Thanks for the compliment.
Yeah, GIMP is free and powerful, but not intuitive or user friendly. I just downloaded the most recent version and tried to do some simple editing. It took me about 20 minutes just to learn how to make one tool work. That experience will transfer to the other tools, but it's still not intuitive.
Here is a before and after of the same image:
Before
After
This was edited in GIMP. It took about 20 minutes to do the full edit. Yes, the differences are subtle, but that's the point. I think the after image is far superior to the original.
The most obvious change is the overall contrast/color/brightness fix. I think the after is much clearer and easier to view.
There are a ton of more subtle changes. I fixed the scratch on the knife blade. Then there was a lot of small "debris" on the mat the gun is sitting on. Lots of little specks removed in that operation. A few specks on the gun itself were removed. Then there were a couple of hairs I didn't like, got rid of those.
Then I resized it to 1,000 pixels wide.
Most of these "flaws" are things most people won't notice. When viewed side by side, and having the flaws pointed out, it's much easier to see why post processing is important. Once a few things were figured out, the GIMP was actually easier to use to get the finished product and it looks much less "altered" than if PE was used. Still, it takes some work.
In the end, the original will stand on its own. Subject matter is more important than anything else. That is the one thing that really can't be changed much. Sure, things can be added and deleted, but if the original subject isn't good, any addition/subtraction will be marginal.
I don't know why I'm going through all this, no one asked. Meh, I guess I'm just a geek and like to play with photos. I hope this helps a little. I'm willing to help with PE or GIMP or Lightroom should any of you try these programs.