For the advanced user the integrated photo tool of Xara Xtreme now includes a Levels control to adjust brightness levels of images. This single controls offers:

Histogram view of the brightness levels of the image
Control over input black, white and gamma and output black and white levels. These controls provide a far more powerful way of adjusting brightness, contrast and gamma than the traditional simple brightness and contrast controls.
Single click before and after compare
Color correction e.g. to adjust for a color cast from using the wrong white balance settings
Overlaid before and after histograms. As you adjust the levels you can see the original and the modified histogram (shown in red below).