I think B/W has to have harder contrasts. Just like this:
20240624_0034.DNG.xmp (17,9 KB)
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This is cool. Nice
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The bearded guy by the window reminds me of a early-middle-aged Eric Clapton. Did he have a guitar with him? 
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No. But he asked where he could get some decent coke in the gents.
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Not in the gents but possibly on the drinks menu next to the sparkling water…
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I usually use sigmoid instead of filmic, but I feel the extreme dynamic range of lighting in this image benefited from filmic V7 on this occasion. I felt filmic gave me a little extra individual control over the shadows and highlights.
I also chose to try and find a single story in this scene and focus the viewers attention to it by using bloom preset from diffuse or sharpen module to soften the other areas of the image.
A challenging image and some very nice interpretations posted by others here already.
BTW, could you help him out with the coke?
20240624_0034.DNG.xmp (28.1 KB)
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Tried it with RawTherapee. I think there are some ornaments on the red wallpapper left side, but could not make them more visible through the noise.
20240624_0034_RT-6.jpg.out.pp3 (21.9 KB)
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Yes, I think I had it set on auto-iso though it was on a stable platform so could have set to low iso. The one thing I don’t like about the GR is I find that I often accidentally shift the mode dial.
Appreciate you sharing this capture, Tony! The dynamic range, mixed light temperatures, and deep red paint on the restaurant walls present an interesting challenge. Love the edge light on the waitress as well as the subtle motion blur as she attends to the drink tray. The subframe of the man gazing out the window is lovely as well.
Brings to mind cafe scenes from Eric Rohmer’s Love in the Afternoon (1972) — many similar lighting scenarios.
As Terry stated further up the thread, this was definitely a job for Filmic RGB with a few extra Tone EQ instances thrown in.
20240624_0034.DNG.xmp (70.2 KB)
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Thanks. Sometimes it clicks
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Here’s my Greyscale attempt using TMAX-100 simulation on RT 5.10 dev.
20240624_0034-1.jpg.out.pp3 (14.5 KB)
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Makes the digital noise more acceptable
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20240624_0034.DNG.xmp (21.3 KB)
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Looks really clean and nice colours
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Thanks 
@Iain I think this image is a very interesting failure scenario for inpaint opposed:
With filmic disabled and exposure dropped, it’s even more visible. I had to drop clipping threshold for the magenta to go (mostly) away:
segmentation based:
(Increasing combine to 5 leads to similar artefacts as inpaint opposed.)
guided laplacians:
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And, to actually contribute a version: I’ve tried to get rid of the edges, which I felt did not contribute much; I added a slight bloom to the highlights, and a soft vignette:
20240624_0034_01.DNG.xmp (18.8 KB)
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