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Not to beat a dead horse (or a dead thread - LOL), but in case anyone else reads this thread, unless you were looking at this picture on a calibrated monitor, you won't have any real idea of how deep or how light the shadows are. Non-calibrated monitors or particularly bad in the shadow areas.

On my calibrated monitor, the original looks far better than any of the attempts to brighten the shadow areas. To me, the original looks the most realistic & completely acceptable, where as the tweaked versions look odd -- they just scream out that they have been Photoshopped.  Personally, I would leave well enough alone on this picture.

Tom