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How to Edit the Background of a Photograph

There may be times when you will only want to edit certain parts of your photo. The metering system in most cameras will assign a higher priority on the subject matter in the center of the viewfinder. This can lead to photographs where your subject is properly exposed, but the background may be over or under exposed. In these situations programs such as Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.net, allow you to select the background of your photo and make the necessary adjustments to that part of the picture only.

Instructions

- 1
  Open the photo-editing program of your choice by double clicking the icon. Once the editing program is open, click "File" then "Get photo" in the navigation bar. Locate the photo you want to edit, select the photo and click "open" to open the image.
- 2
  If using Photoshop, select the "Magic wand" tool from the left margin, if using GIMP or Paint.net select the "Foreground selector" tool.
- 3
  Click the foreground of your picture. It will now be highlighted with a moving line around the subject.
- 4
  In the tool bar click "Select" then "Inverse" from the drop-down window, this changes the part of the picture that is selected from the foreground to the back ground.
- 5
  Click "Levels" to and move the sliding bars to edit the exposure on the background of the picture. Once your editing is complete, click "File" then "Save as" to save the changes to your photo.

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