To restrict adjustment to shadows or highlights, the following curves are useful.
Shadow Compensation Highlight Compensation

Improving shadow detail, or shadow compensation, is achieved by increasing brightness in dark areas, leaving light tones untouched. To restore highlight detail, decrease gain in light areas. An extra point or two is required to anchor the straight portion of the curve and ensure that only the desired areas are altered.

Selections
For this technique we will make a selection, then apply Levels or Curves to change brightness levels. For example, to lighten shadows, select dark areas of an image and use a Levels adjustment layer to lighten selected pixels. Selecting dark pixels first effectively forces Levels to target dark pixels only, and any adjustments made will apply only to the darker portion of the image.

The simplest way to make a selection based on pixel density is to use the "Claw" command, so-named because you must shape your hand like a claw to reach all the keys! To execute the Claw command press Ctrl-Alt-~ and light-colored pixels will be selected. To select dark pixels, do the Claw command followed by Ctrl-Shift-I to invert the selection.

For more control when making a selection choose Select > Color Range. In the Color Range dialog box light areas indicate selected pixels and gray areas indicate partially selected pixels. Be sure Invert is unchecked, then click in the shadows to select dark areas, or highlights to select light areas. Adjust the Fuzziness slider to control the range of tonal values selected.

After making a selection, bring up a Levels or Curves adjustment layer to adjust selected pixels. You can always adjust your selection in the Levels/Curves Layer Mask. Alternatively, you can duplicate the layer (Ctrl-J) after selection. This will place the selection on a separate layer. Then apply Levels or Curves to the new layer. The latter technique is not as flexible since it's difficult to modify the selection at a later time.

Masking

1. duplicate the layer.
2. hit the letter "Q" to get into quick mask or the second icon on the bottom of the layers menu.
3. Go to the top toolbar and click on "Edit; Fill; Black". This provides a red color over the entire image, which is the mask.
4. Going to the left toolbar, towards the bottom are two large squares that overlap. Rapidly click twice on the top square and set the foreground color to black (#000000). Rapidly click twice on the bottom square and set the background color to white (#ffffff).
5. Select the paintbrush and on the top toolbar you can set it's size just to the right of the word (brush). You have other choices on that horizontal toolbar that can be used. Be sure the mode is "normal" and the opacity is "100%".
6. Black foreground (of the two large squares on the left toolbar) will paint with red and hide or mask the image. Hitting the letter "X" will switch the squares so white is on top and white will reveal the image. You can toggle back and forth between the two just using the letter "X".
7. To get out of quick mask hit the letter "Q" again or the bottom box on the tool toolbar. Now you are in "standard mode" with marching ants. You can paint, etc. over this area and only the part revealed during masking, will be affected. Select the opacity, etc. wanted before painting.
8. To eliminate the marching ants and get back to normal click on the top toolbar "select" and in the dropdown menu "deselect".

1. Going to the left toolbar, click on the eyedropper and then select the "measure tool" which looks like a ruler.
2. Click on one end of the image horizon and holding the mouse button down go all the way to the other end of the horizon before letting to of the button.
3. Now go to the top toolbar and click on "image" then "rotate canvas" and finally "arbitrary". Click "ok".

1. After opening your image go to the top toolbar and click on "Layer, New, Layer". Be sure this layer is highlighted before continuing. Click "ok".
2. Going to the left toolbar, towards the bottom are two large squares that overlap. Rapidly click twice on the top square and set the foreground color to black (#000000) at the bottom. Rapidly click twice on the bottom square and set the background color to white (#ffffff).
3. In the left toolbar select the "gradient tool" which is located between the lollipop "dodge" tool and below the "brush" tool.
4. Select the type of gradient (the five small rectangles), mode and opacity from the top toolbar. To the left of the 5 small rectangles is a long one. Click on the long one to bring up a menu to modify the gradient in the gradient editor. Click on the color bar sliders to change size of each color.
5. Most people start in the center of the image and holding the mouse button down go up and off the image. Hitting the "shift" key while you do this will straighten the line and set it to a 45 degree angle starting with zero that is straight up.
6. When you let go of the mouse button the corners will be darker if the mode was normal. If you reverse the color of the squares in part 1 then the corners will be lighter. You can also use colors.
7. To smooth out the transition click on "Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur". Move the radius until you get the desired effect. Click "ok".
8. In the Layers menu move the "opacity" slider to get the desired effect.
9. The last thing I do is highlight the background layer and adjust the contrast by going to "Image; Adjustment; Brightness/Contrast". Move the sliders to get the desired effect.

To make the frame

• Added a 1-pixel white border around the original jpg.
• created a new image 80 pixels wider in each direction than the original, with a plain white background.
• copied the original image as a new layer, centered, into the new frame image.
• added drop shadow to the new layer (the original image plus 1-pixel border). Drop shadow settings were: offset 7 px down and right, 80% opacity, 60% blur.
• added a new 1-pixel pale gray border to the new frame.
• added a 10 pixel white border around the lot.

