PC210169.ORF.xmp (7.5 KB)
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I legit could look at these paintings all day, too. Thanks for pointing me to them @s7habo!
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@s7habo I stayed up late enough to see your entry. After 11 hours, I am still speechless. To riff off of Pat’s comment: “This is my personal favourite of the bunch. I would print this and hang it on my wall.”
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It’s hard to compete with some excellent renditions, but I went all-out on contrast here to make a rather haunting scene.
PC210169.jpg.out.pp3 (11.7 KB)
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@patdavid , @afre Thank you for your credit. I am glad that you liked my edit. 
I have not created and used any special style for daktable.
Depending on what I want to achieve, my typical approach to editing the image is to prepare the photo in darktable and then process it in GIMP, because I’m much more flexible in handling details in GIMP.
In this concrete example, I first tried to achieve in darktable what I saw in your photo, inspired by Ivan’s paintings. The framing of the photo is so ingenious (the ship and birds in the middle in a line embraced by restless clouds and water waves) that I absolutely had to try!
I then darkened this framing to give it a bluish color mood and lighten the center of the picture around the horizon a little and give it a warmer hue to emphasize this composition even more both over brightness and color.
PC210169_01.ORF.xmp (11,8 KB)
I found it very difficult to apply the effect in darktable in such a way that it seems “natural” to some extent.
So I took my first darktable edit and continued working with GIMP.
PC210169.ORF.xmp (6,9 KB)
In GIMP I worked a lot with the brush (dodging and burning) and made color corrections with CMYK tone filter in G’MIC.
If you are interested in exactly what I did, here is the GIMP xcf file:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M-r5conCn-fDiQvN1CK00HhCgce8L8wl
Yes! Unbelievable how some painters are able to handle colors so sovereign and refined to create a mood that can captivate you for hours!
As a photographer you can learn a lot from them.
In general, I will say that as a photographer, you should definitely have an eye on paintings. Behind this are centuries of experience in building the composition and influence of all kind of image elements.
Actually this topic would be worth an entire article. 
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I think the converse is also true. Painters (ahem Cecilia Giménez of Ecce Homo fame) should definitely have an eye on photography. If only she had just stuck with the dehaze module…
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Inspired by @s7habo, here is a painterly version using RawTherapee and GIMP.
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Into the Fog by patdavid CC BY-SA.ORF.xmp (12.2 KB)
Here’s my version, as edited on my live stream! You can still see the process for the next two weeks at twitch.tv/chicagocameraslinger
Thank you for sharing!!
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Since everyone went for the dark dramatic look, I figured I would try something completely different just for the sake of it.
darktable 2.7, XMP embedded in JPEG
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Given how much admiration I have for this image and what people have done with it so far, this may be out of my depth (pun intended 
). The beauty of PlayRaw is that anyone could give it a try and learn something in the process. 
Process
I feel that there is a lot to work with here, so I am thinking of posting several versions. Let’s start with my standard approach, which I have used for the past few PlayRaws. Still working on it but it seems to be adaptable enough to many types of photos. 
Take 1
1. PhotoFlow → HL mode (blend) → AMaZE → linear Rec2020 (no clipping) → OCIO filmic (very low contrast) → linear sRGB 32f
2. gmic → sharpen (high freq contrast) → blend (Retinex) → adjust brightness, contrast (curves)
3. pnmclahe → enhance contrast
4. gmic → sharpen (LoG) → resize (1800)
Zoom 100% and enjoy!
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@patdavid mentioned texture in the OP.
Take 2
1. PhotoFlow → HL mode (blend) → AMaZE → linear Rec2020 (no clipping) → OCIO filmic (very low contrast) → linear sRGB 32f
2. gmic → resize (50%) → my fun g0 filter → resize (1800)
Zoom 100% and enjoy!
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My turn… I tried a bunch of things, and ended up with this.
For me the image is as much about the birds as the ship heading out to sea.
PC210169-5.jpg.out.pp3 (11.7 KB)
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Take 3
Same processing steps as Take 1 but on a crop that makes me feel like I was there. Cropping before processing should give you more detail; i.e.,
Crop → processing → Take 3
vs
Processing → Take 1 → crop
Zoom 100% and enjoy!
PS Sorry, messed up the crop. Originally, it was supposed to be like this. Crop, Version 0.
Hope you enjoyed Take 3 v0. Sorry about the other crop; it wasn’t meant to be. While I am at it, here is another crop but this time with a different approach.
1. PhotoFlow → ditto
2. gmic → crop (1.5) → grey detail → adjust brightness, contrast (curves) → apply kodak portra 400 nc 1 - → resize (1800) → sharpen (LoG)
Zoom 100% and enjoy!
I shall call it Into the White:
Is the White friendly or hostile? Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?
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