I rarely concern myself with getting accurate “true to life” colours in photography, but I do want to consider the reality of the scene - which in this case is the low sun, which generally means warmer colours.
the combination of areas in direct sunlight and areas in shadow in a single photograph are notoriously difficult to deal with though. I just tried cooling my image off 500K and much prefer it actually:
Yes, I guess I meant more in terms of process. When using spot picker I have two initial thoughts, 1) set for white, 2) conserve highlights. But I don’t properly know how the code of spot picker works. So perhaps I should change 1 to set for lightish grey, or mid grey? Thus potentially retaining a natural cast in the highlights.
Edit: realised my process was wrong. No need to conserve highlights in wb as filmic can bring them back. So here is a version with a much better white balance.
The amount of completely different interpretations of this one is amazing 
Thanks for sharing!
ART
I would like to start by thanking everyone for their time and effort in replying. There were many good renditions that will take me a while to analyze in detail.
@Sunhillow and @black_daveth both advised that I would have been better to choose a wider aperture so as to reduce diffraction and noise. I was in my car when I saw this scene. I parked, grabbed my camera and just used its current settings. I took four quite different shots in a little less than a minute. And then the light was gone; the sun disappeared behind the cloud bank. But even if I had more time, I probably would have chosen similar settings. I usually prioritize depth of field over absolute sharpness and I’m not overly concerned about noise because my target use is the web with an overall width of less than 1200px. But I agree that f16 was excessive, especially for the light levels in that photo.
At least a couple of the renditions – @KristijanZic, @Soupy – have chosen quite low color temperatures. While I believe this choice results in the most “accurate” color rendition in the sense that the color of the light has been effectively neutralized, that is not my preferred direction for a sunrise or sunset photo. (It is also interesting that both the camera’s auto color balance and rawtherapee’s auto color balance choose a higher, close to daylight, color temperature.) I agree with @black_daveth in this regard, that you want to consider the reality of the scene. That said, one doesn’t have to look very hard for examples of excessively high color temperatures for sunrise, sunset and fall foliage photos elsewhere on the web.
@Soupy commented on the verticality of our local hydro poles: One has to remember that this is the Ottawa Valley. Just wooden poles stuck in a hole in the ground. They were probably close to vertical when they were installed but even that is not certain. The communication tower in the background is probably vertical but you need to take the centre line as reference rather than the edge. But like the color balance, I think it is more important that it looks right than it rigorously is right.
Thanks once again for all the great renditions.
Actually, the module order was an accident 
.
Spectacular light needs a spectacular edit. I take the comment of @sovereign as a compliment 
. Nevertheless, I appreciate your commitment to a constructive atmosphere in this forum.
I am glad you didn’t take it too seriously @Thomas_Do : emoticons exist for a reason 
Perhaps @paperdigits didn’t notice it.
Less is more: you pushed filmic too far, the dynamic range appears unnatural.
The tone curve you have chosen to apply afterwards makes it even less easy on the eyes.
@Soupy one thing I can say is that I never use the colour picker, never have in any software.
@bobm it is all too easy to be critical in hindsight, but thats the only way to improve, whether it be in photography or anything else. Four photos in one minute, but it takes less than a second to change the aperture. I probably would have forgotten too, but for that very reason I make an effort to reset the controls on my camera before I pack it up, someone else gave me that tip and it’s kept me out of trouble a couple of times.
for what its worth I don’t even want to think about how many fleeting opportunities I’ve missed over the years not having my camera on me when I easily could have been carrying it, so you’re in front in that regard.
Colour picker? I was talking about the spot tool in white balance module.
that’s what I meant, what does the spot tool use to make a white balance adjustment if not the colour value?
It adjusts the tint/temp and rgb sliders… just different methods of achieving the same thing.
Thanks for posting this photo, always fun to compare my work with others
DT 3.2.1
As I mentioned already several times on this forum, I use the play raw category really to play with the posted raws. I do things, I would normally not do to my favorite shots ;-).
In this case I followed the idea of a kind of “surreal light” and tried to find how far I could push this concept. It was not ment to be “easy on the eyes”.
I understand your intention. I think in this case your development achieved the surreal look, but without semblance of realism: perhaps it’s just my personal taste, but it is there where you lost me in your interpretation. I challenge you for the next playraw to mix the best of the two worlds: creativity and naturalness. 
Oh please, one or the other 
. Sometime I post versions here, trying to be more “natural”, what in general means less contrast, (artificial) sharpness and color saturation. These often look more dull than other the edits.
Or I try something more extreme (see above). But both together? However, if I try, I will let you know.
We all know that on internet what calls for attention is contrast, saturation and sharpness 
I agree with you that what seems “natural” might not be catchy on screen, but I prefer “not to over do it” and, in all honesty, time to time I fall short.
Still, a properly developed shot is plenty of opportunities for creativity: in the equation that defines the mood, the tint plays a big role. Movies often take advantage of the psychology of colors to “set the tone” … excuse me for the pun
