You can do the same thing in many different ways within Photoshop, here is a different approach to changing exposure & color. Lets correct this sunrise scene where the foreground is too dark & the sky is too bright

	Fixing a photo with both underexposed and overexposed sections. Select a Curves adjustment layer (found at the bottom of the layer pallet, black/white circle icon) Bring up your Histogram pallet as well so you can view both the result (histogram) and your Curve. Create a S curve so the curve goes above the default diagonal line and the curves also goes under the default line like in my example. The S Curve attempts to make the dark area brighter (the curve should be above the default line on the left side) and darken the sky (the curve should be below the default line on the right side) Uncheck “Preview” if you want to compare before and after. Continue to adjust the photo until the foreground looks brighter and the sky looks darker but not too much where it looks unnatural.
	The photo is very dull so let’s add some colors to it, under Channel, go through each color channel and increase and decrease the colors to balance it out.
	Select all Copy Merge (it will copy ALL visible pixels instead of just the current active layer like the regular Copy functions) Paste, it will create a new layer based on the copied information. Select Hue/Saturation from Image-Adjustments Increase the Saturation and adjust the Hue position, don’t worry if the color looks unnatural. Use burn to deepen any area that is not overly saturated such as the sky.
	Set the Blending Layer to Color (on top of the layer pallet, where it says Normal, click on it to see the blending menu) All the color information is transferred on to the background layer. Lower the Opacity (on top of the layer pallet) if the color is too saturated.
	Brighten the underexposed some more Add a Curves adjustment layer. (Found at the bottom of the layer pallet) Pull the curve up until you can see more details on the foreground. Click on the Mask icon of your Curve adjustment layer (the white box between the layer name and the curve Icon. Select a large soft edged brush and start painting on the sky (this only work if you have clicked on the Mask icon from the last step) If you turn the Curve visibility off you will see the differences. I lowered the color layer some more to unsaturated it some more. Play around with Hue/Saturation (found in the Image-adjustment menu) some more until you get a color you like.
	Here is the final image, please leave comments below if you have any questions or comments! Thanks!!

Brush property can be use for any other tool that requires painting on the effects or selection such as painting dodge and burn effects or painting quick mask selection.

Selecting Brush – Photoshop is shipped with many predefined brushes, you can find them under the brush selection menu. Select the set you want and you will be asked to Replace or Append. Replace will hide the current brushes and replace it with the new set. Append will add the brush on to your current selection.

Under this menu you can also select different viewing mode, try them out and see what fits your taste best.

Select Brush by clicking on the brush icon on your tool box or use the shortcut B

You can use paint in different blending mode but I recommend doing it on a blank layer and using the layer blending mode so that you will get a chance to change it later.

Opacity can be changed by typing in a number, sliding the slider or pressing the number keys. A lower number will make your paint transparent. The example below shows 100% opacity than 50 and 25 percent.

Flow is how fast and how transparent the paint is released as you drag your mouse across. You will see a very obvious spacing if you are using a brush with hard edge, a small Flow percentage works best with a soft edge brush. It gives a more realistic paint brush effect than using the Opacity setting. The example shows 30% flow using soft edge and hard edge brush.

Airbrush will only be visible on soft edged brushes. It simulates airbrush painting, as you hold your mouse in the same location the paint will build up into a bigger blob. The example below shows two different location where I stopped my brush and the paints builds up into thicker paint.

You can also set physical dynamics on your brush to simulate real world brush or creating custom randomized effects. Play with the settings under Brush Dynamics with the shortcut F5 or pressing the Dynamic icon.

I will discuss brush dynamics and creating your custom brush in a separate entry.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial, please leave a comment below for feedback.

This is part of my tutorial set. Please visit the TUTORIAL PAGE for a list of all the tutorials.