Thank you Vdallas for your reply. I already knew the duplicate/blur/softlight technique, but the problem is, it's great for general equalizing (and above all for mildening large shadow areas), but the problem is, the localized highlights are much brighter than the range this technique is useful for. I mean that the extreme settings it would require, would cause a number of negative side effects in the highlight area itself - and on top of that, the highlights would not go completely away anyway. I'd swore I have read of a different technique for highlights, using layers, but I can't just recall where...