Ideas.  Interesting.  Public catering.  Production.  Management.  Agriculture

Lighten the background in Photoshop. Whitening the gray background of photos in Photoshop. How the tools work

Our photos don't always turn out perfect. Sometimes the lighting sucks, sometimes a bad angle ruins everything. Agree, strangers and objects in the frame are unlikely to allow you to put an image on your avatar.

You've probably wondered more than once how to do White background on the picture? Today you can edit a photo in just a few minutes. All you need is a “Home Photo Studio”. By following the instructions below, you can easily learn how to process any photos.

Step 1. Download the utility

Before you start, you need a photo editor from the official website. Wait until the distribution downloads completely. Next, unpack the downloaded archive, after which the Installation Wizard will open. Based on its instructions, install the program components on your computer. For easy access to the editor, create a Home Photo Studio shortcut on your desktop. Launch the software and proceed to the second step.

Step 2. Upload a photo

Now you need to add the photo that you are going to edit. Click the "Open Photo" button. Find the picture in your computer's folder browser and double-click on it. As soon as it appears in the main window, you can start working. To learn how to create a white background in a photo, read on.

Step 3. Retouch

The first stage of working with photos is retouching. This means color correction, smoothing out wrinkles and much more. You can start by eliminating red eye. To do this, it is recommended to go to the “Defect Elimination” section. If you click on the pupils of the eyes one by one, you can thus color them in an acceptable color. To remove wrinkles and pimples, use the stamp tool located in the action panel on the left.

And if you want to improve image quality, then take a look at the “Enhancement Catalog” presets. Select from the suggested options the preset that you require - for example, improving saturation or highlight correction. Then simply apply the template with a double click.


Step 4: Change the background to white

It's time to figure out how to make a white background in a photo. The program has a special filter for this. To get to it, click Effects > Background Replacement. In the background selection column, select white. Next, you need to highlight the object in the photo using a dotted line. Once you succeed, double-click the selection. The area around the object will automatically turn white. After this manipulation of the background, you can apply masks or .


Step 5: Save the photo

All that remains is to save the photo in the format you need. Make sure to save all changes to the photo. After that, click File > Save from the main menu. Select an image format from the list: it can be JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc. Give the file a name and save it in one of the folders on your PC. You can also print the photo on paper of any format by choosing one of the options for placing the photo on a sheet.


How to make a white background in a photo and post on Instagram in light colors? You don't need an art education to do this. Processing with a white background is quite popular in Lately. In addition to the light tone, it also contains some dark shades and beige tones. Let's see how to properly whiten the background in a photo.

Not every photo can have a white background and process it in a similar style. To do this, you need to try to take a photo that has a lot of white, black and beige.

Before you make a white background in a photo, you need to capture the frame correctly. Our simple tips will help you make it perfect:

  1. Look for more white surfaces: wall, table top, carpet, refrigerator, cabinet door, window and more.
  2. Try to stick to minimalism. The fewer objects there are, the more aesthetically pleasing the photo will look.
  3. Take a close look at the details that will be shown in the photo. They should successfully resonate with each other.

Whiter than white

The essence of the treatment is to whiten not only the background, but also most surfaces. How to make a photo white the background white? It is necessary to reduce the contrast or whiten individual elements.

The Facetune app can handle this. It is paid, but there are often discounts on it. You can download the Facetune 2 application, the program is absolutely free and also contains a whitening function.

Step 1: Facetune

  1. Go to Facetune and open the desired photo in the program.
  2. Press the “White” function and move your finger over the desired surfaces that need to be made white.
  3. You can use an eraser to correct actions.
  4. Once you have achieved the result, save the photo.

Photos BEFORE and AFTER processing:

Step 2. VSCO

You can make the background of a photo white in the VSCO application by choosing the right filter for it. All you have to do is make a couple of adjustments and you're done! These VSCO filters are ideal for monochrome white profiles, they leave the most natural shades in the photo:

  • S2;
  • HB1;
  • A6;
  • N1.

In additional settings you need to increase Contrast and clean it up a little Saturation. As a result, your photo acquires a white tint and perfect processing.

Final result:

Painter-plasterer

The third editor that will help you make a white background in a photo is called Snapseed. The application is free and available in the official AppStore and Google Play stores.

