The start was a very nice photograph. The bird sharp and separated from the background, just two tiny overexposed areas on it.
Summary of the edits I made:
I made the white balance much warmer, the original from the camera was too cold for my taste
Some denoising (profile), but with focus on the bigger areas to denoise the background.
Increased contrast on the bird’s neck and tail to bring out some details there
Darkened the background a bit with filmic
Highlights a little bit reduced
Cutted out the borders to bring the bird more into the image’s focus
The piece of wood in the background a bit darkened
My take with RawTherapee.
Many of you went for darker renditions, but I like it better colorful.
Usually I am a lurker … still I enjoy posting time to time
Minimal processing using PhotoFlow by itself with its filmic (OCIO) and color correction modules. Remember to change the path in the PFI: 2018-07-20_10-23-51.10_DSC2161.pfi (23.0 KB).
I certainly am no expert in darktable; however there are often several different ways to achieve similar (or the same) results. I don’t use the levels module (or have only played with it a little), but almost always use the local contrast module. Again, the new filmic module gives even more flexibility, but I haven’t yet had the experience with it to get results I am happy with, hence my post at the beginning of this thread.
My (aesthetic) opinion is that the picture is too soft as you have rendered it, in the sense that the contrast and saturation are insufficient. I say that partially because I took the original pic, and partly because I know that lack of base curve does tend to leave the output of my Nikon’s sensor as dull.
I do like the vignetting, which is subtly done but helps to emphasize the subject very well.
Thanks for your comments! I tried to implement your suggestions. Added a lowpass filter to the background and a highpass filter to the bird to get this. 2018-07-20_10-23-51.10_DSC2161.NEF.xmp (31.2 KB)
