Selecting All Highlights  Level 2

1

Ctrl   Alt   ~  (tilde) and  Ctrl  J  - copy them to the new layer

Now you can adjust these layers independently - e.g.
2
  • Adjust levels in the background
    Ctrl  L
  • Increase saturation and brightness in the layer
    Ctrl  U
3 Flatten image and sharpen it:
  • Layer > Flatten Image
  • Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen...

 

Lighten Up
1 You may have noticed that the shadow tones have become progressively darker. So dark, that some details would disappear in a typical inkjet print. There are a couple of things we can do to fix the problem.

The first uses a non-destructive dodge layer. Hold down the Alt key (Option on a Mac) and click on the New Layer icon in the Layers palette. Switch the mode to Overlay and check the Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray) box. Select OK.

This 50% gray layer is invisible in Overlay mode but can be used to lighten or darken the underlying image.

2 Select white as the foreground color and use a soft edged brush at 50% opacity. Now paint over the darkest areas of the image.