AAA_8189.jpg.out.pp3 (13.6 KB)
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I describe darktable to my photography students as a Lamborghini where you can even rebuild the engine and gearbox if you like. Definitely the car to take for a drive on the weekend. In comparison I describe Lightroom as the automatic car that is great for driving around town and for the grocery shopping to get the job done quickly, easily and mindlessly. 
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Another version using dt 4.2.
AAA_8189.nef.xmp (17.8 KB)
I think that’s a good analogy! I think it’s just that vkdt is just more at the development stage, combined with me being unfamiliar with it, which makes darktable seem much more comfortable 
This is a great shot and you should be proud of catching this dragonfly with such good focus and so close up. Being well exposed made it a breeze to process. Also the blurry green background made it easy to apply extra denoising in the green regions using a parametric mask and the diffuse or sharpen module.
AAA_8189.nef.xmp (12.4 KB)
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I prefer the vkdt version
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This is a routine shot for me. I specialise in dragonflies in flight (and this species - Aehsna grandis in particular.) Distance was probably 4 metres.
I haven’t tried using a parametric mask to separate the background. I thought the hues are normally too similar. I normally use a drawn mask around the dragonfly, for sharpening, and then invert it for smoothing the background.
Normally I crop the dragonfly tight. But in this instance, I tried concentric ellipses to rotate the background hue, to obtain a sort of colour-vignette.
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In the old, Deep South, these were called snake doctors.
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That’s a new one on me - I’ve heard many others from around the world.
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Re. The LR AI masking thread. I wouldn’t mind seeing if the AI can mask the dragonfly.
Here you go.
All right, i take this picture to black and white with color calibrator. Darking green and push all chanels in grey scale tab.
Thanks
AAA_8189.nef.xmp (10.3 KB)