How To Lighten and Darken in Photoshop

Open the Shadow/Highlight Adjustment by choosing Image, Adjustments, Shadow/Highlight from the top menu bar. Click Show More Options to expand the dialog box, which adds Tonal Width and Radius options to both the Shadows and Highlights sections. Also, it adds a new section called Adjustments, which contains the Color Correction, Midtone Contrast, Black Clip and White Clip options.

Slide all of the sliders to the left. Move the Amount slider in the Shadows section to about 20 percent. Change how much you’ll lighten the shadows by moving the Amount slider in the Shadows section to 20 percent.

Adjust the darkest areas by moving the Shadows Tonal Width slider to the right.

Adjust the area of the photo you’ll affect by moving the Radius slider to the right. This helps soften some areas of adjustment, keeping your retouching from being rough and obvious.

Adjust the three Highlights sliders.

Make fine-tune color adjustments to the areas you’ve changed by sliding the Color Correction slider around.

Increase or decrease the Black and White Clip values. Be careful: It’s easy to lose detail in the Shadows or Highlights if you move these values too much.

If you’re not happy, close the file and delete it. Reopen the original file, save it under a different name, and start again. If you are satisfied, click OK and save your file.