- 1). Open the photo in your image adjustment program. Almost all image adjustment programs include the Levels tool. If yours doesn't, then consider downloading a free program. See the Resources for suggestions.
- 2). Click the "Adjustment" menu and "Levels" to open up the levels dialog. In some programs, the Levels tool might be under another menu. For example, in Photoshop you click "Image" first.
- 3). Look at the graph shown in the Levels dialog box. The graph shows the distribution of pixels throughout the brightness of the image. The left side of the graph represents complete black, and the right side of the graph represents complete white. The image's brightness is represented in the graph as the black area. This is called a histogram. The pixels of an underexposed image appear bunched to the left and overexposed photos bunch up to the right. You want to spread the pixels evenly from left to right.
- 4). Grab the right-most triangular slider, which is one of the three located under the graph, and slide it left until it touches the rightmost part of the histogram. If your image is overexposed, you won't need to move this.
- 5). Grab the leftmost triangular slider, and slide it right until it touches the leftmost part of the histogram. If your image is underexposed, you won't need to move this.
- 6). Grab the middle triangular slider, known as the mid-tone slider, and move it right or left. Moving it right corrects for overexposure. Moving it left corrects underexposure.
- 7). Adjust the sliders until the image looks properly exposed.
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