To begin with, you must either have at least Adobe Photoshop or even Picasa which is available from Google for free! - DOWNLOAD LINK HERE.
Both will work just as well. Adobe Photoshop costs money while Google's Picasa is free. Picasa is smaller, faster, and easier to work with than Photoshop but will not offer you all the expert editing features that the casual editor will never use. For our purposes, going either way will give you the same results.
My first picture is shown below.
Although it looks clear and sharp, it could actually be much better. Notice how I use the "Auto Levels" editing effect from Adobe Photoshop.
I can also use the "Fill Light" Effect on Picasa2. You can see below that I moved the slider from its default position. After I apply the effects, I get this nice result show below:
Notice how the snow looks whiter, and the dark blue color of the left snowboarder's jacket is revealed. It's a simply lighting increase effect that helps most photos look better right away.
Here are some more examples of quick fixes to dark photos. 
Dark photo original.
And then the instant improvement after using Adobe Photoshop's Auto Levels effect.
You can see how I use the Auto Contract effect on Google Picasa2 here.
And the end result.
Here goes some more examples:
Totally off color as you can see.
Adobe Photoshop fixes the color tint a little.
Google Picasa2 does the same with the use of the Auto Contrast and Auto Color effects.
Here are some more examples of simple digital correction:
A little bit dark here.
But not anymore!
Although this picture looks perfectly fine....
... you realize the pictures look so much better now since they aren't washed out.
Try to guess and see what is wrong with this picture.....
Now you can see the difference...
CONCLUSION: Most pictures can look a hell of a lot better with just a simple tweak from Adobe Photoshop or Google Picasa2. And in just 2 minutes or just 30 seconds, you can have much better looking photos. For the experts out there, this is nothing and I bet you can even fine-tune to effect settings to make them look even better. This guide was written for the noobies and I hope you have fun fixing all your photos!
written by edmond, January 03, 2007
Cool pic...now I can be a part time designer....
written by Vice Pres, January 03, 2007
GOOD WORK MAN! i will be a photoshop professional after this! thanks for the tips.
