I know I'm just being dense, but when I use something like brightness contrast, make the adjustment I like, and then click ok, the brightness/contrast dialog box disappears, and then reappears the moment I click on the image again. Nothing I do seems to get rid of it. I can even click on other images and it will appear there. In doing this, I am locked out of both saving the b/c change as well as making any other changes. I'd be really grateful for some help. Thanks so much.

If you look in the tool options, you will see that the tool is still active.

Solution - choose a different tool.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net

I knew that I was just being dense, but still had hoped that I wasn't quite that dense!! I thank you. Given your kindness, may I ask one more question? I've attached an image. If I want to extract just the book from this image and move it to a different background (often black with other images on it), what are the steps? I can make it work sometimes, but I'm pretty sure I'm doing it incorrectly as it takes forever and only works sometimes. If I could buy you a beer to thank you, I would!! C

You need to extract the foreground (the book) many ways to do that. You could try the scissors tool.

see: https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-iscissors.html

First add transparency Layer -> Transparency -> Add alpha Channel

Make a selection using the scissors tool see screenshot 1

Invert the selection Select -> Invert

Cut the selection Edit -> Cut

That leaves just the book in a transparent layer.

The background goes under that

but - always a but---

Take note of the light falling on the book. It really needs a shadow.

Add a layer between book and background, make a suitable selection using free select tool (dotted in an outline as an example). Fill with black. Turn selection off Select -> none. Blur Filters - > Blur -> Gaussian blur. Reduce the opacity of the layer, slider top of layers dialogue.

rich: www.gimp-forum.net

From: gimp-user-list on behalf of rich404 Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2018 12:28 AM To: gimp-user-list@gnome.org
Cc: notifications@gimpusers.com
Subject: [Gimp-user] Stuck in Brightness/Contrast Loop, etc.

If you look in the tool options, you will see that the tool is still active.

outlier opinion tangent: Tools which are accessed primarily via menu, and operate through a pop-up dialog box instead of on-canvas interaction, should not even be using the tools class. It is counter-intuitive to the new user that any dialog box -based operation has lingering side effects on their session after the operation has concluded. (compare plug-ins and scripts)

... admittedly, that is its own topic....

-- Stratadrake strata_ranger@hotmail.com
--------------------
Numbers may not lie, but neither do they tell the whole truth.

outlier opinion tangent: Tools which are accessed primarily via menu, and operate through a pop-up dialog box instead of on-canvas interaction, should not even be using the tools class. It is counter-intuitive to the new user that any dialog box -based operation has lingering side effects on their session after the operation has concluded. (compare plug-ins and scripts)

Agreed -- I've struggled to understand why e.g. Brightness/Contrast, which has no tool options anyway, opens a "tool options" mode in the tool box just so one can repeat it by clicking on the canvas. Doesn't seem useful, and is obviously confusing to new users. Perhaps it should follow the settings in prefs -> Interface -> Toolbox -> Tools Configuration.