I did this really quickly on my laptop touch pad, so excuse some of the sloppy edges. I cropped out the big bright spot at the top, lightened the shadows and darkened the highlights. Then I did a bit of work on the mid tones in the eye to bring them up a bit.

You could use Image>Adjust>Shadow/Highlights, but I find it leaves halos. (There is a bit of a halo in the original around the head).

I created a separate action for shadows and highlights which leaves no halos and is more adjustable than the standard S/H adjustment in PS.

Basically, select the shadows (or highlights) feather copy to a new layer and set it to screed (or multiply for highlights) and adjust the opacity to taste.

I'm actually thinking about offering the actions up for sale one day.

22069-DSC_1074.jpg (61 downloads)
Last edited by Jim Poor; 04/07/09 10:56 AM.