Instructions on how to make a white background in a photo:

  1. Open the photo in the program.
  2. Next follow: Tools - Brush - Saturation.
  3. Set Saturation to -5 or -10. Swipe your finger across the screen to whiten areas of the photo.
  4. Next follow: Tools - Brush - Exposure.
  5. Set Exposure to -0.3 and also slide your finger across the screen.
  6. Play around with the values ​​until the picture is perfect.
  7. Next, all that remains is to process the photo in VSCO.

The result of background whitening in Snapseed.

Be the most stylish! Use super effects.

Raster processing program, graphic editor "Photoshop" is a favorite tool for designers, photographers, collagists and all those whose professional or creative activities involve working with images. The large arsenal of possibilities that this application offers is sometimes very difficult to understand for a beginner who still wants to master the simplest processing techniques. For example, many people are interested in how to lighten a photo in Photoshop. We will show you several different convenient ways solving the problem.

How do the tools work?

Tools that lighten or darken a digital photograph in Photoshop are based on the darkroom principle. In other words, in order to bring the image closer to the window, the light source, a brightening function is used; to move it away, a darkening function is used.

"Brightness/Contrast"

The simplest tool of any graphics editor. Professionals do not like it because it is rough - some areas of the photo may become overexposed. However, it can be used to correct a photo that was darkened when taken.

Finding a tool is easy:

  1. In the top menu bar, find “Image”.
  2. In the drop-down list, click on “Editing”, “Adjustment”.
  3. Click on "Brightness/Contrast".
  4. Now, moving the sliders in the window that appears, lighten the photo to the extent that you need.

If you want to get a softer result, then you should make a copy of the original layer and work with Brightness/Contrast on the duplicate. Then, after completing the manipulations, set the appropriate transparency values ​​for the latter so that the photo is lit more harmoniously and naturally.

"Levels"

How can I lighten a photo in Photoshop? Use the Levels tool, which is more gentle on the image:

  1. Go to “Image”, select “Correction” from the drop-down list.
  2. Find the "Levels" item.
  3. In the window that appears, to lighten the photo, we just need to move the middle gray slider to the left. If you want to give the picture a little more contrast, then you should move the white slider there a little.
  4. If some areas turn out to be overexposed, then “conjure” the sliders on the lower gradient strip in the “Output Levels” window.

"Light/Shadow"

Another way to lighten digital photography in the graphic editor "Photoshop" - use the "Highlights/Shadows" tool. We will act according to this simple algorithm:

  1. “Go to “Images”, then “Corrections”.
  2. Find and select the “Lights/Shadows” tool (Shadows/Highlights).
  3. Here, as in previous cases, we will move the sliders in the window to achieve the desired effect. The good thing about this tool is that it helps correct dark areas without affecting the light ones.

Lighten Layer Overlay

How to lighten a photo in Photoshop if it is already very dark? In this case, professionals advise applying layers:

  1. Copy the original layer - your photo - three or four times.
  2. For all duplicates, set the blending mode to “Screen”.
  3. Stopping at each of them (those that you have not yet touched on in your work can be made invisible by clicking on the “eye” opposite each one), use the “Opacity” sliders to achieve the best effect.

If you are already a fairly confident user, you can set some words to “Overlap” and “Soft Light”. For a more harmonious lightening, you can work on each of them with a soft brush of white, gray, black, adjusting its transparency.

Thus, a light shade of the instrument will further brighten, a dark shade will darken, and gray will provide a softer transition of light to shadow. Be sure to also arrange the layers in the best order for the photo.

"Curves"

Many professionals lighten photos in Photoshop using this tool. This is done very easily:

  1. Go to "Images" and then to "Adjustments".
  2. Select the Curves tool.
  3. You will see a kind of parabola on the chart. To lighten the image, you need to raise/lower its branches in order to achieve the best effect.
  4. You can slightly adjust the result obtained with the “Shadows/Highlights” tool, which we have already discussed.

