Only darktable
If you donāt know there is a good herbal tea at this photo.
Thanks, everyone, for playing and for your kind comments! Iāve very much enjoyed seeing the different results.
Iām posting my impressions for what theyāre worth in two successive posts as thereās a user mention limit of 10.
That scene sounds wonderful! I feel deprived, not getting to see it. 
Thanks. I guess by āwarmthā you mean more than just colour temperature, but I thought Iād mention I usually try to use my ExpoDisc to set white balance in-camera. I think many see that as unnecessary, but I feel it gives me more confidence as I know Iām starting with it set ārightā/balanced, meaning I only have to adjust balance, etc., if Iād like a particular effect rather than feeling I have to correct. Iām fairly certain that I didnāt make any hue/colour balance adjustments to this shot.
It was interesting to read your very descriptive detailing of your process! I like that thereās detail visible in the darker areas, but I feel that (on my display at least) the shadows in the foreground are a little washed out and unnatural looking relative to the rest of the image due to their lightness.
I like the overall balance of your first result after your work in GIMP a lot. Enfuse seems to be capable of some great, natural-looking results, and I plan to have a go with it on this shot. Iām not so keen on versions 2 and 3 as they seem rather flat to me. Your version 4 is very interesting; the only thing that I think stops the purple from working is the pink/purple sun centre. Iām thinking that if it were more white this version would pull off the purple!
@yteaot, the sky in your first version is very dramatic! Itās a shame some of the light portion to the right is clipped to white. It was really interesting for me to see the green in the fields in your second version; itās probably not a direction Iāll go in as I want to preserve the feel of the time of day, but itās a nice, fresh look.
@Adlatus, the sky in your version feels very painterly to me - nice! I feel the shadows in the foreground are a little too light to avoid seeming unnatural; Iād be interested to see it with that tweaked. Oh, you already did a second version with darker shadows in the foreground! I feel this works much better, and like this version quite a bit.
Iām glad you got such a good, natural-looking result using darktableās HDR. This is what I initially tried and failed at, so Iāll have to download your XMP and take a look at what you did. I now feel my version is a little over-contrasty/dark compared to yours and others.
Though this is intense I think you pulled it off and made it work with enviable colour control. Impressive.
Cool - it seems to focus more attention on the foreground, with all that detail youāve made visible. I canāt say Iām a fan of the sky in this rendition - too greyish?
As with @McCapās version, Iām impressed at how balanced and appealing this is despite its punchiness. I wouldnāt call it a natural look, but it doesnāt feel unnatural either! I very much agree with your notes.
@CarVac, another quality job! The sunās more blown out than in some versions, but I like it a lot overall.
@HIRAM, wow - very moody. Nice.
@ChasingShadows, what colours! Thatās intense. I canāt quite decide if I feel itās too much for my tastes, but Iām currently of the opinion this could be a very good version if the sky were a little less saturated. I think youāve nailed a punchy foreground.
@shreedhar, I like the subdued orangeyness youāve got going on in your two versions. As with some other versions, I feel the darker areas in the foreground (e.g., the green stems) are not quite dark enough to avoid an unnatural, washed out effect. I wonder how much of this is down to differences in our displays.
@Thomas_Do, I love those colours in the sky! Itās interesting to see the crop with the tree and sun located on the horizontal thirds.
@Hombre, I think this version may just be my favourite. The glow youāve brought out on the flowers is lovely, and it all feels very impactful and balanced.
@DeadMetaler, very nice. I havenāt yet got used to the blue in the sky, but it makes for a striking contrast to the pink of the flowers. I like the vignetting(?) that leads to the attention going to the centre foreground.
@Morgan_Hardwood, and another great result here. Dat pink. I always enjoy the results of your processing.
Thanks again, all. Iāve been inspired and will have another go at some point.
2 Likes
@Morgan_Hardwood Your version is just perfect ! Have you merged the images with HDRMerge before processing as the pp3 file name suggest ?
Thank you 
Yes I did.
This version is made using just IMGP2425.DNG and the same PP3 as above:
The only visible technical difference is the noise.
@DavidOliver: Thanks for your comment. I like the color of the sky, too. However, I did the edit on my laptop and saw that the color of the flowers is not what I intended, when I watched the result later on my calibrated monitor 
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@ChasingShadows, what colours! Thatās intense. I canāt quite decide if I feel itās too much for my tastes, but Iām currently of the opinion this could be a very good version if the sky were a little less saturated. I think youāve nailed a punchy foreground.
