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what is the best way to control shadows during post?
I know it's possible to render the shadow channel but many times I forget to check the "shadow" option in each of the scene materials.

How are you doing your post (Photoshop, Nuke, AE) and what are you looking to control?

using PS or GIMP, looking to enhance the darkness of the shadows without making those look too black, in a non-destructive way if possible...
I know I can use levels and curves but those are affecting all the image and not only the shadows (or am I missing something?)

Well you can use multiple curve points to isolate the region you wish to adjust, however, that's not always the best solution. You really want to read up on luminance masking. There are a couple of ways to do this, the first, and most simple, is to use blend if. The second way is to create a set of luminosity masks for the various value zones of the image.

Blend If:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GKDBXrpV8s

Luminosity Masking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHMwem1wNSE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3zSUK7KK7c

For the Luminosity masking, Tony Kupyer created some photoshop actions a few years ago. There is a free version which does basic luminosity masks I think.

http://goodlight.us/panels-and-videos.html

There are also some written tuts, although the website is a little hard to navigate!

thanks guys, I've heard about luminosity masks, but impatiently dismissed it as "not relevant", how stupid of me....