Tutorial: Brightening of very dark caps (quick & dirty)

[awmp]

As Anita's wish is my command the next rambling of mine will be about animated gif optimization. But for now, a very quick way to brighten up dark caps and reveal hidden details

Comments

[bluelilyrose]

Thanks so much for this tutorial. :) I can't wait to have a play around with it.

[awmp]

you're very welcome!
Have fun with it! ;)

[gillo]

This looks brilliant. I'd never have thought of inverting! Can't wait to play with this - thank you!

[awmp]

It's really easy, I often use the inverted Softlight layer for these things, I've just noticed that it's not mentioned in any of my previous tutorials. heeee.
Hope it will be useful of you, too! :)

[hsapiens]

I never thought to use soft light invert to lighten to prepare by base. I've used it a couple of times to try different effects but now I'm going to have to try this the next time I'm staring at an inky black rectangle. As always, I learn something new from your tutorials. Thank you!

[hsapiens]

I was so excited about the cool new use of inversion that I missed this gem:

"always brighten up your cap not your cropped icon! this way you will have much less trouble with the graininess..."

Duh! That seems so "obvious" now that you've said it but I never thought about it before. I've been brightening the crop.

[awmp]

so glad you found it useful :)

as I come from a fandom where almost all the caps are too dark, you're used to use anything possible to make them work *g*

and the problem with the grain is really much less of a problem if you resize it in the end, sometimes you can use caps that you were sure are uniconable this way ;)

[souliesoul]

Hmm, I've never considered doing it this way, usually I just use a couple of screen layers with a soft light on top. I'll have to try this out :)

[awmp]

the screen layers work well as everyone knows, but sometimes this works even better. (and sometimes not at all *g*)
but at least you have less layers with this technique ;)

[awmp]

Have fun with it ;)