Photo adjustments: brightness, contrast & more

This article shows you how to use the Image Adjustments sliders to correct a photo's brightness, contrast, and color directly inside the editor — no external photo editor needed. Changes appear as a live preview and match the final render exactly.

Where to find Image Adjustments

Select any photo layer on the canvas. In the properties panel on the right, scroll to the Image Adjustments section. You'll see a row of sliders: Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Shadows, Mids, and Color.

What each slider does

Adjust a photo

1. Select the photo layer on the canvas or in the layer list.
2. In the properties panel, scroll to Image Adjustments.
3. Drag any slider to the right to increase its effect, or to the left to decrease it. The canvas updates as you drag.
4. When the photo looks right, click anywhere outside the slider — the setting is saved automatically.

The value shown to the right of each slider reflects the current setting. Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation display a percentage (e.g. +30%). Mids shows a decimal (e.g. 1.25). Color shows warm or cool when away from neutral, and 0 when neutral.

Reset a slider to neutral

Double-click any slider to snap it back to its neutral value instantly. To reset every adjustment at once, click the Reset button that appears at the top of the Image Adjustments section whenever any slider is off neutral.

Vignette: darken the edges

Below the Image Adjustments sliders, in its own section, is the Vignette slider. Unlike the tonal and color sliders, which change every pixel by the same rule, a vignette is a spatial effect: it gradually darkens the corners and edges of the photo while leaving the center bright, which draws the eye toward your subject.

The value is a percentage from 0% to 100%. At 0% the vignette is off. Higher values deepen the darkening at the corners. Drag the slider to taste, or double-click it to snap back to 0%.

The darkening follows the part of the photo that's actually shown on the layer. If you've cropped the photo or the layer uses a fit mode that only shows part of the image, the dark edges hug the visible area — not the hidden edges of the original photo — so the effect always frames what your viewers see.

Live preview matches the render

The canvas preview is updated in real time as you move a slider. The adjustment you see in the editor is the same one applied when Templified renders the final image — there is no separate "apply" step and no discrepancy between preview and output.

Apply adjustments to multiple photos at once

You can adjust several photo layers in a single operation by selecting them all before opening the properties panel.

1. Click the first photo layer, then Shift-click (or Cmd-click on Mac, Ctrl-click on Windows) each additional photo layer to add it to the selection.
2. The properties panel switches to bulk mode and shows the Image Adjustments section for all selected layers.
3. Drag a slider to apply that value to every selected layer at once.

Mixed states in bulk editing

When the selected layers have different values for the same slider, the value readout shows Mixed instead of a number. The slider itself starts at the neutral position as a placeholder.

Moving the slider overrides all selected layers with that new value — the Mixed label disappears and every selected layer takes on the value you set. If you want to preserve a layer's existing setting, deselect it before adjusting.

Sync adjustments to other designs that use the same photo

The same photo often appears in more than one design — a player's picture on a team poster and on their individual design, for example. When you're editing a design in Studio, you can copy a photo's adjustment values to every other design that uses it, instead of re-tuning each one by hand.

1. Change any adjustment on the photo — Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Shadows, Mids, Color, Vignette, or a filter preset. If the photo also appears in other designs, a row appears at the bottom of the Image Adjustments section reading Photo appears in N other designs, with a Sync adjustments button. The row only shows up after you change something — it's an offer to carry your latest edit everywhere, not a permanent control.
2. Click Sync adjustments. A small panel opens listing the designs that use this photo.
3. Click Apply to N designs. Your current adjustment values — all the sliders, the vignette, and any filter preset — are copied onto that photo in every design listed.

[Screenshot coming: The Sync adjustments row at the bottom of the Image Adjustments section, with the panel open listing other designs that use the photo]

If other layers in the design you have open use the same photo, they update at the same time, so the whole design stays consistent.

After a sync, the button changes to Synced. The moment you change any value again, it flips back to Sync adjustments — sync as often as you like; each sync copies your latest values. Designs are not permanently linked: an edit in one design never spreads on its own, only when you click the button.

When designs count as sharing a photo

Designs share a photo when they use the same processed file: a photo that went through Background Removal, or a design that was duplicated or swapped onto another template as a copy. Uploading the same file separately into two designs creates two independent photos — Templified doesn't detect them as the same, and the sync row won't appear.

Related articles

• Adding photos to a design
• Filter presets: greyscale & sepia
• Removing a background in Studio
• Consistent team faces: what face placement does & when to use it