Hello,

I've made two layers for this icon I'm making. The top layer is a slightly darker version of the bottom layer. I want to cut out the girl in the red dress on the top layer to make her look brighter in the icon.

But I am STRUGGLING getting any of these layers to work correctly. I have been looking at webpage tutorials and Youtube videos for an HOUR now and still can't figure it out. I am honestly ready to tear my hair out.

I posted about this earlier tonight, but it doesn't look like my thread posted. I also posted about it about a year ago, but I've lost track of the thread since then.

Any info anyone could provide me would be useful and much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Vaguely remember this one.

To brighten up put the top layer in 'Screen' mode. For more use 'Addition' mode (but that will blow the colors out)

No need to link the layers. If you need more than that then probably have to go back to the original image and edit from scratch.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net

Thanks for responding! :)

I don't think that'll do what I want to do. (I'm looking at the Layer Modes guide.)

What I want is to make the light look more intense. So I made the top layer darker and the bottom one darker. I want to make the girl in red transparent in the top layer so when they stack, the woman with the flashlight looks darker and the girl in red looks lighter. Of course, if there is a different way to do this, I'm open to it, as long as the same effect is achieved.

I found some sort of "lightening" tool," but it wouldn't lighten the area uniformly. :/

I recommend starting from scratch.

Take your original image and duplicate it.

Add a (white) layer mask to the top layer. If you paint in that in black it shows the bottom layer. see: https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-mask-add.html

Now you can adjust the two layers, top one darker, bottom one lighter. The screenshot shows the bottom layer.

Attached un-edited .xcf with layer mask.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net

That worked! Thanks so much for your help! :)