So far I'm dutifully impressed. AND it even recognized my Photoshop installation and installed this as a plugin. BIG plus in my book!

Almost the Best In Its Class!
As an one-click image editor, Brightness Guide is the second best on the market. The best one-clicker is PhotoPerfect Express with the optional plug-in Perfectly Clear.

I compared Brightness Guide against PhotoPerfect using a photo of my rose garden taken near an hour or so before sunset. Brightness Guide definitely improved the photo, making it brighter in a natural way. But I had to play with the settings several times before finding the right 'touch'. However, PhotoPerfect did a better job and with a true one-click (no tinkering with settings): the colors were more vivid in the photo enhanced by PhotoPerfect.

IN CONCLUSION, Brightness Guide, especially as a freebie, is a very good tool to have...if one does not have PhotoPerfect Express! However, the $45 cost of Brightness Guide is a bit expensive in light of its limitations and quality of output. But on the other hand, the full-blown version of PhotoPerfect Express will set you back around $120. (Aside from Photoshop, I feel PhotoPerfect was my best investment in image editing software.)

THANK YOU Tint Guide for offering a really nice editing tool...and I hope your future versions will improve upon the solid foundation of your current version.

Wonderful and amazing results. Was a bit skeptical, then installed and used it on my laptop. very useful software for all photography enthusiasts.

Downloaded, installed and tested with a under-exposed photo of JW Marriot Hotel my tour in Bangkok.

Result:
Excellent.

Handy tool to have around for quick corrections.

Well this Brightness Guide allowed me to spend a wonderful afternoon improving lots of my photos and it was a very big surprise.
This easy to use program is very effective and brings poor lifeless photos into use, rather than just deleting them.
It makes a real difference to the dark areas but if you are not quite happy with the Auto choice button, well there's good adjustment to get it just right, be ready to enjoy the result as it can seem miraculous.
You can saturate the colours on Auto then tone down as you like in each of the Red, Green and Blue slider bars.
Changing the angle of a tilting skyline is wonderfully easy, the result makes a big difference.
I love it, thank you.

Nice program. After I watched the demonstration, it was a snap to use. Thanks.

Does what it says. It's a thumbs up for me.

However, you'll seldom get the results you would using a dedicated 16 bit or raw capable tool such as Lightroom or Photoshop. Blown highlights become worse, low light areas become more noisy and the UI doesn't seem to provide the detailed editing features you might use to mitigate these problems.

But for a fast easy adjustment that automatically focuses on the underexposed areas without requiring you to create masks or some such thing, it does what it says. Many users who aren't in to high editing such as with Photoshop will be happy with this.

It works OK, can't complain since it's free today. I only tried one photo, and wasn't that happy with results. I'll keep it for now and see if it becomes useful in the future. I don't own photoshop, so I do like having these free programs to help enhance photos. Thanks GOTD!

@#36 Jason Carver (Little Bears World Of Freebies) Perhaps you should worry less about the information Giovanni shares. Afterall, he doesn’t have a blog promoting freebies that hasn’t been updated lately.
Yes, I followed your link to see what you are about. To see if you have a “Giovanni” looking out for my best interests. Both monetary and program practicality. Do you realize “Gimp” is 1 program that does the work of many “One item Programs” offered here ($45 Brightness Program; $30 Resizer Program; $20 Frame Program; $25 Watermark Program Program; $35 Watermark Remover Program; $50 Effects Program; $20 Rotation Program = $225 vs FREE GIMP
BTW, I cannot see myself returning to Little Bears World Of Freebies anytime soon. Not while you prevent Giovanni and people like him from posting.
Think about it; if Giovanni was bad for business… do you really believe GAOTD would let him post so freely everyday? I’ve bought a few programs from GAOTD

I wasn't too sure if this photo was worth trying to rescue so thought it might be a good example to use when trying this software ... and while I know there are a lot of programs that would work (with a bit or a lot of work - gentle smile) ... the below shows the results using the auto set 'fix'.

[IMG]http://i43.tinypic.com/osbcjn.jpg[/IMG]

While the colour isn't great, I can easily improve that using another software program ... but for beginners or those that find a lot of photo editing software a bit daunting, this is such an easy program to use.

