Adjusting image shadows and highlights

The Shadows/Highlights adjustment is one of those little gems that is rarely…thought of, much less used, but it can be very useful when you want to keep the…basic tone and contrast of an image while bringing out some detail.…The first thing we need to do when using the Shadows/Highlights adjustment is…duplicate the original layer.…Shadows/Highlights is a destructive adjustment, meaning it doesn't work with a…mask on its own layer, but directly on an image layer itself.…So we need to make a duplicate layer to be the Shadows/Highlights adjustment layer.…

We'll do this using Ctrl+J on a PC, Command+J on a Mac.…Next, we'll go to Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights.…Now let's tick the Show More Options box and begin moving the sliders.…Let's start up here with our Shadows amount, move it over and see how that adjusts it.…It makes it a little lighter.…Move it back and see, it's darkening.…You will see this part in the hair; it's a little bit faded.…

Bringing this over to the left brings some of the dark tones back in.…