Advanced Divers!!!
Key Largo - Christ statue - Image © Eddie Tapp
Digital Master Underwater Photography Class 2010 Dates announced: Stephen Frink, extraordinary underwater photographer and instructor, Eddie Tapp, digital image processing, techniques and more… Get on the list soon as these classes will fill up fast!!! June 12-19, 2010 and July 31-Aug 7, 2010. More info at:
http://WWW.WATERHOUSETOURS.COM/instruction
* 2010 Dates Announced! -
Deep Immersion Class, June 12-19, 2010
Digital Master Class, July 31-August 7, 2010
Limited to 14 students per session.

The firstever WPPI Road Trip is coming this September. See me in Dallas on September 28th.
Registration information is online at www.wppionline.com.
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Original Image
From a RAW file I would use the “fill light” command in ACR to open shadows like this but here is a cool technique I think you’ll like.
Recently, I gave a presentation to the students at Chatham HS in New Jersey under the direction of Pat Lamorte. During the presentation we had a lighting setup on the stage and I had the pleasure of working with model Christina Cassar.
Setting up and presenting from their large stage and auditorium was fun and challenging but the primary point was showing the light… when demonstrating lighting the actual size of the large stage and auditorium made well for a rather contrasty ratio from Highlight to Shadow. The following is a technique to open shadows while keeping the highlights in tack.
This technique works great when you do not have access to the RAW file. To start out with we’ll create a shadow mask by creating a highlight mask (btw… Thanks to Katrin Eisman, Jimmy DiVitale, and Dan Bulkholder for revealing and re-revealing this kind of masking). Here are the steps…
STEP 1
Hold down these keys in this sequence:
Mac: Command + Option + Shift + 3
Windows: Control + Alt + Shift + 3
This will load the highlights in the image as an active selection.
Highlight Selection
STEP 2
Inverse this selection
>Select >Inverse
STEP 3
From the Layer’s Panel choose an adjustment layer using Exposure. Carefully change the Gamma slider to open the shadows(position cursor over the name “Gamma” to use Scrubby Slider for more control).

TIP: Using the Exposure control will allow you to open the shadows without having color issues (what I refer to as Color Crossover). Don’t over do this as it can generate a “digital look” if you open too much which is dependent on the shadow information that is originally in the image.
Final Image