brightening textures?

[VF41]

From what I read on this forum, every once in a while, I see that some (all?) of you are brightening your textures before you move them to your flightsim.
I have noted that if I use the official RAL/FS code number on for example an F-16, this turns out pretty, almost unrealstic, dark...
Have been trying to correct this by increasing the brightness on the textures, which did part of trick, but it's still not want I would like to see. Also downloaded the "BRIGHT" plugin, but it doesn't seem to work with my Photoshop CS2 (anyone suggestion, hints, tips to make it work?).
My question: how do you guys (and girls) do this, what are - as per your experience - the best ways of doing this, using what tool, and do you actually deem this neccesary to get the most realistic effect?

Thanks in advance !

[Serval]

First: Do you see Bright in the menu File - Export?
Do you get an error message when you use it? If yes, what mis the message?

Using BRIGHT does not mean we brighten the image. BRIGHT is a popular program to convert your image to a 256 color BMP file for IL-2 for example (other formats are also supported).
But we do often adjust the colors for our sim. Since every sim has other effects on the colors.
Actually I often even darken my skins for IL-2. But I do that with a grey layer with some noise on it. This to make the paint look less equal and "glossy". I apply an appropriate Belnding option to that layer and also adjust it's opacity until I am happy with it. (see my Hurricane template for IL-2 in the download section to see what I mean).

At least make sure you have the colors of the pattern on seperate layers. This way you can adjust them seperately. You might want to try a trick like my layer and set the belnding options to lighten and play with it.
I prefer Hue/Saturation over Brightness/Contrast to adjust colors, since you can also influence the tone of the color.

[VF41]

ahhh, that clarifies a few things, don't know why, but bright shows up 3 times in menu-files-export....
thanks for the advise, some more "trial and error" to go for me !

[Otterkins2]

Go to Image>Adjustments>Shadow/Highlight. This can make an enormous difference to your image.