Aperture: Adjusting For -0.3ev

One answer to the highlight problem is shooting with an exposure offset. I'm experimenting with -0.3ev. The photos I get don't suffer such a problem with the highlights, but are dark of course. Here is one:
sunlitfountaino
I have found by trial and error that the best way to get the image back that I remember is to adjust the Exposure up just enough to get the highlights I want and then use the Shadows control for the darker areas. That's it. The other controls mess with the image in a way that makes it worse. Here is the adjusted version:
sunlitfountain
You can click it to see it full-size.
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