Courthouse Creek for C&C

[Jon Smith]

One of many from this past weekend's jaunt to the Balsam Mtns.  This particular image has been chosen to reside over a couch downstairs, I'd like to hear any comments or suggestions/ideas before putting the ink down.

My biggest bother is the blown-out portion at top/center.  Neglected to get the grad ND from the car before hiking upstream for the shot.  Any advise or tips to help blend it out w/ PP?  I'm self-taught with CS2, so anything more than curves on a layer mask is likely going to be gibberish to me.  

[Wolfman]

One of many from this past weekend's jaunt to the Balsam Mtns.  This particular image has been chosen to reside over a couch downstairs, I'd like to hear any comments or suggestions/ideas before putting the ink down.

My biggest bother is the blown-out portion at top/center.  Neglected to get the grad ND from the car before hiking upstream for the shot.  Any advise or tips to help blend it out w/ PP?  I'm self-taught with CS2, so anything more than curves on a layer mask is likely going to be gibberish to me. 
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I tried a quick and easy shadow/highlight and reduced the highlights and masked that layer and brushed in the reduced bothersome highlight area you mentioned.

[Jon Smith]

I tried a quick and easy shadow/highlight and reduced the highlights and masked that layer and brushed in the reduced bothersome highlight area you mentioned.
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Thanks Wolfman, it appears I was trying to make it more complicated than required.  Looks much better w/o the blow out.