Levels of Light - A better way to lighten

Back when I first started using photo edit software, the only way to lighten an image like the one below was the 'Brightness and Contrast' tool (found under the 'Image' drop down menu in my program).

Problem with the Brightness & Contrast tool is the 'milky' look, as we've all seen on the MLS. Better, but still not as appetizing a photo as it should be, given the luxury level of this yacht. You can see I that the brighter I try to turn it up, the milkier it'll get. You can add contrast, but you've got very limited control.

The result below was obtained by a tool it took me forever to discover - the Levels tool (Image-Adjust-Levels on my program). It allows you to adjust the brightness of 3 different parts of the light - high end, middle end, and low end. For this shot I lifted the middle light a lot plus some of the high end. Then I did 'sharpen' the focus, which can be dicey because it exacerbates a 'patchy' look that can't be avoided (the camera had trouble capturing in the low light)

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