Best photo editing tips for beginners: 18 quick fixes to common image problems

Best photo editing tips for beginners: 7-9

07 Adjust white balance
Grab the Brush tool. Choose a soft round tip from the Brush preset picker. Set Size to 500 pixels. Set Opacity to 100%. Click on the Photo Filter adjustment layer's white mask to target it. Set the foreground colour to black. Spray over the bush to reduce the intensity of the Warming Filter.

08 Adjust bridge tones
Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Click OK. Drag the white highlight input level slider left to 245. This brightens the highlights. Drag the grey slider left to 1.31 to lighten the midtones. Drag the black shadow input level slider to 11 for darker shadows. This improves overall contrast.

09 Mask the adjustment
We can now see more detail in the under-exposed overcast bridge and it has a less flat contrast. However, the correctly exposed sunlit foreground is now too bright. Spray a black brush tip on the mask to protect the rhododendron bush from being changed by the Levels adjustments.