James,
Now I understand when you initially said to boost the shadows, yes in the last image it is more beneficial. I will play with that, but I do not have the tool you are referring to. I can simulate it, and will play some. I wish that were a RAW capture as apposed to a jpg then I would really have flexibility. I just recently made the switch to RAW processing. I really didn’t have the PC power to do it before and now I do. So to try it out, I have been using RSE and plan on switching to Nikon Capture as soon as this new version is released. After I see what’s in there I will decide on what else I need. My version of PS is PSE2 which I am happy with for jpg processing.

The true second photo was taken in late evening as apposed to morning. With me it is a safe bet, that it's almost always late not early:) I will admit though, photography has gotten me out of bed earlier then any other activity and more often. But I still almost never see sunrise.

Squint is a bitch. I mean the light is perfect, but it is in their eyes. And in this particular shot she was intent on looking right into it:)