Thanks Todd. It was a challenging day and at many times I gave up, but always came back and eventually got the problem solve. One of the issues is discussing Linux issues and solutions is like a foriegn language to linux newbies. I suspect my problem would have been solved early if I just went to the driver manager and set the recommended propriety driver despite it not being the latest and then uninstalled and reinstalled DT. I will never know for sure, but I feel the sledgehammer approach of reinstalling DT was the critical issue and that is a real Windows fallback method. I am glad it is working and hope this desktop will prove a good DT machine. I plan not to install many programs on it and focus it for DT edits. But I miss the weekly Windows Insider program to see the improvements coming.
I didn’t focus on the blown highlights with any deliberate effort. If I achieved this it was by doing a second masked exposure for the top region of the image. Personally I feel my result looks dull and would like to put more lift into the image. But I had limited time and a really slow computer at the time. I made cups of coffee while it did some calculations. Now it has a very fast OpenCL and I hope it works a lot quicker for future edits.
@gaaned92 I think you’ve done the best job in highlight reconstruction so far, (the chandeliers have their details back). The overall processing is very balanced.
I am not sure if the sepia look is intended, personally I’d take your version as starting point for some more color grading. Especially I’d desaturate the yellowish cast on the foreground to have a little more contrast to the warm light from the inside.
