You know, I always see your daring edits around Play Raw, and I should really start taking them as an inspiration to do the same. For some reason I’m still stuck on trying to make my edits as “realistic” as possible, which is really limiting and not that much fun. So, thank you for emphasizing the Play in Play Raw! 
(And I like how you managed to preserve all of the lights including the light trails of the train!)
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Thank you.
I’m no one to give advice…
But, I encourage everyone to let their imagination run wild…
Both at the time of taking the capture, and at the time of processing that capture.
The worst that can happen is that we learn and the best thing is a historical photograph. 
There is no risk.
All the best.
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A quick edit in GIMP combining this edit with a version that adds a film simulation (Agfa Vista 200). Both of these edits in their pure form are a bit too extreme imho (the first a bit too hazy, the second a bit to contrast-rich). Combined them as layers in GIMP using greyscale copies as layer masks.
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The thing that has bothered me all the time with the original image and all the un-cropped responses, is the dominating influence of the strongly lit building to the left. It competes strongly for attention with all the more subdued types of light depicting the “railway/station” motive, and even with the main element of the light “tracks”.
So here is my version where I’ve only used a mask in dt to dampen said building.
Edit: Can see now that there has been a crop in the lower part that I should have maintained, at least to avoid that “white” corner down left.
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Thanks for the image - it was definitely a challenge for me. My attempt DT 4.4.2.
Two things I found challenging - white balance & dealing with the overblown lights especially the moving train lights. I will be intently looking at what others do for either of those things.
DSC_5188.NEF.xmp (22.7 KB)
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Edited for print.
It’s quite a heavy crop but I don’t mind. I think I’m about done with this image now. Having given up on it way back before I learned to use the HSV equalizer in RT, I recently started working on it again to print it as a gift for a colleague who is leaving.
This is probably somewhere close to the best that I can get out of this capture using RT, and almost certainly the most pleasing crop I can find in this capture.
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Of course I lied. Here’s another version aimed at being print-worthy. I tried to edit this version for office light / daylight viewing conditions.
I dialed down most contrast/saturation-boosting modules except for a moderate Soft Light at 20% and contrast set to 7% in the Exposure module. I still find the colors saturated enough, but depending on your monitor settings (and possibly also viewing angle), this version may appear quite bright and possibly a bit washed out on screen. I always try to make sure that I’m looking straight at the monitor since only this optimal viewing angle gives an approximately accurate impression of contrast and overall appearance of lighter versus darker parts of the image.
Those yellow railway gizmos between the tracks are kind of my poor man’s in-scene color checker since they are just about the most well-lit and accurately exposed part of the capture. I didn’t try to make them appear perfectly neutral, they’re still a lot warmer than they would appear under daylight (i.e. daylight scene) conditions.
Here’s a detail at 100%.
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nice lights! needs some space racing atmosphere:
DSC_5188.NEF.cfg (3.9 KB)
unfortunately sRGB is a bit tight, here’s the plain screenshot:
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Reminds me a bit of Trap Nation mirrored backgrounds
… any electronic music fans here?
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