How to brighten portraits in Photoshop in under 2 minutes — without the flat, desaturated look that usually comes from just pushing exposure or brightness up. This stacks three quick techniques: recovering shadow detail, adding contrast back into the highlights, and correcting skin tone so it still looks natural. CHAPTERS 00:00 Brightening a portrait in under 2 minutes 00:52 Recovering shadows with Shadows/Highlights 01:34 Adding contrast back with Curves 02:23 Boosting saturation and correcting skin tone THE STEPS 1. Duplicate the background layer, then go to Image, then Adjustments, then Shadows/Highlights, and bring up the shadow amount, tone, and radius. 2. In "Show More Options," bring up the color slider too, so the brightened shadows don't lose their color. 3. Add a Curves adjustment layer, invert the mask, and paint white over just the highlights to add contrast where it counts. 4. Use Blend If (Alt/Option-drag the underlying-layer slider) so the curve only affects highlights...