I'd like to see the original photo because even the darkest scan would have caused issues in other areas which I do not see. I think the real problem is the original photo just didn't have any fill flash for the shadows with the sun... fill flash would have opened up the photo and highlighted the eyes.... This is a quick 2 minute fix... stylized and brightened slightly... with time, this could be fixed completely.. Enjoy!

http://scrapbook-bytes.com/gallery/d...0/April_31.jpg