How to Brighten a Dark Photo in 7 Easy and Quick Ways

5 mins read

Updated on 2025-03-24 17:46:40 to Photo Tips

A dark image decreases the visibility of detail and creates lower quality and less visual appeal. There exist various methods both online and offline to help you lighten your dark photographs. The following guide explains optimal methods for how to brighten a dark photo regardless of using professional tools such as Photoshop or Lightroom mobile apps or free web editors.

how to brighten a dark photo

Part 1. Why Are My Photos Dark on iPhone/Android/Computer

Multiple causes exist that result in photos becoming shadowed to an extent where they become viewable. The following list details the reasons which lead to images appearing under-lit.

  • Images taken under low light exposure settings become too dim because of inadequate illumination.
  • Camera settings that use low ISO or fast shutter speeds together with a small aperture size which leads to reduced image brightness.
  • The absence of sufficient light captured by the camera makes images appear black.
  • The High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode enables darker parts of photos than intended during certain uses.
  • When brightness settings on devices get adjusted the displayed image may appear too dark in comparison to its actual appearance.
  • A high contrast plus excessive shadows in images creates dark shadows which result in dim areas.
  • Sometimes incorrect darkness in your photographs is just a software issue.

The problem resolution contains multiple solutions that rely on different tools and software applications.

Part 2. How to Brighten a Dark Photo with Professional Software

This section demonstrates the method of using expert software to lighten photos that appear excessively dark. Professional platform software allows users to achieve exact control when working with brightness and contrast together with exposure adjustments. Two exceptional tools exist to lighten dark images, and they are described below.

1. Brighten a Photo in Photoshop

Among all photo editing tools in the market, Adobe Photoshop stands as the most effective and powerful application. Users can turn on the brightness feature of Photoshop to adjust tint levels along with contrast and exposure settings for dark images.

☞ Steps to Lighten Image in Photoshop:

  • Open the Adobe Photoshop software and open the dark photo.

  • Click on “Image” > “Adjustments” > “Brightness/Contrast”.

  • Adjust the Brightness slider to increase the light in the photo.

  • Use the Exposure setting under “Image” > “Adjustments” for more precise control.

    brighten a dark photo
  • Save the bright image

2. Lighten a Photo in Illustrator

The main purpose of Adobe Illustrator is vector graphics creation while it includes functions for enhancing image brightness within its premium image editing and graphics design software set.

☞ Steps to Lighten a Dark Photo in Illustrator:

  • Open Illustrator and open the dark image.

  • Select the image and click “Edit” > “Edit Colors” and pick “Adjust Color Balance” from the draw-down menu.

    adjust color balance to brighten photos
  • Save your image

Part 3. How to Brighten a Photo on iPhone/Android

Those who utilize smartphones to capture images should utilize the preinstalled photo editor features or third-party applications to brighten photographs.

1. Brighten a Photo in Lightroom Mobile

Adobe Lightroom Mobile presents a competent photo editing application through which users can control brightness and exposure levels with professional adjustment mechanisms.

☞ Steps to Make Photos Brighter in Lightroom Mobile:

  • Open Lightroom Mobile and import the dark image.

  • Tap Light and adjust the Exposure slider to increase brightness.

  • Use the Highlights and Shadows sliders to fine-tune the image.

  • Save the brightened photo.

    brighten up an image with lightroom mobile app

2. Increase the Brightness of Images in Photos App

iPhone users can easily adjust brightness directly through the Photos app that comes on the device. Hence, it removes the need for any online or offline third-party tool for increasing image brightness.

☞ Steps to Brighten a Photo in the Photos App:

  • Open the Photos app and select the dark photo.

  • Tap “Edit” and choose “Brightness” under the adjustment tools.

  • Increase the brightness as required.

    photo app increase brightness
  • Tap “Done” to save changes.

3. Change the Image Brightness of the Camera Before Photographing

Here are some settings that you can set before taking a picture to take pictures with better brightness.

☞ Steps:

  • Adjust the picture brightness levels directly before you take your photograph.

  • You can improve brightness through increased ISO values while working in low-light situations.

  • The use of Flash serves to expose subjects that need illumination in environments with low light.

  • The exposure level of most mobile phone camera systems can be controlled manually through exposure setting adjustments before image capture.

  • Operating the HDR function in your device enables proper illumination of light and dark image features.

Part 4. How to Lighten Dark Photos Online Free

The availability of online tools enables users who do not wish to install software to brighten their images effortlessly.

