DSC_2597.NEF (26.2 MB)
This is a picture I took during my trip to Japan, it was early in the morning and we had strong shadows that I am having trouble to equalize with the bright skies.
I am curious to see what you guys can do with it.
Here is my try:
I am planning to use as a wallpaper for my desktop hence the 21x9 crop.
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I’m not at home today and have just my laptop and therefore darktable with me. I’ll try to deliver a RT edit tomorrow. In principle the question is how far you really want to equalize light and shadows. Aren’t they part of the charm of this beautiful picture. On your edit the plants in the foreground got a structureless something, while trying equalize them.
I work with DT only. Here is my interpretation with a 21:9 crop. I have tried to balance out the contrast between the light and dark. Do you like it?
Kiyomizu-dera-DSC_2597.NEF.xmp (19.9 KB)
I really struggled with the wide dynamic range of the lighting. Sorry DT edit.
DSC_2597.NEF.xmp (44.8 KB)
Thanks for this nice Play!
Here is my attempt using RT dev. Had to cheat a bit with the sky
Thank you all for the input. They look great. I will take my time to investigate each configuration and see what I can learn from your perspective.
DSC_2597.NEF.xmp (28.9 KB)
Here as promised a RT edit, even though I think @Sunhillows edit was already quite good.
Another re-do. My first attempt gave up way too much contrast. I tried AgX, but it really messed up the sky and I couldn’t correct it to my satisfaction, so I went back to FilmicRGB, again.
Thanks for the nice shot, @Apoema. Here’s another RT-dev version, with thanks to @Sunhillow for the NR work.
DSC_2597.NEF-tlb-1.pp3 (18.1 KB)
Here’s my go, RT with GHS (kind of…).
Thanks for this photo, I tried to pull out the reds (only somewhat succesfully).
DSC_2597.jpg.out.pp3 (18.2 KB)
Kudos for braving the ‘Game Changer’ workflow, @SCHA 
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