Make Part of My Image Brighter or Darker?

There are probably a dozen or more ways to brighten (dodge) or darken (burn) individual parts of your image in Photoshop, but you can also use a couple tools to do it. Choose the Dodge tool (O) from the Toolbox and just paint over areas in your image you want brighter. The strength of this brightening is controlled by the Exposure setting up in the Options Bar (the higher the number, the more strength each stroke has. Your strokes do build up as you paint over them, as long as your Exposure setting isn’t 100%—by default, it’s 50%). To darken an area, use the Burn tool (it’s nested with the Dodge tool in the Toolbox, or just press Shift-O until you have it). It works the same way the Dodge tool does, but it darkens instead of brightens. Note: Make sure you leave the Protect Tones checkbox, in the Options Bar, turned on all the time, otherwise it reverts to some old math and the results will be pretty horrid.