A phone photo shot against a bright window is underexposed by two or three stops. The data is usually there, but naive brightness adjustment washes out the midtones and turns black into grey.

Start with the histogram, not the slider

Open the histogram. If the data is bunched against the left edge with empty space on the right, there is recoverable headroom. If the left edge is clipped, those pixels are pure black and no adjustment brings them back.

Curves before brightness

Brightness moves the whole image. A curve lets you lift the shadows while holding the highlights and the black point. Pull the shadow end of the curve up, leave the black point anchored, and keep the highlight end flat.

Where noise appears

Lifting shadows amplifies the noise floor. Past about one and a half stops the grain becomes visible at normal viewing size. At that point, apply noise reduction to the shadows only rather than the whole image. The photoscape-free.com covers the export settings that keep the recovered detail intact.

A repeatable recipe

For a typical window-lit interior: lift shadows 40 percent on the curve, add 15 percent contrast, reduce highlights 20 percent, then sharpen at level 1. Apply the same recipe to a batch and only adjust the ones that break.

• Curve: shadows up, black point fixed
• Highlights down to recover the window
• Contrast +15% to restore punch
• Sharpen last, lightly

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it better to shoot HDR?

If the phone supports it, yes. HDR captures the range in one exposure and avoids the recovery step.

Can I recover a fully black area?

No. Clipped shadows contain no data; lifting them produces grey noise.

Does this work on JPEG?

Yes, within limits. JPEG has less headroom than RAW, so recovery is shallower before artefacts appear.