Best Clone/heal/resynthesizer/G'Mic tool in Gimp for a series of images???

Processing
#1

Hello everyone! I have a series of images that I shot after the sunset on a beach over the course of two hours. All pictures were shot from a tripod, so the horizon line stays the same from picture to picture. Some of the exposures were 30 seconds long, so I have light trails of boats going through the frame.

I would like to know the easiest way to get rid of the distracting artificial lights. I am trying to make the pictures about the water and the sky and I think the passing boats are a distraction. I could do this manually with clone/heal, but I have 21 of these to touch up, so thought that there may be a quicker way to quickly process them. I have GIMP with G’MIC and resynthesizer plugins installed.

I think is what’s tripping me up is the distinct line between the horizon and the water. If the cloning is sloppy along that line, it will not look right.

Here are a couple example images from when it was still pretty bright out and also well past nightfall. Thank you for any ideas!

One Drive folder, since filebin is not working right now.

#2

If you can combine two or three images (stacking), you could mask out the offending trails. Each should be present in only one of the images. That doesn’t need G’Mic either.

#3

My method in gimp would be to have your 21 images as layers. Create a new transparent layer and with the pencil tool (in any easily seen colour with a hard edge brush of just sufficient size) draw over the items you wish to remove. Then you can do a “Select by Colour” and the selection will be available on every layer. You can use the “Heal Selection” on each layer selecting “Sides” or “Above and Below” as appropriate. I would use this process separately for the boats (selecting “Sides”) and “Above and Below” for the lights.

#4

EVen though this post is a month old I wanted to say thanks for the idea, David. The pictures still required a lot of manual touchups, but by using your “select by color” idea, I was able to get 80% of the way there very quickly!

#5

Glad my idea was helpful. We are all here to help each other and I am frequently in need of help!