zBernie Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 How can I lighten only the dark areas of a photo? In the photo fragment below, I'd like to lighten the dark areas which contain blacks, and dark greens. I tried using the channel mixer but it always seems to lighten other areas except for the blacks, even though I select CYMK/Black for the output channel. -Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardMH Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 Does the Shadows slider not work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 Another way is performing a "Selective color" change on blacks & greens. Or just old school dodging over the wanted dark areas. Quote ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zBernie Posted September 15, 2022 Author Share Posted September 15, 2022 8 hours ago, RichardMH said: Does the Shadows slider not work? The shadows slider works, but I find it also lightens areas I do not want lightened. I was looking for a more targeted approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zBernie Posted September 15, 2022 Author Share Posted September 15, 2022 2 hours ago, v_kyr said: Another way is performing a "Selective color" change on blacks & greens. Or just old school dodging over the wanted dark areas. The Selective Color tool works, but even though I am specifying blacks, the entire photo is affected. I was looking for a more targeted approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iconoclast Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 You could try the following (maybe a little nonorthodox): pick the colour of the lighter areas and fill a separate layer with it. Place that layer below the image layer. Open the Mix Modes on that image layer (Cogwheel symbol on the top right of the Layers Panel) and drag the left curve point of the left window vertically down as long as you need. This should make the darker areas let the background shine through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zBernie Posted September 15, 2022 Author Share Posted September 15, 2022 3 hours ago, v_kyr said: Another way is performing a "Selective color" change on blacks & greens. Or just old school dodging over the wanted dark areas. I just tried a "Select sampled color", selected a black area, then used a brightness adjustment. That worked very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smadell Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 Two fairly easy suggestions. The first one is to use a Curves adjustment. The second one is to use a Brightness and Contrast adjustment, along with Blend Options. Curves: Brightness & Contrast / Blend Options Quote Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme Mac Studio with M2 Max (2023}; 64 GB RAM; macOS 13 (Ventura); Mac Studio Display - iPad Air 4th Gen; iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zBernie Posted September 15, 2022 Author Share Posted September 15, 2022 4 hours ago, smadell said: Two fairly easy suggestions. The first one is to use a Curves adjustment. The second one is to use a Brightness and Contrast adjustment, along with Blend Options. Curves: Brightness & Contrast / Blend Options Thanks, I'll check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardMH Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 10 hours ago, zBernie said: The shadows slider works, but I find it also lightens areas I do not want lightened. I was looking for a more targeted approach. As above, blend ranges lets you fine tune it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron P. Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 Could this be what you're wanting to achieve? Brighton the greens & black in the shadows? 2022-09-16 01-55-07.mp4 Quote Affinity Photo 2.4..; Affinity Designer 2.4..; Affinity Publisher 2.4..; Affinity2 Beta versions. Affinity Photo,Designer 1.10.6.1605 Win10 Home Version:21H2, Build: 19044.1766: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s);32GB Ram, Nvidia GTX 3070, 3-Internal HDD (1 Crucial MX5000 1TB, 1-Crucial MX5000 500GB, 1-WD 1 TB), 4 External HDD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 On 9/15/2022 at 5:12 AM, zBernie said: seems to lighten other areas What about a pixel selection to limit the desired colour range? It lets you choose a specific range only (> low tolerance) + soften the selection edges if wanted (> refine > feather). Then e.g. a Levels or a Curve Adjustment. Or a more simple / less precise way with blend mode + blend range curve applied to a copy: Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zBernie Posted September 16, 2022 Author Share Posted September 16, 2022 2 hours ago, thomaso said: What about a pixel selection to limit the desired colour range? It lets you choose a specific range only (> low tolerance) + soften the selection edges if wanted (> refine > feather). Then e.g. a Levels or a Curve Adjustment. Or a more simple / less precise way with blend mode + blend range curve applied to a copy: Yes, I used a Select -> Select Sampled Color then adjust the tolerance. So far this gives me the best targeted approach. See my other post regarding this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 17 minutes ago, zBernie said: Select -> Select Sampled Color then adjust the tolerance. Just in case its tolerance option is not precise enough: After applying this selection method you still can switch to a selection tool to get access to the Refine option of your selection. Whereas the Flood Select Tool gives more flexibilty with its add | subtract | intersect options while each can be used with a separate tolerance. Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zBernie Posted September 16, 2022 Author Share Posted September 16, 2022 2 hours ago, thomaso said: Just in case its tolerance option is not precise enough: After applying this selection method you still can switch to a selection tool to get access to the Refine option of your selection. Whereas the Flood Select Tool gives more flexibilty with its add | subtract | intersect options while each can be used with a separate tolerance. Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iconoclast Posted September 17, 2022 Share Posted September 17, 2022 If you want to neutralize the dark areas, you could also duplicate the layer, convert the top layer to greyscales and apply the blend mode "Subtract" to it. Haven't tested it, but I think it should work. As an alternative you could also invert the greyscale top layer and apply the blend mode "Luminosity" to it. As I said, I didn't test it, so without warranty, but something like that should work. And you can finetune the result with the Opacity slider. However, there isn't just one way of doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zBernie Posted September 17, 2022 Author Share Posted September 17, 2022 7 hours ago, iconoclast said: If you want to neutralize the dark areas, you could also duplicate the layer, convert the top layer to greyscales and apply the blend mode "Subtract" to it. Haven't tested it, but I think it should work. As an alternative you could also invert the greyscale top layer and apply the blend mode "Luminosity" to it. As I said, I didn't test it, so without warranty, but something like that should work. And you can finetune the result with the Opacity slider. However, there isn't just one way of doing it. Thanks I'll keep that in mind. So far my favorite way is doing a Select -> Select Sampled Color, then adjusting the tolerance from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.