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Brighten images with ease

Enhance your images and make them more eye-catching. With Canva’s intuitive photo editing tools, you can improve the overall look of your visual assets with a few simple clicks.

Brighten an image
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Get the lighting just right

Make your design easy on the eyes. Brighten any dark image by sliding the toggle on the brightness tool. Control the brightness or darkness of a specific photo, then enhance the overall look by making adjustments on the other enhancement tools.

Create a specific mood or aesthetic

Got the proper exposure for your photo but still not satisfied with the look? Why not set a filter or add an overlay? Bring out the contrast, adjust saturation, or heighten up hues to match your desired color aesthetic. Experiment with these features as Canva’s editing dashboard allows you to easily undo changes onto your design.

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Edit and share photos in an instant

Keeping up with your social media content plan on the move? Install the Canva app on your mobile device so you can brighten images and share your post wherever you may be. The app is available on desktop, iOS, and Android so we’ve got you covered.

How to brighten an image

  1. Upload your photo
    Launch Canva and upload your image in PNG or JPG into the Canva dashboard. Drag and drop it onto the layout.
  2. Brighten your image
    Click on your image. On the upper left corner, click Edit Image and Adjust. Slide the toggle towards the right if you want to brighten your image, or left if you want to darken it.
  3. Refine your image
    Image too bright or over-exposed? Below Brightness, you will find other enhancement features that you can adjust to get your image exposure just right.
  4. Add a filter or overlay
    In the main Edit Image page, you will find next to the Adjust button a Filters button. Click that and try on filters on your photo. Alternatively, you can use another opaque element to layer your image with. To do this, place an opaque element onto your image, adjust the transparency of the opaque element until you get the right balance.
  5. Download or share your photo
    Once you’re done, you can easily download your photo in your format of choice—PNG is the recommended format if you want your photo in high resolution. You can also post your image in your socials in an instant without leaving the dashboard.
Brighten an image

Frequently Asked Questions

You can brighten your images taken on your phone by simply editing its exposure before exporting or sharing it. Alternatively, you can edit your photo on our editing dashboard where you can easily adjust the brightness and other settings and see directly how it looks on a layout.

Going overboard with increasing the brightness of a very dark image may result in image noise. Image noise is also known as grain—those miniscule white spots that you may find in dark images that have been brightened. Too much grain can lower the sharpness and overall quality of your image.

You can do so by adjusting all the other properties of the photo as well. Adjust its contrast and saturation along with the brightness. With our photo editing dashboard, you can play around with all the other properties of your image, including its warmth, vibrance, clarity, and fade. To ensure that your image retains its texture, try adjusting its highlights and shadows.
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