To Steven Allan and Tomcat:
The user-ratings can differ from the English comments, since they are accumulated from all language sites.
Lack of support in their language, may result in thumbs down by German, French or Dutch users.
Casey.

I don't get the hype or thumbs up. I downloaded and installed this program. Installed and ran fine. But I don't think that it does what it does well, and I have several programs that do this and much more, many of them free (See Giovanni's comment, #10 above). Uninstalled. Thanks, GAOTD, I always appreciate your efforts, but today's offering is not for me.

Re "Cannot install it" above. Problem solved. It was because Internet Explorer would not run as I had not accepted the new T&Cs. I normally use Firefox but GOTD uses IE before installation.

Very quick and positive results on brightening an extremely dark picture that had been taken indoors with a cell phone. Can be set up as a plug-in for more comprehensive graphics applications, so the result can be copied and pasted for more editing. Definitely a keeper.

Hi, indeed very useful and neat little App, what's more - finds Photoshop to install itself as plugin, so thumbs up.

Tested it so far only on b&w badly damaged darkish photo and results were at first a bit "striking" when clicking default Lighten button. I think I forgot it was a "colour" scan of that b&w photo - hence the results. But when converted properly to grayscale beforehand - I found that lightning my photo manually in Brightness Guide (L:47, Det Size:6, Object:7) - gave me much satisfying results in no time at all.

I recon it's sometimes less complicated to get it 'right' in programs that do one thing only and do it well. That I think is the main attraction of simple Tools such as this one.
What happens in big, heavy Photo Programs when that simple, but important improvement is a goal - having endless features results in losing original light direction in a photo (if not desired for artistic purposes that is), but here all that stayed intact I'm pleased to say.
As to price tag of Brightness Guide - far too steep imho for this one trick pretty decent pony..

Thanks GAOTD and Tint Guide for a lovely weekend surprise:), glad I didn't miss it. Oh, and Office Mini Games are quite delightful too. Enjoy Everyone!

Download free Gimp here, suggested by Giovanni-

http://getgimp.com/lp/index.php?pk=6542&c=Getgimp_US_Broad

Does exactly what they says it does. Easy to install. Easy to use. I'm glad to add it to my toolbox. Thanks! :)

How can it have a 40% negative rating when all of the posts seem to say it does what it claims it can do. Only #23 had it crash, and he didn't trash it either! What gives with this rating system?

When it comes to photography and related software I am strictly a novice. The biggest mistake I usually have in most of my pictures, well, other than leaving the lens cap on, involves lighting. After trying to reproduce the demonstration picture for about 10-15 minutes I started to get the hang of it, that's a pretty impressive learning curve in my opinion. Sorry to Gimp lovers, I am sure it's a great program (awards say that), but to me it is fairly complex and non-intuitive. Today's giveaway is much easier to handle, with fairly impressive results. Just remember this can improve a picture that has problems with lighting, but no program can work miracles, a bad picture is still a bad picture. Honestly, I'm usually the first to complain about a lot of the prices, but for what this does and the ease with which it does it, I would probably buy it if I would use it regularly.
Definite thumbs up.
As to the person question the ratings here, I basically ignore the thumbs up/thumbs down and just go by the commentary, especially from those of you who are regulars and whose opinions I have learned to trust.

Enjoy, and get it while it's free!!

Single purpose software that at the full retail price asked isn't going to attract that many when thousands of rogue copies of Adobe CS2 have flooded the market after Adobe released all its license codes for obsolete products.

This software, at $45, implements just one aspect of the several thousand aspects of Photoshop (which is likely why so many here think it's seriously over-priced.) That's a fair enough criticism, and the developer (which I'm pretty sure is the same as, or is a spin-off from, the original Moscow-based Two Pilots) ought to take note, seeing as how this particular product could have -- stress: could have -- a really viable commercial future. . . if only that asking price was slashed to $9.99.

At that price, this single, solitary aspect of CS2 (and later variations of Creative Suite) which it brings to camera users could be a must-buy, because in my comparison test today of this and the Adobe CS control it seeks to emulate -- Photoshop CS /Image /Adjustments/Shadow/Highlight -- it was very competitive in terms of output quality and ease of use.

