How to lighten background

[kkleong]

I took a group picture with flash which turned out satisfactory except that the black hair of all the people in the group "merged" into the dark background. You don't get to see the outline of the hair but only the similing faces. How can I lighten the backgound so that the hair outline of the subject stands out separately from the background?

 

[cufevi]

Duplicate the layer and deselect the original. Erase the background in the copy (you'll have to erase around where you think the hair should be). Now you should have your subjects in the foreground and you then select the background layer and lighten that layer using the Brightness/contrast under IMAGE>ADJUST. Then merge both layers..

 

[blueark]

Usually a photo contains more information than you think. Try using Levels or Curves (under Image > Adjust) to try to uncover hidden detail. Levels are a particularly good first step. Start by choosing 'Auto' to see if it can save you a bit of work.

If the results aren't too good, cancel and start over. Double-click the white eyedropper, select a very light colour, but not quite white, and click somewhere in the image that you think should be white. Do the same with the black eyedropper (only select something close to black) and adjust the middle slider to suit. So, if a lot of the image data is converging around the darker end of the scale, this technique helps to spread it out more evenly and hopefully reveal more detail in your image.

Hope this helps!