Fixing Backlight Photos Using Photoshop Shadow/Highlight Tool

In my previous tutorial, you have seen how to fix dark photos using Photoshop levels. Now, I will show you how to fix a backlit photo -the light source is behind the object not in front of it- easily. The biggest problem when this happens -specially if you have set your camera flash to auto- is that mostly the flash will not fire and the automatic exposure systems in your camera will not work properly because of the amount of light behind the main object which will look more like a silhouette. Please notice that the results will never be as good as having the light source in front of the object, but it will make the photo look better.

Here is an example of a backlight photo:

Now, let's start.

Press (Ctrl+J) to duplicate the background layer so you can delete the new layer and start all over again if anything goes wrong.
With the new layer selected, click Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight...
The default settings of the Photoshop Shadow/Highlight tool will make the image look better but you can play with settings to get much better results. The shadows sliders will affect only the shadows in the image while the highlights sliders will only affect the highlights areas which makes the Shadow/Highlight tool perfect for this setuation.

Before:

After:

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Current Comments (3)

prashanti Said,

Sat, 04 August 2007 10:45am (GMT)

thank u .thats was very usefull

Chandy Said,

Mon, 28 January 2008 09:24am (GMT)

Gr8 Tutorial.... Was got to know abt new feature (Shadow/Highlight) in Photoshop.. Would be very useful @ times...

Jeffrey Said,

Mon, 04 February 2008 00:23am (GMT)

Thank you. I found this tip very helpful and have more than enough reasons to use it in the future.

Fixing Backlight Photos Using Photoshop Shadow/Highlight Tool

More Useful Tutorials

Current Comments (3)

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