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The 10-minute layered edit

Fix a flat photo with layers, curves and a mask, and never touch the original

You took a photo that looked great in person. On screen it's dull: gray shadows, tired highlights, a color tint you can't name. This guide fixes that in about 10 minutes.

You need one photo and any editor that has layers, a curves adjustment and layer masks. Every step below works the same way in most of them. If you'd like to follow along in a free browser editor, there's a note at the end.

What you'll end up with: one finished photo, plus an edit you can change tomorrow, because nothing was baked into the original pixels.

The idea in one line: every change goes on its own layer, so you can turn it off, soften it or delete it without starting over. This is called non-destructive editing, and it's the habit that separates "I applied a filter" from "I edited a photo."

Step 1. Protect the original (1 minute)

Open your photo. Look at the layers list: you should see one layer, usually called "Background" or the file name.

Leave it alone. Don't paint on it, don't apply anything to it directly. Everything from here on goes on new layers above it.

Check: you see one untouched photo layer at the bottom of the list.

Step 2. Add a curves layer and make a gentle S (2 minutes)

Add a curves adjustment layer. It appears above your photo, and the photo doesn't change yet.

You'll see a diagonal line. The bottom left is black, the top right is white, and the middle is everything between.

1. Click the line about a quarter of the way up from the bottom left. Drag that point down a little.
2. Click about three quarters of the way up. Drag that point up a little.

The line now bends into a soft S. Shadows get deeper, highlights get brighter, and the photo gains the contrast it was missing.

How much is enough? Small. If you can clearly see the curve's effect on the first glance, back off by half. A good S moves each point by about 5 to 10 percent of the grid.

Check: switch the layer's eye icon off and on. The difference should be clear but not loud.

Step 3. Remove the color tint (2 minutes)

A flat photo often has a color cast: a blue chill from shade, or yellow from indoor lights.

Pick one of these:

• Quick way: in the same curves layer, switch from the combined channel to red, green and blue one at a time. If the photo looks blue, nudge the blue line down in the middle a little, or the red line up.
• Neutral-point way: use the gray eyedropper in a levels or curves tool and click something that should be neutral gray or white, like a white shirt, concrete or a cloud.

Skin and sky are the best checks. Skin shouldn't look green or purple, and a gray wall shouldn't look blue.

Check: look at the whites and the grays. Do they look like white and gray?

Step 4. Use a mask to fix one part only (3 minutes)

Most photos have one area that's too bright or too dark: a washed-out sky, a face in shadow.

1. Add another curves adjustment layer. Pull the middle of the line down to darken, or up to brighten.
2. This layer comes with a mask, a black and white picture attached to the layer. White shows the effect. Black hides it.
3. Fill the mask with black so the effect disappears everywhere.
4. Pick a soft brush at low opacity, around 30 percent. Set the color to white and paint over only the area you want to change.
5. Paint again to build the effect up slowly. If you go too far, paint with black to take it back.

A soft brush matters. A hard-edged brush leaves a visible outline around the area.

Check: zoom out to the whole photo. You shouldn't be able to tell where you painted. If you can, make the brush softer or lower the layer's opacity.

Step 5. Add depth with a blend mode (1 minute)

Duplicate your photo layer, drag the copy to the top, and change its blend mode from Normal to Soft Light. The photo gets richer at once, usually too much.

Lower the layer's opacity to somewhere between 20 and 40 percent.

If you want a stronger effect, try Overlay instead. If the result looks harsh, go back to Soft Light.

Check: toggle it. You should see more punch, and the colors shouldn't look burned.

Step 6. Compare, then export a copy (1 minute)

1. Zoom to 100 percent and look at a few areas. Check edges around anything you masked.
2. Turn every adjustment layer off and on once. This is your before and after.
3. Export a copy as a JPEG or PNG for sharing. Keep the layered project file too. It's your way back.

Check: you have two files: the layered project, and a flat export you can send to anyone.

If it didn't look right

• Too contrasty: lower the curves layer's opacity. Nothing else needs to change.
• Color looks odd: turn off the color change from step 3 and see whether the photo looked better before it.
• Dull again after export: some programs and screens show colors differently. View your export on the device you'll share it from.
• Edges of your mask show: soften the brush, or blur the mask slightly.

Your 10-minute checklist

1. Original layer untouched
2. Gentle S-curve on its own layer
3. Color tint removed
4. One area fixed with a mask
5. Soft Light layer at 20 to 40 percent
6. Compared, then exported a copy

Want to try it in your browser?

You can do every step here in Lumenbench, a layered photo editor that runs in your browser. It has curves, masks and blend modes. It works offline once it's open, and your photos stay on your device. No account, no upload. The core editing is free with no ads and no watermark.

If you'd like to try this guide on one of your own photos, open Lumenbench. There's no pressure. The guide works in any editor.