Using Brightener

Correcting a photo using the Lighten tool is very interesting - the photo is not completely lightened, but only in certain areas, points that you will directly process. Image correction occurs according to this simple plan:

  1. Open the photo in the program.
  2. Find in the toolbar (standardly located on the left) “Illuminator” - a schematic image of a magnifying glass.
  3. In the top menu bar, adjust the brush thickness, intensity, and lightening strength.
  4. Pay attention to the "Range" tab - select what you specifically need to process:
  • "Highlights" - you adjust the exposure on the lightest areas of the image.
  • "Midtones" - changes the average range of gray shades.
  • "Shadows" - lightening the darkest areas of the image.
  • Now it's time to set the exposure value for the tool.
  • You can make an airbrush brush by clicking on the pencil icon that draws a sprayed line.
  • To prevent the original color from being distorted during your work, check the “Preserve tones” checkbox. This is what leads to a minimum of shadow and light clipping.
  • How to lighten a photo in Photoshop? Work with the mouse cursor like a pencil or brush, processing the necessary areas.
  • What parameters to set specifically for your photo is a purely individual matter. The only thing that will help you achieve the best result here is that in “History” you can always roll back unsuccessful actions.

    Thus, you can lighten a photo in the Photoshop editor using a lot of simple methods. To achieve a softer and more natural effect, you need more patience and experience - no instructions will tell you what to do specifically with your image to make it aesthetically perfect. The solution is to try several methods and settle on what is most convenient for you in achieving the best effect.

    But would you agree that it is better to immediately get a white background when shooting than to waste time on clipping the object? Moreover, in the case of “shaggy” objects this is very, very difficult. How to avoid unnecessary problems during processing, and get a white background already at the shooting stage? It's very simple, everything is based on one single postulate:

    The background should be overexposed by 1.5 - 2 stops.

    Then it will become pure white, since it will simply go beyond the range of brightness that the sensor is capable of recording. Now the second question: how to technically implement this? There are several ways.

    Method 1. Additional background lighting.

    In order for the background to become white, it needs to be additionally illuminated, moreover, stronger than the object being photographed. Here's one lighting scheme I use when shooting subjects against a white background:

    In this case, the background is illuminated by two softboxes to obtain the most uniform white field. At home, you can use, for example, a table lamp to illuminate the background. The lighting scheme for the object itself can be anything, depending on the shooting task. Example of a photo taken with background lighting:


    Method 2. Using a background with light.

    In this case, the light source is behind the background; the background material in this case works for transmission, and not for reflection, as in the previous example. This scheme allows you to make do with light sources of lower power, since losses during reflection are always higher than through transmission. For light sources to work effectively, the background material should not be too dense. This could be, for example, white fabric or milky-white plastic, plexiglass. The lighting diagram is given below. This technique is often used when shooting on a stage to illuminate the plastic background from below.


    An example shot with a similar lighting scheme


    Method 3: Using a softbox as a background.

    This method can be considered a variant of the previous one. A flash with a softbox is used as a background. This requires almost minimal power as the light is directed directly into the camera. The disadvantage of this method is that when shooting large objects or people, softboxes of appropriate sizes are required. For small items it can be used at home.


    I hope that now it will not be a problem for you to get a pure white background in a photo during the shooting process, without the use of graphic editors.

    Most often, when processing photographs, we try to highlight the central object or character against the background of the surrounding world. This is achieved by highlighting, giving clarity to the object, or by reverse manipulation of the background.

    But there are also situations in life when the most important events take place in the background, and it is necessary to give the background image maximum visibility. In this tutorial we will learn how to lighten dark backgrounds in photographs.

    We will lighten the background in this photo:

    We won’t cut anything out, but will learn several techniques for lightening the background without this tedious procedure.

    Method 1: Curves Adjustment Layer

    Method 2: Levels Adjustment Layer

    This method is very similar to the previous one, so the information will be brief. This assumes that a copy of the background layer has been created.

    Method 3: Blend Modes

    This method is the easiest and does not require configuration. Did you create a copy of the layer?


    Method 4: white brush

    Another the simplest way lightening the background.

  • We will need to create a new layer and change the blending mode to "Soft light".

  • Take a white brush and paint the background.

  • If the effect does not seem strong enough, you can create a copy of the layer with white paint ( CTRL+J).

  • Method 5: Shadow/Highlight Adjustment

    This method is a little more complicated than the previous ones, but it involves more flexible settings.


    This concludes the methods for lightening the background in Photoshop. They all have their own characteristics and allow you to achieve different results. In addition, no two photographs are the same, so it is necessary to have all these techniques in your arsenal.

    Loading...