Brighten Dark Screencaps in PSP X

Hey all this is my 2nd tutorial and i am gonna show you how to brighten dark screencaps :)

I am going to be using Law and Order: SVU as an example because they are always REALLY dark screencaps (this screencap was from http://dianeneal.hostbus.com)


we will be going from

this:
to this:



1. start off with your screencap



2. take the crop tool and crop whatever part of the screencap you like



3. resize shift - c (100x100)

4. open a new object cntrl - n ( i make my 98 x 98 and then add a border later)

5. copy and paste your base onto the new base you just did



6. now duplicate your base twice and set each to screen 100% (for darker caps do more for lighter caps do less :D)



7. merge all

8. now you wanna add a hue/sat layer

adjust - new layer- hue and staturation

i put the master sat at somewhere between 20 and 35 depending on the cap..this one i put at +25



8. now you wanna add a brightness/contrast layer

adjust - new layer- brightness/contrast

i put my brightness at +30 and contrast at +25 but this will vary for every icon/screencap you use :D



9. merge all

now depending on the cap you used I sometimes use the little sharpen tool and make it really big and just click it once of the icon to give it a little bit of a sharper/crisper image



and you are done...now you can add border, brushes...text..ect


I hope this was helpful, im not sure if its translatable...if ya made something i would love to see the result :D


other icons using the same technique:

(if you use any of these just credit :D)