Honestly I'm about at my wits end with my current workflow. I've been using Lightroom and some plugins for years but the "AI" masking is driving me crazy lately especially with fine details. I just got back from a week in the Olympic Peninsula and I have all these gorgeous shots of mossy trees in the fog but trying to get the sky to look natural while keeping the branch detail is impossible. It either looks like a halo or it cuts off half the twigs. I tried that one popular "one-click" AI tool everyone talks about and it just turned my moody PNW shots into some weird HDR nightmare that looks like a video game.

I have a gallery opening in Seattle in less than a month and I'm staring at 50 shots that I just cant get right. I need something that actually understands lighting and depth without making it look fake. Im willing to drop around $250-300 on something new if it actually saves me time but I dont want more gimmicky filters. Is there anything out there that actually feels professional and respects the raw data? Like something that handles complex selections and color grading without that tacky AI look? I just need something that works for a high-end landscape print workflow...