Well I was using one of my profiles and forgot about the ICM profile. So I was using the profile for my Nikon camera, Somehow I liked the colors, but I agree, it tends to be to much.
Therefore I have updated my try with a gradient filter and an additional curve IMGP2426.jpg.out.pp3 (13.1 KB)
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Following similar re-seasoning, I mean reasoning (maybe in oppositee direction :P) I used to shot everything under UniWB. I wanted to bring the machineās capturing pontential to its very limits, I also was vegetarian at the time and editing all the images anywayā¦ - which means I had a carnal affair with the mechanics of the thing but did not romanticize (?) the medium. In my perspective, thereās no right or wrong here, just a path; along the way things change, we get flexible (maybe, hopefully); today Iām waaaayy too lax about all that. Bottonline, the expodisc works for you, long live the expodisc!!! 
It was interesting to read your very descriptive detailing of your process! I like that thereās detail visible in the darker areas, but I feel that (on my display at least) the shadows in the foreground are a little washed out and unnatural looking relative to the rest of the image due to their lightness.
Youāre right, they are washed outā¦ I mistaken them for the feet of christ, again 
1 Like
Hi,
Iām probably late to the party, but hopefully not too late
Very nice pic, thanks for sharing! Hereās the best I could do. I tried to keep it natural looking, working only on 2426. Comments welcome.
IMGP2426.DNG.pp3 (10.8 KB)
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Tough couple of weeks. A cousin left the hospital only to have my father enter. Anyway, while at the hospital, between the constant re-positioning and mitigating my fatherās symptoms, I got a chance to play with this raw set.
-
dcraw
a) Output 5 linear 16-bit TIFs with clipping. -
enfuse
a) Output #1 using defaults.
b) Output #2 using exposure cutoff. -
gmic
a) Blend (darken) #1 and #2.
b) Increase exposure of foreground.
c) Dollop of secret sauce.
d) Sharpen using tone mapping.
e) Brighten your day using a curve. -
Regrets
a) Not enough energy to do better.
b) Mileage may vary: laptop display is a dirt-cheap replacement part.
3 Likes
@DavidOliver Enfuse can be a pretty useful thing to have around. There is also a windows version rip off that is pay for and adds a couple of adjustments. Frankly though I find that the default settings of the Linux OS version are usually ideal and number of settings adequate. People who own the windows version always disagree with the adequate aspect but then they paid for it. Itās an odd piece of software that works well and has been around for a long time.
I should have spotted the sun going purple. 
I may have another go at that one from a single raw file and use more than one package this time.
John
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Nice result, @afre. I havenāt used GMIC for single-image editing/processing; Iāll have to try it out.
Sorry to hear about your father. Best wishes.
Very nice shot, David!
Arranged with Luminance HDR, exported with Reinhardt '05 operator.
In GIMP adjusted saturation and contrast, applied Orton effect and sharpening.
6 Likes
Here is my take on this wonderful photo! Thanks for sharing!
HDR and processing in darktable.
3 Likes
Wow, this is already pretty much perfect straight out of camera. Fantastic job!
Here is my little attempt with darktable and gimp.
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This is a very nice shot! Thanks for sharing!
I tried a crop using darktableā¦
IMGP2426.DNG.xmp (10.3 KB)
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I also tried to process this picture (I am reevaluating DT at the moment) and this is a really nice picture although I had wished for some ND Grad filters. Iām highly interested in feedback as I am learning DT at the moment. Thanks
PS: I think its a little oversaturated. I will give it another try this evening.
(Only in DT, only IMGP2426.dng)
EDIT
I changed a couple of things during lunch. Still interested in how this pictures looks on different screens, as my screen here is far away from being color calibrated. This time, fullres and the according XMP.
IMGP2426.DNG.xmp (6.1 KB)
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Two general observations when browsing through the whole thread:
- The sun is the brightest point in this scene, it should remain the brightest point in the photograph. Some people have ārecoveredā it to the point where the clipped part has turned grey or green and that looks disgusting. A clipped-white sun is better than a green sun.
- The purple plants are not reflecting light. If they were reflecting light then one should be careful to not over-saturate them, but theyāre not reflecting light - theyāre emitting it! The low sun hits them from behind, and with the position of the camera being behind them, they glow. They glow purple/magenta, and should be quite saturated in the processed photograph to look natural.
2 Likes