A Trip to Tuscany

wrjfoto · July 20, 2026, 6:51am

Yesterday we watched a travel show on TV about the island of Elba, and it reminded me that I hadn’t yet imported the photos from my trip to Tuscany (2017) into darktable. In particular, there’s one photo I took at a winery near San Gimignano. Because of its contrasts, I’m not satisfied with how it turned out after processing.
What else could I do?

1710_Volterra_San_Gimignano_0140.ORF (13,8 MB)
1710_Volterra_San_Gimignano_0140.ORF.xmp (87,9 KB)

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hatsnp · July 20, 2026, 7:40am

1710_Volterra_San_Gimignano_0140.ORF.xmp (17.7 KB)

Not much that can be done given the atmospheric conditions. Trying to fight the haze is a fools errand in my opinion

Terry · July 20, 2026, 7:52am

There will be better edits than mine. I played with the arial perspective as a natural phenomena rather than trying to get rid of it.
1710_Volterra_San_Gimignano_0140.ORF.xmp (22.5 KB)

epeeist · July 20, 2026, 8:11am

The haze makes this tricky, the original image is quite muddy.

1710_Volterra_San_Gimignano_0140.ORF.xmp (12.5 KB)

wrjfoto · July 20, 2026, 9:21am

You are right, I should forget this photo.
Thanks for showing your developed version.

wrjfoto · July 20, 2026, 9:22am

This comes near the situation if I remember right.

wrjfoto · July 20, 2026, 9:23am

Yes the haze makes it not so easy.

hatsnp · July 20, 2026, 9:39am

I think it’s a cool photo, only that it’s not worth to fight the haze(As seen by all the edits in this thread with huge halos) Just gotta accept the photo as is

Zbyma72age · July 20, 2026, 9:48am

RT and GIMP 2.10.38

1710_Volterra_San_Gimignano_0140.ORF.pp3 (16,0 KB)

marter · July 20, 2026, 10:53am

this is a tricky one, and i am still not yet happy with the result (RT 5.13 rc1):

1710_Volterra_San_Gimignano_0140.ORF.jpg.out.pp3 (21,2 KB)

Jetze · July 20, 2026, 11:03am

Very beautiful image,

I tried to enhance the haze as for me that’s the subject. Tried to emphasize the yellows a bit and bring a bit more depth with a couple of blue gradients.

Boy would I like to drink a glass of fresh white wine there now!

1710_Volterra_San_Gimignano_0140.ORF.xmp (39.0 KB)

giusarg · July 20, 2026, 11:19am

I think you’re being too harsh. It’s a good photo despite the conditions and after all, Nature is not there to be told how to comply with our idea of beauty.

123sg · July 20, 2026, 11:26am

I like this
I think it’s easy to over complicate editing, although perhaps this is not to everyone’s taste, this is just a contrast boost and an exposure gradient.

1710_Volterra_San_Gimignano_0140.ORF.xmp (10.2 KB)

wrjfoto · July 20, 2026, 11:29am

You are not alone, they had a very good wine there

wrjfoto · July 20, 2026, 11:33am

I tried it with several programs; using Affinity Photo/Studio and the built-in tone mapper, I achieved a result that was better than my attempt with dt.