As ever though, prospective users should appreciate that neither this single-purpose software nor even the mighty Photoshop CS can bring forth visual information lurking within the shadows if it was never there -- as is likely to be the case with well-nigh every phone camera and every tablet.

'Proper' digital cameras have superior lenses and infinitely better image capture processing, so even if you're using a cheap point-'n-shoot there'll be more pixels in your shot than your cell phone ever managed to harvest.

RECOMMENDED then, especially as it's offered entirely free today, though with the caveat that if this developer seriously thinks it can now work its way through Adobe's Photoshop CS vast inventory of individual controls, and sell each one as a me-too single item at $45 bucks a pop, then it needs to get out of Cloud Cuckoo Land, and fast. It should instead go for volume sales and, at $9.99, attract non-Photoshop users in their hundreds and maybe even in their thousands (oh, and throwing in some intelligent sharpening would be A Good Idea, too -- as in Photoshop CS / Image / Filter / Sharpen / Smart Sharpen . . . unless it's ill-advisedly planning on trying to flog a me-too of that at $45 as well . . ?

Thanks, GOTD, and thanks, too, to Two Pilots / Tint Guide, if such they be one and the same.

to gaotd: This is a good program. I have many photo programs to fix the sharpness that this program don't offer. now I wish you would bring back aurora's Blu-ray player back. I lost this program during my crash. it would be nice.

I found that by adjusting the saturation and lighting controls, I could improve just about any photo. The point is, don't focus just on the lighting aspect--the saturation controls also do a lot. This program is great for a hobbiest like me, but I think it's way over-priced. I might pay $15 to $20, but $45--no way!

Easy to install. Great software. Thanks

This product does a correct job for difficult brightness adjustements, although it's limited by the lack of gamma correction.

But $45 is way too much expensive. Get down to earth!

for the price tag, it could come with more: white & black points, grey balance... A good example of software having great image correction/adjustment is Xnview (free but you can donate $45 if you wish ;).

#12:
I tried the Photo Montage Lite (beware, it installs additional garbage that can be easily removed with any good uninstaller) to see how the Picture Cutout works. We've seen similar products here (iResizer, Inpaint, ...)

Perhaps Giovanni forgets this is Giveaway Of The Day, not cheapest software of the day. Some people will actually pay for this software if one thing is all they need to do. Have you seen the prices for major stores where they will charge you an arm an a leg to do something like this, or charge you ridiculous amounts hourly for software tutorials in your own house?

I personally work with a lot of photos and while the end result is great, the pictures often end up too dark. I tested this on several photos this morning and this program does everything it claimed to. It came in handy and A lot of my friends will be happy I finally completed their photo projects where I could not achieve it with others because there was too much bloat in the way.

Don't let someone comments on here scare you away because something costs too much money for a program, that's not the focus here. Test the software yourself and see if it's valuable to you. That's the idea.

Way too much $$ for a simple tool. Many other programs at similar price (or free) can do these adjustments as good or better and do much much more too.

A good tool, well explained by the tutorial.

As a suggestion, it would be useful to add the complementary function of darkening too bright (washed out) areas without affecting the rest. Though this can be done by first darkening the entire photo and then applying the correction, it would be more convenient to be able do it directly, without fiddling with the overall brightness.

Useful app & plugin, though as Benny mentioned, it can't help when there's no data to begin with, as in a picture where the darkest or lightest portions have no detail, but in that case nothing else can help either. Some cell/tablet camera apps & some cameras let you bracket your shots, taking one picture at auto settings, then one darker & one lighter, and that can help avoid those non-fixable shots.

Otherwise you can do the same sort of thing using the levels adjustments in many [most?] image editing apps -- basically you're re-mapping the RGB colors so they span the complete 0-255 dynamic range, & optionally making the overall picture lighter/darker by adjusting gamma.

Perhaps the most useful sort of trick I've found for around the upcoming holidays helps even out the brightness when you've used a camera flash that isn't quite up to the job. In those cases where the center of the image is OK but the surrounding areas are too dark, use an app that does layers, then brighten a duplicate layer using a circular gradient mask.

I find the program to do as it states. A keeper.

Very professional software that does a surprisingly good job. Wish this had been around back in the '90s when I had to correct thousands of photos manually with Photoshop.

