CS2’s new Shadow/ Highlight effect is a great quick fix for art that is too dark or has problematic shadows. Levels or Curves achieves a similar effect, but Shadow/Highlight differentiates adjustment tonal values so well, you can concentrate on improving an image without having to tweak controls or labor over complex contrast masks. 1. Open your image. Choose Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight. Check Show More Options to open the dialog box appearing here. We fixed the dark shadows around the boy’s eyes using the values shown. 2. In most cases you can get your desired results simply by adjusting the Amounts, but for more control over saturation and contrast, experiment by changing the other values as well. (See more value combinations on the following page.) 3. The end result: Shadows and highlights are fixed quickly and simultaneously.

Amount Increase Shadows Amount to lighten dark areas; increase Highlights to darken lighter areas. Tonal Width Lower values restrict adjustments to darker or lighter regions. Higher values include more tonal regions and midtones. Radius Radius controls the width area around each pixel used to determine whether an image area is a shadow or highlight. Color Correction Essentially, this is the amount of saturation. Midtone Contrast Increase this for greater contrast in midtones while darkening shadows and lightening highlights.

Baseball image 23051940, Dynamic Graphics; Girl image 22147539, Creatas Images; Firefighter image 23058382, Thinkstock Images; Baseball and Girl images available free at www.dynamicgraphics.com/downloads.