All you need is a good Free photo editing software, I love PhotoScape, where you can brighten, darken, and so much more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photoscape

Which photo editing program are you using ?

In many photo editing programs there is a tool named "Levels", and it's the best tool for that. There are both simpler and fancier methods, but Levels works well and is probably the best way to start out with.

You will see three sliders underneath a histogram - which is a graph the tones in your image from black (on the left) to white (on the right).

To lighten, move the middle slider to the left (a bit counterintuitive)

There are other things you can do with Levels, like improve contrast and so on, and would be best explained by a full page on Levels.
See the link at the bottom for a good write-up.

Also Photoshop's page is here, as well :
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/levels-adjustment.html

It pretty much works the same in all programs.

(I'm changing the link below to a better page)

Here is a link that might be useful: Improving Image Tone With Levels In Photoshop

This post was edited by kbarb on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 11:29

Thanks for your help. I use picasa and I can lighten them there. I was hoping there was a way to lighten the color through the printer. I didn't think there was but was hoping.

Thanks again

If you have a Mac, it comes with iphoto which has quite a range of editing options, including adjusting the exposure and decreasing shadows or highlights.

photoshop

go to the levels and pull up the histogram. three sliders. take the left slider and move it ever so slightly to the right. just a hair. then take the right most slider and move it to where the the histogram starts to curve upwards, sometimes there is a lengthy flat line on the right side, and you need to move it to the left to where the bell curve starts. after the sliders are at both ends of the histogram, move the middle slider to the left.

there is another way to do it with another function, but this is the easiest.

you can also google, how to lighten photos in photoshop.

dave

I use Picasa. I slide the 'Fill Light slider to the right (and play with the other settings to get it the way I want) and then save it prior to printing.

In Picasa it's the "Fill Light" slider on the Tuning tab that you'd want to use as pkponder mentioned.

Levels is more versatile though, and available in most of the common free photoediting tools available : Gimp, Paint Dot Net, XNViewMP, etc

Some printer drivers can do this, but it's not the best way, as you can't really tell what's going to happen until you print it out.
For my Canon printer, it's in Properties >> Main Tab >> Color Intensity, and there's a slider there.