How to brighten a photo
A dark photo can usually be saved in a few taps. Here are the steps on each device, and a way to fix a batch of them at once.
On an iPhone
Apple's iPhone guide gives these steps in the Photos app: open the photo and tap Edit, then tap Adjust. Swipe left under the photo to see the settings, such as Exposure, Brilliance or Highlights, tap one, and drag the slider. Tap Done to save, or tap the Enhance button to have the light and colour improved automatically. Tapping a setting's button compares the edited photo with the original.
On Android with Google Photos
Google's Photos help says to tap Edit. Under Adjust it lists Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Warmth and more, and you can also search for a tool by name. Tap and hold the preview to compare with the original. To save, tap Save, which changes the original, or Save as copy, which makes a new photo and leaves the original alone.
On a Mac
In the Photos app, Apple's guide says to double-click the photo, click Edit, then Adjust. Drag the slider next to Light, or click Auto. Click Options under Light for finer sliders, including Brilliance, Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Brightness, Contrast and Black Point.
In Preview, Apple's guide to marking up images lists an Adjust color tool in the Markup toolbar, which changes an image's exposure, contrast, saturation and more, with an Auto Levels button and Reset All to go back.
In the browser, without uploading
The photo adjuster works on a computer without those apps and on a whole set of photos at once. It takes JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, AVIF and JPEG XL images. The page Brighten a dark photo opens the same tool with Brightness already set to +35.
- Sliders: Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Warmth, each from -100 to +100, and Sharpen from 0 to 100, plus an Invert colours option. The picture updates as you move them, and holding the Hold to compare button shows the original.
- Brightness is a curve, not a flat addition. Shadows and middle tones rise while black stays black and white stays white, so a bright sky is not turned into a flat white patch as it is when the same amount is added to every pixel.
- Batch: the preview shows the first photo, and the same settings are applied to every photo you drop.
- Format: keep the original format, or choose JPG, PNG or WebP. JPG and WebP are saved at the quality you set, 92 by default.
In our test, a generated dark picture with an average brightness of 45 out of 255 came out at 72 with Brightness at +50, saved as dark-adjusted.jpg. The photo is decoded, adjusted and saved once, so a JPG is compressed one time. The new file is written fresh, so the camera and location data in the original are not carried over; see what EXIF data is.
Everything happens inside your browser tab, so the photos never leave your device.
Getting a good result
Brighten a little and look at the dark and bright parts together. Lifting shadows also lifts the grain the camera recorded in them, so a heavily brightened night photo gets noisy. If it looks flat afterwards, add a little contrast; if a room lit by bulbs looks orange, move Warmth towards cooler. Parts of a photo that are pure white in the file hold no detail to bring back, and no brightness setting can recover them. To make the file smaller afterwards, see how to reduce image size for email and uploads.
Questions
How do I brighten a photo on my iPhone?
Open it in Photos, tap Edit, tap Adjust, swipe to a setting such as Exposure and drag the slider, then tap Done, per Apple's iPhone guide. For a batch, use the photo adjuster in the browser.
Why does brightening make my photo look washed out or noisy?
Lifting dark areas also lifts the noise in them and can make the colours look flat. Brighten less, add a little contrast or saturation, and avoid sharpening a heavily brightened night photo.
Can I brighten many photos at once?
Yes. Drop them all on the photo adjuster; the same settings apply to every one when you press Apply. This suits a set taken in the same light.
Are my photos uploaded?
No. Each photo is adjusted by code running in your browser tab and never leaves your device.