Is there anyway to use a image map shader as a basic shape for terrain generation. So white-black on the image is around about where the terrain stops rather than absolute. Because the issue i have at the moment is when using images for planetary continents and such you get fuzzy borders where land meets ocean so rather than the image saying "land stops here, now ocean starts" instead use "land stops in this general area" and still have the same beachs and things you get with complete procedural planets.
Yes it is, sorry I don't have time at the moment to describe how, but at least you can know it is possible (and pretty simple) to achieve.