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How can I alter or correct the tones of only one part of an image?

How can I alter or correct the tones of only one part of an image?
Here are four methods for lightening or darkening an area of an image:

  1. Use the Dodge tool. Set Range to Highlights, Midtones, or Shadows according to where you want to lighten. Make sure Exposure is set to 10 % of less. Do not use a higher Exposure setting! Use a large, soft brush and stroke repeatedly to get the desired degree of lightening. To darken, use the Burn tool, same procedure.
  2. a. With the lasso tool, drag a selection around the area that you want to lighten
    b. Choose Select > Feather and add a generous feather. Try 10 px, but you may need more.
    c. Choose Layer > New > Layer via Copy, or press Ctrl-J.
    d. To lighten, set the blend mode of the copied layer to Screen. To darken use a Multiply blend mode. Find the blend modes in the upper left corner of the Layers palette. Make sure you have the copied layer selected when you choose the new blend mode.
    e. Lower the opacity of the copied layer to achieve the desired degree of lightness. Opacity is to the right of the blend mode menu in the Layers palette.
    f. On the copied layer, use the eraser tool at 10 % opacity, in paintbrush mode (both settings are on the tool’s options bar) to subtract from, and/or soften the edge of the lightened or darkened area if necessary.
  3. a. Use the lasso tool to drag a selection around the area that you want to lighten or darken.
    b. Choose Select > Feather and add a generous feather. Try 10 px, though what you will need will depend on your image’s resolution.
    c. With the selection active, click the New Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the layers palette ( the black and white circle icon). Choose Levels from the menu.
    d. In the Levels dialog box, drag the center slider to the left to lighten the selected area.
    e. If, after adding the Levels adjustment, you want to add or subtract from the area affected, press Shift-Alt and click on the layer mask icon (the black and white square to the left of the adjustment layer name, and right of the adjustment layer icon). This puts you in mask edit mode. Paint with black to add to the masked area, and white to remove the mask and add to the area affected by the adjustment.
  4. To lighten/brighten areas that are already fairly light (brighter than 50 % gray), this method works well:
    a. With your image layer selected, choose Layer > New or press Alt and click the New Layer icon in the Layers palette. In the New Layer dialog box, change the blend mode to Overlay, and check the box at the bottom titled “Fill with Overlay Neutral Color (50 % gray)”
    b. You will now have an empty, gray layer above your image, with Blend Mode set to Overlay. In the toolbox, set your foreground color to white, and use either the paintbrush set to 7-8 % opacity, or the airbrush set to 3 % pressure to paint on the gray layer over any areas that you want to lighten.
    c. Painting on the gray layer over dark areas (less than 50 % gray) in the image will *darken* those tones.

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