Photoshop

Do you ever get carried away snapping pictures?  Forget to check your settings?  Then you get home only to realize that your pictures are over exposed or under exposed.  Fear not...there are ways to salvage those pictures that you must have.

Exhibit A:
Darling girl in beautiful blue water... UNDER EXPOSED

However, with a few clicks in Photoshop we can brighten her up.

If you have under exposed pictures try this:
1.  Open picture in Photoshop
2.  Duplicate Layer
3.  Change the Blend Mode of the New Layer to "Screen"
4.  If the photo is still too dark - Duplicate the New Layer (you can repeat this step as many times as needed).
5.  Lower the Opacity of the Top Layer to fine-tune the exposure.
6. Flatten the image and save

Exhibit B:
Little Princess playing in pool...way OVER EXPOSED

However, with a few clicks in Photoshop we can tone her down and warm her up!

I will say that getting colors right is harder to do with over exposed photos.  But if you have over exposed photos try this:

1.  Open picture in Photoshop
2.  Duplicate Layer
3.  Change the Blend Mode of the New Layer to "Multiply"
4.  If the photo is still too light - Duplicate the New Layer (you can repeat this step as many times as needed).
5.  Lower the Opacity of the Top Layer to fine-tune the exposure.
6. Flatten the image and save
***Here is where you can play with colors if you need to.  For this particular photo I changed the color percentages for cyan, magenta and yellow.  It's not perfect, but much better than the original.

So here's your challenge:  take a picture that is under exposed or over exposed and play with it.  I have photoshop CS3, but I am sure this works in other photo editing programs.  You'll be amazed at what you can do.  No more lost memories!