Editing tutorial: Trying to learn the techniques of blending two images to form a composite in affinity photo

 

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Now here is the thing. 

I can capture astrophotography data on the night. I'm getting better at working out the exposure triangle settings and checking my histogram on the night. Likewise with using my tracker and gaining sets of lights, flats, darks and bias frames. 

Beginning to understand taking landscape shots in blue and twilight hours. Lousy on landscape composition of foreground however. Loads to sort out there. 

My real difficulties though, and please don't ask me "why?" because I don't know, is understanding how to merge two images into one in affinity photo. You know - putting a foreground with a sky shot. It seems so easy on the YouTube tutorials and yet whenever I try - a disaster. 

Anyway, here is my first efforts. And yes, I know the sky is completely wrong proportion etc - but its just a practice image - trying to learn how to replace a sky in a shot; how to select an object from another image and place it into another.

I really find selections, masking and layers control really difficult to assimilate and I just don't understand why! 

Which of the two images is the least worse? got any tips on how I can improve them? Drop me a comment below - all help appreciated - especially if you are an affinity photo user.