What's wrong: dark background

The background of the picture is too dark. This is commonly caused by too much foreground lightingThe brightness, contrast, and levels of a picture. when taking the picture.Adjust the brightnessThe amount of light that an image appears to emit. and contrastThe difference between the lightest and darkest parts of a picture. of the entire picture. This increases the lighting of the entire picture. If you upgrade to Digital Image Suite, you can also try the following:
Use fill flashA tool that brightens the shadows in a picture to enhance detail. to bring out details that are hidden in dark areas of the picture. You may need to fine-tune the brightness and contrast after adding the flash. If you upgrade to Digital Image Suite, you can also try the following:
Increase the background lighting in specific areas of the picture by using the dodge and burn brushA touchup tool used to darken or brighten areas of a picture.. This increases the brightness and contrast of specific areas of the picture. If you upgrade to Digital Image Suite, you can also try the following:
Adjust the levelsThe intensity of the shadows, midtones, and highlights of a picture. of the picture. This adjusts the intensity of the highlights, midtones, and shadows. You may need to fine-tune the brightness and contrast after adjusting the levels. If you upgrade to Digital Image Suite, you can also try the following:
Adjust the levels of the background only. You must selectTo identify the part of the picture you want to work on. Using the selection tools, you can select multiple objects, single objects, or part of an object. the background first to do this. You may need to featherTo soften the edges of a selected area by smoothing the transition from selected to non-selected pixels. the selection to smooth out any differences between the adjusted area and the rest of the picture.

For suggestions on how to take better photographs, see the User's Manual and the MSN Photos Web site.