Definitely Cheating but Learned a Trick!

So as I may have mentioned, I'm not the best at using my camera. Most of my pictures end up over or under exposed and let's not even get started on the colours.

But I just discovered a nifty little (super easy) trick for lightening only the darkened parts of an Image. Wich I will share justfor teh lolz:

1. Duplicate your image (command+J)

2. Select your image (command+A)

3. Copy (command+C)

4. Create layer mask (Is there a shortcut for this?!)
< click on this guy

5. Option+Click on the layer mask

6. Paste The image into the layer mask, it'll appear black and white (command+V)

7. Invert the layer mask (command+I)

8. Option+Click on the image thumbnail

9. Set layer to screen (V, Shift+Option+S)

10. Done (I just wanted 10 steps)

You can also re-invert (command+I) the mask and set the layer to multiply (v, Shift+Option+M) to tone down the highlights.

For this image I separately brightened the flowers.