What are shadows and highlights?

Shadows and highlights are the dark and the bright areas of a photo. Adjusting them separately fixes the classic problem of a scene that's too dark in one place and too bright in another: a person in front of a bright window, a building against the sky, a face under a hat on a sunny day. Lifting the shadows brightens only the dark areas, bringing back the highlights darkens only the bright ones, and the midtones stay as they were.

Tool description

Open a photo and drag Shadows to the right to lift the dark areas. Drag Highlights to the left to bring back the bright areas, like a pale sky. It also works the other way: negative shadows deepen the dark areas and positive highlights brighten the bright ones. The preview updates as you drag, the compare button shows the original next to the edit, and the download is full size as PNG, JPG, or WebP.

Features

  • Adjusts whole dark and bright areas, so texture inside them keeps its contrast
  • Follows strong edges, so no glowing halos around buildings, trees or people
  • Full size download, made in your browser

How it works

First the tool measures how bright the area around each pixel is: the image's brightness blurred over a few percent of its size, but kept sharp along strong edges with a guided filter. Where that measure is dark, Shadows adds or takes away light, in stops like a camera's exposure. Where it's bright, Highlights does the same. Each area changes as a whole, so the bricks of a shaded wall keep their pattern instead of turning flat. Brightening rolls off before white, so it never clips.

Tips

  • Lifting the shadows of a very dark photo also lifts its noise. Moderate values look more natural.
  • Areas that are pure white in the original have no detail left to bring back. They only turn gray.
  • For backlit photos use both: shadows up, highlights down.