Help with brightness

[deeky]

Here's one I took today. I really like it, but feel the background areas top and bottom right are too light. I was actually shooting with the sun over my shoulder, and it's trees along the river in the background.

1. Is the light background too bright? Or is it good contrast to the darker steel beam?

2. Suggestions for fixing it if it's an issue? I'm using Elements v.2, and tried to duplicate the image, darken it, and then erase the darker layer over the beam. But the blurred edges of the beam looked terrible doing that. Can I soften then edge of the erasing to blend it a little more?

Here it is:


IMG_0078b by breckmiller, on Flickr

Thanks for the help.

 

[Ernicus]

Can you bring it down some in the b&w conversion using the blue and cayan adjustments. Sometimes you can darken the brights with those and not affect the main subject...although it may affect the whites in your beam...just a thought.

you can also use your history tool and try to bring them down using "difference" selection in the dropdown box. although often times it will make it look gray, too gray if you hit it too heavy...start with around 10-15% ish and see.