Make canvas size  0.2 inches
Magic wand with a tolerance of 10, contiguous, and click inside the 0.2 inches
Paint bucket to drop the color you want in the 0.2 inches (dark green)
	You can use any color you want.
(select) ( modify)  ( border)  from the top menu bar.
Paint bucket to drop the next color you want in the 0.2 inches (black)
Deselect using the magic wand again

OR

Use the paint brush with the color you want, hold down the left mouse button in the first corner and then the shift key. Keep the shift key down the whole time. Next, release the mouse button and go to the next corner and left click. Repeat for the remaining corners. Release the shift key

************ you can stop here or continue *********************************

Do it again with a different color
Use the magic wand and select one of the colors
Hold down the shift key and select the other color
Get the blur tool, make it larger than the selected areas and run it back and forth over the selected areas. To tone the color down select the paintbrush with a black color and set the opacity to a low number like 20.
Deselect using the magic wand again

1. duplicate the background layer
2. go to filter, sharpen and use the unsharp mask
3. at the top of the layers menu, change "normal" to "luminosity". Then move the opacity slider to get the correct effect.

Or

1. duplicate the background layer
2. desaturate the background layer
3. and move radius upward until you just barely see the image's edges in the gray preview. <5 pixels.
4. change the copy layer blend mode from Normal to Overlay
5. Hard light will make the effect sharper, linear light with be too much.

Or

High-Pass sharpening barely adds any noise to your photo, and it’s a short and quick process.

1. You’ll need to have a flat image for this, so if you have multiple layers, merge them together by selecting “Flatten Image” from the “Layer” menu.
2. Create a duplicate layer of your image by selecting “Duplicate Layer” from the “Layer” menu.
3. Go to the “Filter” menu, and go all the way to the bottom until you get to the submenu labeled “Other,” and then click on “High Pass…”
4. The goal here is to select a pixel radius large enough so it outlines the edges of your photograph and shows a little bit of color (make sure the “preview” box is checked!). Usually values between 4 and 10 work very well. Here are a few examples of radius values that are too small, too big, and perfect:
5. Click “OK” to apply the filter
6. In the “Layers” window, click on the blending mode listbox, and select “Overlay”
7. Your photo should now look like it’s too sharp. But, don’t worry, the next step is to fix that! Right next to the blending mode listbox, there’s an “Opacity” slider. Click on that and lower the opacity until your photo looks sharp, but not too sharp. I usually set it between 30-45%.

Start by making a copy of the background layer.

In CS5
1. Next to Black and White is a dropdown menu presently listed as Default. Click on the arrow and see the effect of various filters. 2. (Image) (Adjustment) (Levels). In (levels) move the outermost triangles in until they touch the histogram mountain. Adjust the middle triangle until the photo looks okay. 3. (Layer) (New Adjustment layer) (Black and White). Click ok. In the Adjustment menu try using the (auto box). If more work needs to be done click the (finger with two arrows) and it will become a dropper over the photo. Moving it left darkens and right lightens. 4. On to the sliders for various color capture. 5. Back near the top is (Tint) so you can monocolor the entire photo. Click on the color box to the right to change or modify the color.

OR in older versions

Go to Image --- Adjustments --- Black and White. With the preset you can choose various filters. If you just move the sliders the preset will change from none to custom and various parts of the photo will become brighter or darker. Click OK and you have your black and white photo.

Colors close to those of the filter will appear lighter and thus increase or decrease the contrast between them and other tones. This can be a significant advantage when you want to increase the contrast between two colors that appear close in tone. A red flower against a pattern of green leaves will have a more dramatic contrast if the red channel is emphasized over the green, for example. This is because the red flower will be lightened while the green will darken, thus increasing the contrast.

If you have a strong red element in the scene that you want to render as a dark tone, you would increase the percentage of the green channel, for instance. While that seems counterintuitive, remember that if you emphasize the red channel, the red lightens the scene. The same goes for green colors if you emphasize the green channel and blue for the blue channel.

Lastly, make sure that the sum of all three channels doesn’t exceed 100% if you want to keep the exposure consistent with the original. Higher numbers will result in a brighter image, and lower numbers will darken a photograph.

Or

For black and white click on the saturation tab, and set all sliders to -100. The results will be cleaner than other methods. As an experiment try setting Clarity to 50% and boost sharpening Amount until the grain is well defined. Then adjust Exposure, Brightness, Contrast, and Blacks. Especially Blacks. To convert a color image to a toned black & white image, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Enable the Colorize checkbox and drag the Hue and Saturation sliders. The Sepia Toning action that comes with Photoshop sets Hue to 30 and Saturation to 25.