Installed and tested as Photoshop plugin 64bit. Control over corrections applied are extremely limited. In fact the results are just terrible, and destructive to images - something like poor HDR effects or so, where dynamics are lost and artificial brightens pop up.

Thanks but deleted.

Despite the number of positive comments, I'm not impressed. I used a photo that is heavily too dark, and the resulting image is neither appropriately lightened nor in focus (as others have stated, this app suffers from the lack of a sharpening tool).

As much as I could use a tool like this one, Brightness Guide just doesn't measure up for me. Thanks but no thanks on this one.

"Access violation address 0040307B in module BrightnessGuide.exe. Write of address 00000008". Can reproduce - click repeatedly and rapidly the brightness or contrast buttons. It then can be removed only from Task Manager.

Unacceptable in commercial program.
Needs work - not ready for primetime.

tried it liked it
I took a picture from a trip in Punta Cana at a restaurant with 3 musicians at our table . I had forgotten it had a thatched roof until the program lightened it up. this is a keeper 2 thumbs up for me

One other thing to say. It works fantastic as a plugin for GIMP via PSPI. Again, thanks a heap. :)

Downloaded easy, installed easy (win 7) easy learning curve - does what it says - FREE - what more could you want? Thanks GAOTD

Is it worth $45 for this program for me? No

Does the program work as advertized? Yes

Thanks a heap GAOTD and Tint Guide. I did spread the word elsewhere too. :)

Gimp,Shadows and Highlights scm http://registry.gimp.org/node/116 the best

Fine little program except crashed when decreasing contrast. Win 7 home premium. "Access violation at address 0040307B in module 'BrightnessGuide.exe'. Write of address 00000008." Bummer. Had to use task master to close it and that took several tries to do. It would be better if control+Z would undo.

Thia program is excellent and permits more than just brightness control.

Its limited, but very focused functionality can easily make the difference between a poor display of a photo and a remarkably rich display.

I have nothing against single purpose tools as long as they do their job well and I feel pretty good about this software after giving it a quick test run.
It does what it claims. It helps brighten dark areas without completely washing out the light areas in your photo. Since it only does one thing, there are very few controls and that keeps it simple to learn and use.
Bonus: It also includes Photoshop plugins (*.8bf) which should work in any photo editing software that supports them. Very nice.
Are Tint Guide and Two Pilots related? This sure looks and feels similar to their tools. Even the opening tutorial looks/works the same.
With a tip of my hat I say, "Thank you" to Tint Guide and GOTD for today's program.

East to use,.. amazing results !

Definitely a keeper.

Thanks GOTD

Surprisingly effective. Not a $45 item - try about 1/2 of that.

Does what it says. Easy to install.I finually found my wife in a darker photo.She was hiding behind me.Great software. Thanks

Simple install, and the program works well. It can't perform miracles and reproduce information that is not in the original, such as shadows, but very good results for a one click enhancer. Worth $45? Not for me, but a keeper

Pleasantly surprised with this. Definitely a keeper; much better than some others I've tried. Using 'lighten' and 'saturation' I've turned some photos taken in a dark hall with no flash, of my grandaughters birthday, from unusable to quite passable. They'll never be perfect because of the conditions- but I dare now show them to anyone. A simple enough program that does one job pretty well. Thanks to producers and GOTD.

Easily installed on my Win 7/64. Love it. This one is a keeper. Price is a little high, the ability to sharpen would be a nice plus that should be added.

Easy install and controls are simple enough. Doesn't work with every image - dark mobile phone images didn't improve - but did improve images taken with my "holiday camera".

Only thing I couldn't do, was to "drag and drop" the image in the viewer - I had to use the horizontal and vertical scroll bars. Apart from that, this is a keeper. I don't think I'd pay $45 for it, $20 would be an appropriate price for mass sales.

Installed flawlessly. Seems to perform exactly as promised.

However, the resizing function seems to be a bit arbitrary using numbers instead of actual dimensions. That's probably okay unless you need to be precise (and I normally do.)

It ain't Photoshop but it's not represented to be. It does as it claims and does it well enough for the average user to be pleased with the results.

Oops. Just realized that the website instructions about changing the background is for another program they offer. I mistakenly thought it was something Brightness Guide could do. My bad.