Photoshop Creative

Here's the contrast mask recipe. It works to open up dark shadows and tone down highlights.
1.Open image that has blocked shadows and/or blown out highlights.
2.Duplicate layer (ctrl+J)
3.Desaturate the duplicated layer(Shift+Ctrl+U)
4.Invert the duplicated layer (Ctrl+I)
5.Change the duplicated layer's blend mode to Overlay
6.Filter,Blur,Gaussian Blur,(around 30 )

You can make other adjustments from here like changing the opacity or other blend mode settings.
http://creativebits.org/photoshop/tw...rast_masking
Chas

thanks ,cant wait to try it. thanks for teaching me a few more shortcuts.