Here a “manual” several clicks solution in darktable.
RPN_Kick-In_20180830_3392.NEF.xmp (7.3 KB)
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Filmic v4, color calibration, and 2 years of color science R&D:
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Here is my take with darktable master (color calibration to compress gamut, filmic with highlight reconstruction that blooms)
i tried to preserve as much as possible the blue mood and to get smooth transition between shades of blue
Another attempt, using the “colorfulness” tab of color calibration with a negative value on blue instead of gamut compression
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Yes! That is a very valid point [and perhaps worthy of a thread of its own].
Do we really strive for showing clinically “correct” white points & balances & colours
— or do we want to preserve a mood?
Just imagine the scene where Tramp invites Lady to a candle-lit dinner at Tony’s…
Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden
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Cool to see what everyone makes of this, thanks!
@KristijanZic @rawfiner can you maybe upload the xmp files for your edits as well? Curious to see how you managed it, I especially like the last one.
@Egocentrix the xmp is included in the jpg (you can import the jpg file in darktable the same way as you would do with an xmp file) 
After some other tests with similar pictures, I think the most efficient way for me to handle those blues is to compress gamut and use a negative value of blue in colorfulness at the same time: using more the gamut compression if I want the pixels to be darker, or more the colorfulness if I want them to be brighter. Though, using colorfulness can give hue shifts, which may or may not be problematic depending on the image. I also usually lower the default middle-tone saturation in filmic for such images.
Huh, didn’t know that. Neat. I’ll try some dt3.3/color calibration edits tonight.
Halos look much better with “clip negative RGB from gamut” = off.
For the human perception, it is an advantage that the same things always have the same color. Therefore, the human eye (or better brain) adapts to different lighting conditions trying to identify the “real” colors (that do not exit as such). When adapting the whitepoint, we try to imitate this behavior, to prevent objects from looking “strange”. But the human adaptation has limits, objects at sunset still look somewhat reddish and concerts with lots of blue led lights make the surroundings still appear bluish.
So, I think it is more than preserving “mood”, it’s about making a scene look right according to the human perception.
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Interesting discussion. I mostly like to work with captures in their original color context, as the best colorimetric effort of the camera. However, with some images I then like to “go wild” and see what some abstraction will render. Monochrome is a frequent departure, but I have a few early images where I just put them in GIMP and threw G’MIC operators at them until they looked Quite Different… 
Yes, I do the same 
. And I see no problem in artistic edits. Nevertheless, one should know, what would be “right” with respect to humun perception. Another example: Human vision can well adapt to different amounts of light. But a scene in moonshine always appears darker than a scene in sunshine. However, a shot taken in moonshine can easily be rendered to look like taken in sunshine. One can do that for artistic reasons, but it would not be correct with respect to human perception.
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Clinically correct has never been a goal, except perhaps if you digitize paintings for museums. However, when the first thing you notice is an alien look with artifacts you have never seen IRL, I would say it’s mission failed.
I read somewhere the advice to not try to capture your surroundings, but how those surroundings make you feel. There are of course other schools of thought, but I find it is a direction that works for me for keeping a photo interesting.
You are at the concert, the guitarist is giving his all, they turn the blinders up to eleven and it hits you straight in the face. That is the kind of intensity you feel at that moment, and I tried to represent that in my edit, I also really like @ggbutcher’s photo and @rawfiner’s second edit.
I should have done this PlayRaw a long time ago, it is awesome so see so many different takes on your own photo and there are so many different ideas for using the tools that we have. Thanks again to everyone who submitted here!
I looked through your xmps (and bits from @anon41087856’s recent video (get some sleep dude 
)) and I managed to make a new edit that I really like. The blue artifacts were giving me headaches but I can sleep better now I think
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Starting with @rawfiner’s second development, I tried to take it closer to the original Lightroom version at the top.
RPN_Kick-In_20180830_3392_15.NEF.xmp (28.8 KB) dt3.3
Edit: Added lens correction to image.
@Egocentrix Will you post your xmp for your last development?
