Step 8: Add A Levels Adjustment Layer

I'm going to use a simple Levels adjustment layer to darken the shadows and brighten the highlights of her top. To do that, click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Then select Levels from the list of adjustment layers that appears:

Step 9: Drag The Black And White Point Sliders In Towards The Center

When the Levels dialog box appears, you'll see a large black Histogram (looks like a mountain) in the middle of the dialog box, along with three little sliders below it - a black slider on the far left, a white slider on the far right, and a gray slider in the middle. To darken the shadow areas, simply click on the black slider and drag it towards the right until it's at the point where the left side of the Histogram begins. Keep an eye on your image as you drag the slider so you can see what's happening to the shadows and adjust the slider as needed. Then, when you've corrected the shadow areas, click on the white slider on the far right and drag it towards the left until it's at the point where the right side of the Histogram begins. Again, keep an eye on your image as you drag the slider to see what's happening with your highlights. Photoshop may be a computer program but that doesn't mean you and I need to think like one. Use the Histogram as a guide but trust your own eyes above all else:

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the Levels dialog box. Your shadows and highlights should now look much better, but chances are you've just created a different problem. In my case, the woman's top now has a much more realistic level of contrast to it, but the overall color has been changed:

Step 10: Change The Levels Adjustment Layer's Blend Mode To "Luminosity"

The reason for the color shift is that by default, the Levels command makes changes not only to the luminosity (brightness) values of the image but also to the colors. We need to tell Photoshop that we want our Levels adjustment layer to affect only the luminosity values of the object and leave the colors alone. How do we do that? Easy. We simply change the adjustment layer's blend mode. Go up to the Blend Mode option in the top left corner of the Layers palette. It currently says "Normal", which is the default blend mode. Click on the small, down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal" and select Luminosity from way down at the very bottom of the list:

Step 11: Deselect Your Selection

Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) at this point to remove your selection from around the object, and you're done!

Here, after changing the blend mode of the Levels adjustment layer to "Luminosity", is my final result:

And there we have it!

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