Lightening without losing highlight detail...

Some people might turn up their nose at this, but you could choose Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlights.

The more you move the Shadow slider to the right, the lighter the dark pixels will get.

If this affects the light areas too much, move the Highlights slider to the right. The further you move the Highlights slider to the right, the darker the light pixels will get.

Hi!

I agree with Daniel that using Camera Raw is probably your best bet.

In the screen shot that I took of your image and brought into Camera Raw I adjusted the overall exposure to bring up the mid tones and shadows; played with the shadow slider to bring out more in the shadows; I always like to bring down the blacks to give it a little more contrast; and I added a little Dehaze to give it a little more definition.

You know exactly the look you are going for, and this is just a sample of how Camera Raw can help you get the look you want.

Let us know if this helps or if you have any other questions!

Michelle

I has a lot to do with how the image was shot and the resolution and specifically the dynamic range of the camera it was shot on. But you can pull up the lower tones and preserve the highlights using the different sliders in Camera Raw. If you bring up the shadows and whites while riding the highlights back a bit will help you brighten the image easily and still keep your highlights from blowing out. You just have to watch your histogram closely and watch where each of those sliders is effecting the image, and where each of those sliders effects the histogram.