Darken a selective portion of a picture

[Bud1880]

I have this picture of a catbird which is heavy with shadows. I think the brightness of the log takes a lot away from this shot. What would be the best way to darken that log and make the picture more presentable? No Photoshop here but have Elements 5 and Paintshop Pro X.

Thanks for any help/advice you can muster. :D

Original full size was uploaded.

Bud

http://dabudman.smugmug.com/photos/543332123_vC2Vi-L.jpg

[AAABluestocking]

Quick and beautiful;

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/2794210

I used it so much that I just made it into an action.

HTH

[JustPlainMe]

You can fake layer masks easily in PSE 5 (I don't know PSP, sorry!), but if you don't want to follow that tutorial (messing with gradients and add/subtract can get tricky), you can use your magnetic lasso tool and select the wood, copy and paste onto its own layer, and either burn (which would be difficult because you've really lost detail on the brightest part of the wood) or change blending mode to multiply and mess with the opacity.