Too Soon Old and Too Late Smart: I am 76 years old and to date have depended on three programs for almost all photo processing, PhotoNinja, GIMP and Nik collection. The one thing that...

Shootist Loc: Wyoming

I am 76 years old and to date have depended on three programs for almost all photo processing, PhotoNinja, GIMP and Nik collection. The one thing that has always been a hindrance to me is not being able to satisfactorily blend two or more photos with fine detail like leaves, tree limbs etc.
My question for those who use Lightroom etc is this. Will any of these programs give the ability to select/mask these small details and give a natural look when blended with another image.
At my age I would rather use my time to shoot photos and process them than going through the learning curve for new programs. That said, with winter coming on and with the incentive of getting better blended images I will consider learning Lightroom or another new program if it can help me in this area.
Thanks in advance for any input to my inquiry.

PS: If any of you GIMP users have been able to make GIMP do what I want please join in. So far I cannot find any tutorials that suit my needs.

John Hicks Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England

I would recommend you try Corals Paint Shop Pro Ultimate 2021 I think this program will do the thinks you want to do, for example changing the line up of a group of people in a photograph of say one was not looking at the camera you could replace them from another photograph where they were.
You could also replace leaves on a free from one photograph to another.
It has A1 computer techniques in it as well as a host of other items with a very extensive help section

Shootist Loc: Wyoming

John Hicks wrote:

I would recommend you try Corals Paint Shop Pro Ultimate 2021 I think this program will do the thinks you want to do, for example changing the line up of a group of people in a photograph of say one was not looking at the camera you could replace them from another photograph where they were.
You could also replace leaves on a free from one photograph to another.
It has A1 computer techniques in it as well as a host of other items with a very extensive help section

Thanks, I will certainly put that program in the list of considerations.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Probably 'no' for LR alone. Although I haven't used GIMP, my understanding is this tool should give you that requested selection and blending power. Lightroom can't be purchased alone, where the subscription to the combined Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop is a subscription to the market- and industry-leading digital editing software.

Coming back to GIMP, have you tried utube video training for your specific topic? You'd need to search for these demo / training videos for any software you might consider in changing.

Shootist Loc: Wyoming

CHG_CANON wrote:

Probably 'no' for LR alone. Although I haven't use... (show quote)

Thank you for your advice. To date I have not been able to find tutorials/training covering this exact topic. I will certainly not give up but my confidence in finding anything is waning.
I have spent hours trying every nuance of selections, so far with little success. The problem appears to be that GIMP selection tools need a clear contrast line to get a sharp selection. Trees and twigs and other such things have edges that are graduated and therefor the selection algorithm has no clear place to land that doesn't include unwanted pixels. It is my hope that Photoshop or another program has more discreet tools to use.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Shootist wrote:

Thank you for your advice. To date I have not been... (show quote)

The PS software has continuous AI improvements to enhance the ability to drag your mouse over the subject and having it select what should be selected and skip the rest. Then the edge / select refinements can be done by you. In PS, you can zoom to the pixel level, if needed, and add (or exclude) individual pixels into your selection. It also has a blending option to 'blur' over x-number of pixels to achieve a natural flow of color along the edges, again for a perfect / near perfect composite of images.

When I google "selecting edges in gimp" a number of selections come back. I glanced a few, where I can see the tools / techniques I'd expect, but I also see you need experience on which method / tool and 'why' to maybe use one technique over another. Using the 'lasso' and a blurred edge are the tools I use in PSE, where maybe PhotoShopElements as a 1-time purchase is a better match to your needs rather than the ongoing subscription?

par4fore Loc: Bay Shore N.Y.

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html

jcryan Loc: Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic

Have you looked at gimp tutorials that might address your issue? If nothing out there meets your needs I would recommend reaching out to Mike Davies of Davies Media Design to see if he can do a video to answer your specific question. You can review his tutorials at: daviesmediadesign.com/tutorials/

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

Photoshop and Lightroom along with Bridge are a package that is available for a monthly subscription. Lightroom, originally developed for file handling, has been upgraded to do some broad brush adjustments. The adjustments are stored in a separate (layer) file for non-destructive editing.
For pixel level and more complex work using as many layers as you want, there is Photoshop.
If you want to do something, just about anything, you can use this package. And there are literally hundreds (thousands?) of videos on "how to".
Ten bucks a months is pretty cheap to have a very large tool box always available for photos and video.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Shootist wrote:

I am 76 years old and to date have depended on thr... (show quote)

Lightroom is not the program to use for combining two images together. Photoshop is the program you should be investigating. It does and excellent job but it is a long learning curve to understand how it works.

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

Shootist wrote:

I am 76 years old and to date have depended on thr... (show quote)

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If you haven't given it a try yet, I would suggest trying "ON1 Photo RAW 2021". This new version was just released on November 2nd and it is very good with good masking capabilities. They offer a free 30-day trial and it is available for Windows or Mac, and they have a free Mobile version that will work on iPhone or Android.

smf85 Loc: Freeport, IL

CHG_CANON wrote:

Probably 'no' for LR alone. Although I haven't use... (show quote)

Everything is really available in GIMP - readily available is something else. The functionality can be difficult to find and hard to use. The heavy lifting is there, the UI with the sophistication to make it easier to use is often inadequate, non-intuitive,or missing. It’s improved greatly over time.

Real Nikon Lover Loc: Simi Valley, CA

Dear Shootist,
You are not too old. I taught my late Great Aunt how to use a computer and AOL when she was 92. She was in chat groups, using email, MS Word, Excel and other programs until she passed away at 101 years. As for programs, I have a number of programs I use:
Nikon NX1, ON1, Photoshop Elements, MS Photo, Perfectly Clear.

I do own Lightroom but decided to abandon it because all of the aforementioned does what I need.

Occasionally I used Helicon for photostacking.

Good luck.

Shootist Loc: Wyoming

CHG_CANON wrote:

The PS software has continuous AI improvements to ... (show quote)

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I see my choice of search wording has been part of my problem. When I used your suggested wording the results really show promise in helping me with my issue. I will exhaust your suggestions before just assuming GIMP will not get me to where I want to go.

Shootist Loc: Wyoming

par4fore wrote:

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html

Thank you for the link.