1. Use PicsArt Image Brightener

PicsArt serves as a free online platform that provides users with a quick method to modify their image brightness. However, that is not its only use case as it provides a lot of other images editing features.

☞ Steps to Brighten an Image with PicsArt:

  • Visit PicsArt Image Brightener.

  • Tap on the “Browse files” tab to upload the dark photo.

  • Adjust the Brightness slider to lighten the image.

    picsart adjust brightness
  • Download the edited photo.

2. Use Canva Image Lightener

Through Canva users can use a user-friendly interface to modify photo brightness.

☞ Steps to Lighten an Image with Canva

  • Go to Canva Image Lightener and upload the dark photo and hit the “Brighten an image” button.

  • Click on “Edit Image” and select “Brightness”.

    brighten picture online with canva
  • Adjust the brightness and save the image.

Part 5. How to Enhance Dark Photo to 4K and Higher with AI

Some users reported that the photo comes with low resolution after editing, even lightening. Amid this, a photo-enhance solution is needed. When it comes to this, an AI-driven tool like 4DDiG AI Photo Enhancer will automatically elevate both clarity and resolution to 4K and up to 8K for your poor-quality image. It will also adjust the sharpness and brightness of the image, making it better visually. This dark image enhancer will ease your life without any need for manual adjustments.

FREE DOWNLOAD

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FREE DOWNLOAD

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✨ What Can 4DDiG AI Photo Enhancer Do for You

The key features of 4DDiG AI Photo Enhancer include:

  • Apply cutting-edge AI technology to enhance photo quality to 4K and higher.
  • Remove noise/grain from photo and sharpen it, improving clarity, brightness, and sharpeness.
  • Restore old photos, adding realistic and natural color to them.
  • Deal with various formats: JPG, PNG, JPEG, WEBP, HEIC, TIFF, GIF, and more.
  • Offer 4 wonderful AI models: General, Face, Denoise, and Colorize models.
  • Its Face Model can retouch photos and remove flaws, acnes, papules, and others from face.
  • Work with multiple devices, including computer, camera, external hard drive, storage media, etc.

✨ Steps to Enhance Photo with 4DDiG Photo Enhancer

  • Open the 4DDiG File Repair program on your computer and select the "AI Enhancer" feature, then pick the "Photo Enhancer" option.

    4ddig ai photo enhancer
  • Touch on the “Add Photos” tab to browse and add the dark image or brigtened photo from your offline storage.

    add dark or brigtened photos to enhance
  • Pick the “AI Model” of your choice and your resolution preferences (X4 is recommended). Then click “Enhance” to commence the enhancement.

    a. General Model: Improven brightness, resolution, and sharpeness of photos across any type.

    b. Face Model: Retouch facial features and details, removing flaws, like acnes, pimples, papules, etc.

    c. Denoise Model: Remove unwanted noise and grain from the image, making it clearer.

    d. Colorize Model: Turn black-and-white/old/faded photos to color with vivid hue.

    select ai model and resolution for photo enhancement
  • Once the image is enhanced, check its result and export it on your device by clicking "Save".

    preview and export enhanced photos

Part 6. People Also Ask about How to Brighten a Dark Photo

Q1: How to brighten one area of a photo in Photoshop?

You should employ the Dodge Tool from Photoshop to brighten individual parts of their images.

Q2: Is there any free app to brighten pictures?

Lightroom Mobile Snapseed and PicsArt provide users with the capability to modify brightness through their free applications.

Q3: Why does Instagram darken my photos?

The image compression feature of Instagram occasionally results in changes to image brightness values. Try increasing the brightness before uploading.

Q4: Which app is best for brightening photos?

The best tools available for image brightening include Photoshop and Lightroom as well as 4DDiG AI Photo Enhancer for computers. Lightroom and iPhone Photos apps are best for smartphone users.

Conclusion

Dark photos can be rectified through multiple available repair methods. Users have three options to choose from when adjusting brightness: using Photoshop and Lightroom alongside the free editing tools PicsArt and Canva. With these options, knowing how to brighten a dark photo help use images that were unattractive before.

High-quality AI-powered enhancement comes with a 4DDiG AI Photo Enhancer. The program both lights up dimmed images along with upgrading their resolution to 4K quality or greater. Use this application right now to enhance your images.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Secure Download

FREE DOWNLOAD

Secure Download

Sawart Mashab (senior editor)

Sawart Mashab, the content writer for 4DDiG, is adept at creating informative and practical solutions related to Windows and macOS issues, data recovery, file repair, and RAID storage.

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