SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher brightens dark photos in a click, revealing details in the shadows.

1️⃣ Open SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher.
2️⃣ Add Dark Photo.
3️⃣ Access Image Correction Tools.
4️⃣ Adjust Brightness Levels.
5️⃣ Save Edited Photo.

On my recent trip to Iceland, the northern lights left the landscapes looking like dark blobs on camera. I wanted to brighten them without losing detail. The other programs I tried felt clunky or expensive. SoftOrbits Old Photo Restoration Software was easy to use, and the photos looked good enough that I'll keep using it.

What you will learn

SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher: Easy photo editing for beginners.
Photoshop: For advanced users
Online tools: good for 1-2 images
Mobile apps: edit on your phone

Why should you fix the image brightness of dark photos?

How to use Image Brightener Software?

With SoftOrbits Photo Rethoucher, you can correct exposure and color, remove scratches from scanned images, remove skin blemishes, colorize black and white photos and erase watermarks.

How to brighten a picture in a click?

Add file

Click Add File or drag your photo onto the home screen of the image brightener app.

Click on Image Correction

Click Image Correction in the top menu. Editing options, including contrast and temperature, appear on the right.

Make the brightness adjustment

Move the top slider right to increase brightness or left to decrease it. Adjust contrast, saturation, temperature, tint and gamma the same way.

Apply final changes

You get a live preview as you adjust the settings. Click Apply when you're happy with the result.

Save file

Click Save As to save your edited photo.

Photo Retoucher

Restore and enhance old photos with SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher, AI-based photo restoration software. Remove scratches, reduce noise, and colorize black-and-white images automatically with AI.

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Video Tutorials

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Windows 11 / 10Free trial, no sign-up

How to automatically brighten a dark photo with Auto Correction?

For complex lighting that's difficult to correct manually, try auto brightness.
Click Image Correction, then Auto Correction in the right toolbar. Image Brightener analyzes your image and adjusts it automatically.

It corrects brightness, contrast and color to balance the histogram and white balance.

How can Image Brightener app adjust sharpness of the photo?

Click Image Correction to find the Sharpen and Soften buttons at the bottom of the toolbar. Use Sharpen to make edges, outlines and textures stand out. Too much creates an unnatural HDR-like look.
Use Soften to blend details and outlines for a soft, dreamy look, or to smooth wrinkles and blemishes in portraits.

What is the Gamma correction option in SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher?

Gamma affects how light or dark your image looks on different computer screens and monitors. An incorrect setting can make your photo appear darker or brighter on another display.
Increasing gamma lightens only the mid-tones, leaving black and white areas unchanged. Too much makes the image look washed out. Keep gamma around 1 for most photos.

Other features of SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher

How to Restore Dark Photos If They Have Any Damaged Areas

Use the Tools menu.

Open SoftOrbits Picture Brightener and add the photo you want to edit.

Click Tools in the top menu. Select Scratch Remover from the dropdown list.

Scratch removal options appear on the right. Click Find Scratches to detect scratches automatically.

To mark scratches manually, click the pencil icon under the Selection option.

Select scratches manually using Photo Retoucher..

With all scratches selected, click Remove Scratches. Photo Retoucher erases the selected areas and fills the gaps using the background.

How to use the Remove option to erase distractions, objects and watermarks?

You can erase distractions such as tourists, moving cars and watermarks.

Remove unwanted objects from photos

Use the Remove tool of picture brightener.

Open the program and add the photo you want to edit.

With Remove, mark the person, object or watermark using your mouse pointer. Adjust the pencil marker's size with the radius control. SoftOrbits Image Brightener fills the gaps automatically.

Remove object from a photo using Photo Retoucher..

To replace an object manually with another part of the image, use the clone-stamp tool. Use Alt + left click to clone a clean area, then left click to paste it over the object.

After marking objects or covering them with the clone-stamp tool, click Remove. Photo Retoucher erases the marked areas.

Remove unwanted objects using Image Brightener..

Way #2: How to brighten a photo in Photoshop?

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Photoshop is one of the most used advanced editing programs. You can easily correct exposure and brighten photos with it.

Follow these four simple steps to brighten photo in photoshop!

Upload the photo you want to edit in Photoshop

In the top menu bar, select Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast

A small dialog opens with brightness and contrast sliders. Move them right to increase the values, or click Auto to let Photoshop analyze the image and adjust brightness.

Click OK to apply the adjustments to the open layer. Save the image in the right folder.

Way #3: Can I brighten image online for free?

Of the dozens of sites for brightening dark photos, Canva is one of the best. It's easy to use, completely free and includes many filters. You can use it to brighten image online and create birthday cards, greetings and posters.

A free Canva account includes 5 GB of cloud storage.

To brighten image online, follow these simple steps:

Log in to Canva. You can use the website without an account, but features such as text, shapes, templates and graphics require one.

Use the Upload button to add the photo.

Click the Adjustments icon, which looks like 3 small lines, directly below the upload button.

You get 3 sliders for brightness, contrast and saturation, with a real-time preview of your changes.

Click Save in the top-right corner to download the image.

Way #3 What is the best app to brighten pictures?

You can find advanced photo editors for both iPhone and Android. On iPhone, the built-in editor lets you fix dark photos without another download.
To make photos brighter in iPhone, open Photos, tap your image to view it full screen, and tap Edit. Swipe left through the editing options to find the brightness tool under Exposure.
The two best brighten apps for android are Snapseed and Pixlr.

Best Brighten App for Android


SNAPSEED	PIXLR

Snapseed is developed by Google and is free.	Pixlr is free on Android phones.
You can use Snapseed as an image brightener and adjust contrast, temperature and sharpness. The sharpness radius is fixed.	Pixlr lets you adjust all basic exposure values and the sharpness radius.
Snapseed includes curve adjustments, black and white conversion with RGB filter and automatic face detection for fixing portraits.	Pixlr has fewer advanced features than Snapseed, but more creative filters, text options and stickers.
Better for advanced users who need extra photo brightener editing options.	Better for beginners editing simple photos and selfies.