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You have a great photograph that you've chosen to use as a reference for a painting; unfortunately, there are areas where the image is very dark and it's difficult to see details. What to do?  

Above: As you can see, my original photo has great light and dark contrast...but it's a bit too dark to use as a reference photo for painting.

Below: I reduced the shadows 35% and now I have a reference photo I can use! 

Once you learn how to use the editing features on your mobile device or computer, you'll be able to edit your reference photos in numerous ways. I'll be taking you through the steps to lighten the shadows on your photograph using my iPhone's editing app; but I'm confident that you will be able to take this procedure and, with a few modifications, apply it to your own device.

Here's a photo of my son and me taken with my cell phone (below). Not bad, but a bit on the dark side. I never use a flash because it flattens the facial features which makes for a poor reference photo; I'd much rather make adjustments later.

Now look at the same photo with the shadows lightened. Much better, yes? There are other adjustments on my phone that I could play around with, and I encourage you to do so, but for my purpose here, I will take you only through the steps required to lighten the shadows.

I've found the picture on my cell phone in the Photos app and tapped the Edit button in the top right corner. Depending on your mobile device, you should see something similar to the image below.

Notice the yellow dot on the bottom of the screen indicating that the Adjust icon (which looks like a dial with little white dots surrounding it) has been selected. Above the icons and below the photograph is a row of adjustment tools. Swipe until you see the Shadows icon (below).

In the image above, I've selected the Shadows icon. Now all I have to do is swipe the slider bar to lighten the shadows to my satisfaction. When I'm happy with the shadows, I simply tap Done, and my reference photo is ready to use!

There are a number of other adjustment tools in any editing program, and I encourage you to play with them: Contrast, Brightness, Brilliance, Tint, and more.

NOTE: I shared this tutorial with a friend who uses an older model iPhone, and I discovered that her phone's editing app is quite a bit different than mine. I'm hoping that, whatever device you use, by combining the above information with a little experimentation, you will be able to improve your reference photos, too! The main thing to look for is the Shadows icon, which, on my friend's phone, we found after choosing the Light icon.

You can do this!

Paint. Love. Repeat.