Fence blurring issue

[Lion Heart Photos]

I took a trip to the zoo last weekend and of course encountered lots of opportunity to practice shooting through fences and bars. This is a cropped image of a lion that finally woke up briefly for me to snap some quick shots! However, you can see some of the blurred fence crossing his face. Since I am new to Photoshop, I am not even sure where to begin with trying to remove it! Any tips and/or advice on specific tools to use would be greatly appreciated!



Camera: Nikon D70s
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 170 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Flash: No Flash

[MrJulius]

Do you have photoshop?

[Lion Heart Photos]

I do have photoshop!

[LindaOH]

I'm new so my $.02 may be half value.

Are you talking about the grayish look diagonally from the bottom left to the top right?
If so, I'd select that area.
Feather the selection about 100 maybe.
Use color curves to make it more closely match the rest of his face.
Select all to make sure there isn't a noticable line.

I saved your pic and tried it but would have to post it on my flickr page to post it here again.
--LindaOH

[FocalFrenzy]

LindaOH, that's great advice. I'll have to try it on some of my zoo shots. If you mark your edited image "Private" on Flickr, you can still post it here, but no one on Flickr can see it. They can't trace the link back. It keeps your edits on DPS only. I hope this helps.

[LindaOH]

Ah thanks. I thought they had to be on public to post here. I have a few others I will go back and make private.

[LindaOH]

I copied the original and altered it as I mentioned above. I also brightened the whole thing in curves. The only problem is that I missed a spot next to his nose that should have been selected for the original brightening.
Here is the end result. Is this what you meant?