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Make a photo darker the way a camera would, not with a grey wash. Pick a look, set the strength, compare before and after, and download it at full size.
Or choose one from your computer. JPEG, PNG, WebP or iPhone HEIC.Pick the too-bright picture from your photos or files.
Works with JPEGPNGWebPHEICand more
Stays on your device.
To darken an image, open it above and choose Dim it down, then move Strength until it is as dark as you want. The picture comes down evenly, a little more in the midtones than at the ends, so it looks like the light was lower rather than like a grey sheet was laid over it. Select Export photo to save the darker copy as a JPEG, PNG or WebP.
If the picture is too dark because something went wrong, such as a glaring sky or a washed-out shot, Auto fix reads it and corrects it instead. If you want it to look like it was taken at night, choose Day for night. All three run in your browser: the image never leaves your device.
Drag a JPEG, PNG or WebP onto the tool, or choose one with Select photo. iPhone HEIC photos open too.
Dim it down for an even reduction, Auto fix for a too-bright photo, or Day for night for a moonlit look. Strength sets how far it goes.
Under More options, Gamma darkens the midtones, Blacks deepens the shadows and Saturation drains or adds colour. Split under Compare shows the change.
Select Export photo, then Download photo. Open Export settings first to choose JPEG, PNG or WebP and the quality.
“Darken” covers a few different wishes, and the right control depends on which one you have.
For a background behind text, a slide, or a photo that needs to sit next to darker ones, use Dim it down. It lowers everything smoothly and keeps a little contrast, so the image still reads; it works the same way when you dim a video.
A washed-out photo needs more than less light: its highlights need pulling in and its blacks deepening. Auto fix does that from the photo’s own tones, and the overexposed photo guide explains what can and can’t be recovered.
Darker images feel calmer, more serious or more cinematic. Lower Gamma under More options to darken the middle tones while keeping the brightest highlights, then lower Saturation a little. That combination looks deliberate rather than underexposed.
Most quick editors darken by subtracting the same amount from every pixel. Blacks were already near zero, so they barely move, while the whites drop to a dull grey: the picture loses its brightest tones and gets flatter. darken.video works more like a camera. Exposure scales the light in stops, so bright areas fall the most and shadows the least, and Highlights, Gamma and Blacks shape each part of the range separately.
If a darkened image starts losing detail in dark hair, clothes or doorways, raise Blacks a few points, or raise Gamma slightly. Both lift the bottom of the range while keeping the overall level down.
Choose Day for night. It takes the exposure down by more than a stop and a half, crushes the brightest tones so the sun and sky stop reading as daylight, removes most of the colour (people see little colour by moonlight) and adds Moonlight: a cool blue cast with a soft vignette. Lower Strength for dusk, raise it for deep night.
It works best on photos without a bright sky in them and with the light coming from the side or behind. The day for night guide explains why, and how film-makers have used the same trick on video for decades.
Not here. Every control applies to the whole picture; there are no masks or brushes. If the background is brighter than your subject, Blown-out sky comes closest: it lowers the brightest tones much more than the midtones, so a pale wall or window behind someone darkens while their face changes little.
For a true background-only edit, use a mask in an editor such as Lightroom (its masking tools can select the subject or the sky) or a selection in Photoshop or GIMP.
Lower Exposure or Gamma rather than a plain brightness value, and keep an eye on the darkest areas. If they start merging into black, raise Blacks slightly. Saving as PNG avoids any compression loss on top.
Open this page in Safari or Chrome, choose the photo and pick Dim it down. Phone gallery apps can also do it: on iPhone, Photos → Edit → Adjust → Exposure or Brightness; on Android, Google Photos → Edit → Adjust → Brightness.
Yes. Choose Day for night. It darkens, cools and desaturates the picture and adds a moonlit blue tint. It is most convincing on photos without bright sky in the frame.
It is saved at full size by default. PNG is lossless; JPEG and WebP use the Quality you set. Darker images usually compress into slightly smaller files.
Yes. Save it as PNG or WebP and the transparency is kept. JPEG has no transparency, so transparent areas are saved as white.
No. The browser reads, darkens and saves it on your device. darken.video never receives the picture.