Busy Photo, Be Gone!

This beautiful egret posed so gracefully in a eucalyptus tree, but there was a big problem: branches in the way. The solution: the Spot Healing Brush in Photoshop CS5, with the Content Aware box in the options bar checked. I learned a few tricks in the process. First, of course, work SLOOOOWLY. Keep the brush size small. Sometimes this brush will do strange blurring at edges between light and dark. My solution was to use the clone tool (again, kept very small) at these critical junctures and then finish up (the rest of a branch, for example) much more quickly with the brush. Sometimes it would be necessary to go over the same area several times. I didn't want to take out ALL the branches, or the poor bird wouldn't have a roost.