How can I brighten or darken portions of a JPG image?

[Roger at CCCC]

I have just downloaded Paint.net and am trying to figure out how to use it.

I have a JPG image from my digital camera that is partly underexposed and partly overexposed. I want to brighten the underexposed parts and darken the overexposed parts. Is there any EASY way to do this?

I can’t easily select the underexposed or overexposed portions because they are in various parts of the image. I can’t brighten or darken the entire image because then the parts that are already OK would be too bright or too dim. Also, some parts of the image only need only small changes while other parts need larger changes.

So can Paint.net brighten or darken various parts of a JPG image by varying amounts, and if so, how do I do that?

I often want to do this, and I've tried to use other programs to do this, but it always seems to be so complicated that I never get it figured out. If there is a tutorial that would help, please point me to that.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[BoltBait]

What you want to do is use the Curves adjustment.

Read this page, then give it a try:

http://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/en/Curves.html

Let us know if you have any additional questions.