Red Rock National Conservation Area. 30 minute drive west of Las Vegas USA.
I don’t have an edit. Have at it (darktable production edits preferred).
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I love it! I had fun lowering the shadow levels and increasing the contrast to emphasize the bright desert sun.
DSC03929.ARW.xmp (15,6 KB)
And here’s with the sharpening toned down a bit.
Like the colors, light (really fits the subject) and crop but the sharpening choices are a little bit overwhelming to me.
DSC03929.ARW.xmp (13.1 KB)
Edit with a depth aware tool I’m experimenting with (using Depth-Anything-V2). I added some haze and a tilted plan of focus.
Amazing background separation, the tree really stands out now
…but it now somehow looks like a model building landscape. Anyway i like this edit.
Attempting to isolate the tree from the background was quite a challenge. DT 4.8.1
DSC03929.ARW.xmp (17.4 KB)
Yeah I don’t like the tilt–shift effect much either, although I maybe overdid it a bit to make it visible here. I suspect using the depth mask to add haze or manipulate exposure & color might be more generally useful.
I think this one of yours is one of the best so far (#5)…mine came out a bit too crunchy… maybe editing at the end of the day… 
I have been experimenting with exposing the output sliders and masking the diffuse or sharpen module with it and I feel like it can help tune the results…there was a thread some time back where there were comparison’s to ART/RT and sharpening and there was a certain look achieved with them that kept contrast in check whereas DorS in DT can sometimes produce these microhalo’s (for lack of a better term) on fine details. I found in this image for example the tips of the foliage on the tree could get too bright/contrasted but by just dropping the output in that upper highlight range with the output slider you could dial that back just ever so little and keep things under control but still have nice sharpening…
