Well... I don't know if it's been the fish I had for dinner, but... I just could recall an important part. it was not the matter of DUPLICATING the layer, but of CREATING A NEW LAYER. So working from this piece of recalled memory, I tested two ways: 1- pick a color that represent the correct luminosity, then paint in the new layer with a soft brush above the highlight area, being denser on the brighter spots. Then set the layer blend mode to "multiply" and adjust layer opacity for a smooth blend; or 2- use the clone tool with the "all layers" checked, and clone with a soft bruch on the highlight area, in the new layer, same way (denser where brighter). Then set layer blending mode to "darken" and adjust opacity. Both of these do work good actually! Much better than the dodge tool. BUT - I am pretty sure that in the original tutorial there was a "secret touch" to make the things even better... now if I only could recall that part, too! LOL... I started with a question and ended up with a quasi-tutorial! :-)