9 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

Everyone has their own price points they are willing to pay, for me personally, I've been using PS for 25 years+ and apart from RAW converter updates I can do most of the tricks that Adobe introduces with the tools I have in my version. I recall that their updates were getting progressively less compelling and they in fact held back things like support for high res monitors until after they introduced the subscription model, lots of people swore off them on the forums I frequented back then.

Of course not everyone has that skill set and if they choose to subscribe, it's up to them entirely. For me I only ever used PS, never lightroom, apparently it's getting closer now but from talking to people the PS tools area easier to use than LR. For me exercising those skills makes me feel like the photo is more my creation - or something like that. Not disparaging anyone who chooses to subscribe, just letting people know what is possible without all the AI tools etc.

Lightroom is a real powerhouse these days in my opinion. It has vastly improved in the last 5 years. The AI feature that is most useful is not even generative like Remove. It is creating Masks. Masking a complex shape, like that Warbonnet, allows you to make adjustments to a target selection in an image. Brightness, clarity, sharpness, black level, etc. The recent addition on AI denoise is another big improvement. The are the types of AI we can all appreciate as they just make the tools you already used quicker and easier. Masking use to be a painful experience and now its effortless and powerful.

Anyway, i feel like i get my money's worth.

PS- I can't imagine handling 1000's of photos any more without Lightroom's tagging, triage, and organization capabilities. Shudder!

On 9/17/2025 at 4:29 PM, Dave_Hicks said:

The Remove brush in Photoshop is going to work about 1000X better than Gimp. It is also better or more precise than remove in LRc.

Thanks for the feedback! i will give it a try soon!

On 9/18/2025 at 12:57 AM, Chris Ross said:

It's actually quite possible to remove the reflections with basic cloning tools. I use the old PS CS6 and the blue water reflections went instantly with spot healing brush and the reflections on the arms I could do with the cloning tool (non smart, just has a feathering adjustment.)

If you are working with a straight cloning tool the secret is to zoom right in and start where the reflection crosses the edges of the arms. The tool provides a preview of what it will do - align the tool on the edge and alt-click to select the source then move to where you want to clone and move up and down till the edge and the cloned edge align and click. I use a Wacom tablet for this - makes it very easy to do. A lot of the ease for this kind of work comes from the sequences you need to perform to precisely select the clone source. I haven't used GIMP for a long time and not sure how it works but the PS sequence is very intuitive. Here is the cleaned version - took me all of 5 minutes and included cleaning off the outline you drew over the arms to show what can be done with basic tools:

Thanks for the feedback! I will look it up for more details and try to find an article or explanatory video. For me, I think for me its now time to go to Adobe LR and PS...

On 9/18/2025 at 6:57 AM, TimG said:

Totally agree with Dave.

There are a good few folks here, whose views I respect massively, who see the Adobe subscription as a rip-off. However I’m with Dave. I’ve been using LR since it was first introduced and the gradual improvements in capability have been fantastic. It is the most significant contribution I’ve had to improving my image end results.

The recent subscription increase was a bit hefty but I still think it remains an outstanding product at a fair price.

I've heard of people buying their license via VPN from Turkey and saving money that way?!

Thanks for all the help from all sides!!! Back to my orginal topic: With the sun shades, I managed to eliminate reflections completely. The only problem with muck diving was that I ended up scooping up sand in front of me when taking pictures close to the bottom... And of course, you can't get as close to the critters as before... I also find the lighting a little less optimal with the sun shades – I think there is more backscatter in the final photo...