One of my recent personal goals is to become more proficient in photo post-processing. Much of that involves becoming more knowledgeable of Photoshop and its capabilities.
A high contrast scene can be very difficult to capture accurately unless you use the proper ND filters and/or multiple exposures (for later merging). Some high contrast photos I’ve taken, admittedly without using the best methods, have required a great deal of work to accurately depict what I saw and remember as the original scene.
Mark Johnson has posted a good video tutorial in his “Photoshop Workbench 145: Improving a High Contrast Scene” that clearly addresses some of the post-processing steps you can use to overcome some of these issues.
Photo: Nikon D700 ISO1600 300mm f/6.3 1/125sec