extremely dark, I’ll increase the Fill Light to 125 and the Clarity to 100.

4. Next, from the Adjust menu, select One Step Noise Removal; this will remove a lot of the grain commonly seen in dark photos after they’ve been brightened.

5. Lastly, from the Adjust menu select Smart Photo Fix. These options will allow you to lighten the image a little more, as well as restore some of the color to the photo.

When you’re happy with the adjustments here, click OK to continue. That’s how easy it is to restore dark night photos in Corel PaintShop Pro.