I like using diffuse or sharpen local contrast and fast sharpening presets. Fast Sharpening can be a little too much in some images, but it’s still very useful.
IMG_1617.CR2.xmp (12.9 KB)
The picture is underexposed, so you really need to push your exposure up first.
My workflow is the following: apply lens corrections; set up exposure until I’m happy with the midtones; set filmic white and black relative exposure; add some saturation with color balance rgb; use tone equalizer for controlling shadows and highlights; use another instance of tone equalizer to add a bit of global contrast; add some gentle local contrast; check if the image needs denoising; then sharpen.
I think it was not difficult to get a natural looking image from your file just using very basic adjustments, but indeed, pushing the exposure +2.5EV as you said you usually do was not enough for this one.
IMG_1617.CR2.xmp (11.8 KB)
You can also play with LUTs if you want to experiment with colours, there are some nice ones available online. This one is the Provia 100F from the rawtherapee pack of LUTs:
IMG_1617_01.CR2.xmp (14.5 KB)
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nice description of your workflow. Mine may vary some but somehow I naturally fall back to what you just described. Photos look good too. When you use luts or color grade I’m assuming you go through your normal workflow first to get to a good starting point before further color adjustments, correct?
Usually yes, I tend to do the basic adjustments first. I’m not very good at colour grading, but I like to use LUTs now and then.
Some LUTs may have tone curves baked in them, which will demand a revision of some of the basic adjustments (usually dialing down the contrast in filmic; sometimes you also have to bring down the exposure a bit). If I already know that I want to use a specific LUT from the start, then I may apply the LUT and do all the processing with it on. For example, I like to use a couple of black & white LUTs, but since there might be massive differences in how they convert colours to b&w and in their tone curves, I like to apply them in the beginning of my workflow to get a good starting point. In any case, it’s a matter of experimenting with different workflows.
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Thank you all very much for your help and suggestions!
@123sg, your style is what I had been hoping for - it gives very good results with most of my pictures. I will be traveling on a very tight schedule for a few more weeks, but when I am back, I will go into all the details and probably come back with more questions.
@matthias1 thanks for your feedback, very glad my style came in useful 
Happy to go into details (if I know them…) if and when you you like.
Happy travelling!
EDIT: Sorry, I put the wrong username above. Now corrected. Apologies!
I mostly use sooc but in some cases I wish I would be able to quickly achieve same effect in RAW and make some minor tweaks, like bringing up certain detail which is next to impossible in jpeg itself. sooc is still my reference point. This is why :-).
I view SOOC as a good starting point for further processing. Why do I need to start from zero every time if my camera already did some work for me and I can extend this? RawTherapee and ART can easily achieve something close to SOOC by using either AutoMatched curve or .dcp profiles from Adobe. Why darktable can’t do the same and give the user more flexibility where to start? Personally I do not enjoy tinkering with images too much. The less steps give me good results the better. On the other hand OOC Jpegs do not give me best results - dynamic range sucks, sharpening is not good, tonal curve could be improved, etc.
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One word…basecurve…
Also you can explore and use darktable-chart as a way to offer that as well…
As I migrate to DT, I will definitely want to have my styles for X1 and A7C to be able to achieve such close matches and will share that in future. Interestingly enough, my D700 raw files are very easy.
Basecurve? Thanks, but no thanks. For me it is usually so wrong for dynamic range.
I was just suggesting that is DT’s JPG start… I dont use it… I use art more that RT but the automatch is also often not great imo
Agree about Auto Matched curve. For me Adobe profiles usually give better results quicker.
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?
fixed 
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R6 styles now when darktable-chart again works in 4.2.1. Input working space is set to linear Rec 709 RGB. Any setting I should change in darktable-chart to get Linear Rec 2020 RGB?
R6-styles.zip (12.4 KB)
And what about combining the usage of base curve with tone qualizer?
Works for me all the time.
Important note: base curve sits at the end of pipeline, just like Filmic RGB or Sigmoid, i.e. I use v.3 RAW order of modules.