How to Fix an Underexposed or Flat Photo
A dark photograph is usually recoverable. A flat one usually is too. They need different corrections, and reaching for the wrong one is why a brightened photo often looks worse than the original. The Image Editor has both adjustments on the same screen.
What each control actually does
Brightness adds the same amount to every pixel. Everything gets lighter, including the parts that were already light, which is why a heavy brightness lift turns a dark photo into a pale grey one rather than a well-lit one. The shadows come up, but so do the highlights, and the difference between them does not change.
Contrast stretches the gap between light and dark. The bright parts get brighter, the dark parts get darker, and the picture gains definition. On its own, applied to a dark photo, it mostly makes the shadows worse.
A dark, flat photograph almost always needs both: brightness to lift it into a usable range, then contrast to put the separation back. Do it in that order and watch the result rather than the numbers.
What cannot be recovered
Two things are genuinely gone. Blown highlights - areas that recorded as pure white - hold no information at all, and darkening them produces flat grey patches where a sky should be. And deep shadow in a JPEG holds very little real detail, so lifting it brings up sensor noise and compression blocks instead of the subject.
This is why it is worth being realistic. A slightly dark photograph will come back beautifully. A silhouette against a bright window will not, and no amount of adjustment will put a face into pixels that never recorded one.
When the colour goes wrong
Lifting a dark photograph often exposes a colour cast that was hiding in the gloom - an orange tint from indoor lighting, or a blue one from shade. If the cast cannot be fixed, consider whether the picture works better without colour at all; the Grayscale Image Converter turns an unfixable cast into a non-issue.
Common questions
Why does my brightened photo look grainy?
Because lifting shadows amplifies the noise that was always in them. It is a limit of the original file, not of the adjustment. Lift less and the grain stays hidden.
Should I brighten before or after cropping?
Crop first. The adjustment you choose depends on what is in the frame, and a crop can remove the very bright or very dark area that was skewing your judgement.
Will adjusting a photo reduce its quality?
Each re-save of a JPEG costs a little. One editing pass is invisible; five rounds of adjust-and-save are not. Work from the original and save once.
Can I fix an overexposed photo the same way?
Partly. Reducing brightness helps a photograph that is merely too bright, but anything that recorded as pure white has no detail to bring back.
Is my photo uploaded while I adjust it?
No. All the editing happens in your browser, so nothing leaves your device.
Got a photo that came out too dark?