Adobe Photoshop CS: Shadow/Highlight

This command is at Image ---> Adjustments ---> Shadow/Highlight

This commands brings up a dialog box with two sliders - one for Shadows and the other for Highlights. In one way it is a simpler version of the Curves command with just two sliders rather than multiple points to play with. A 50%/50% will make the dark areas half as dark and the bright areas half as bright. In some images this introduces a certain amount of noise so make sure you have a clean image to start with.
Other than encountering this gotcha, the use of this adjustment leads to the pleasant surprise when you see how much information is actually contained in your image even if it looks to have some inky blacks and snow white areas.

In fact as long as the images hasn't any all white or all black areas, one single image can often replace the more cumbersome image blending of one 'bright' and one 'dark' exposure.

These images from Redwood National Park illustrate this effect.

Original Image	After Shadow/Highlight

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