I just had another play to bring out more detail in the cumulonimbus…
I have in the past expanded the range of detail differently in different areas of the image. In darktable - I’ve never had any real luck with multiple instances of filmic RGB - the result is typically destructive. However, I’ve had at times success with using sigmoid on an area like the sky and then using filmic RGB across the resulting image. To tease-out the detail across the sky - I’ve made a mask and used sigmoid to expand the difference in detail across the sky. Then used filmic RGB to gracefully merge the result with the rest of the image. Now you can see a little clearer the oncoming (weather) cold-front interface. It is about to get wet.
I had never thought of LAB as a color space as accustomed as I am to using it on Rawtherapee.
I have a question, on Rawtherapee you can make LAB adjustments, but the color space can’t be LAB, why?
One option given in that forum thread is using darktable’s “colour zones” module to darken the sky. This is exactly what I did for my version of your image.
That really looks good. I also used the G’MIC filter the last time I revised this for Deviant Art (link below). I added some Nik>Viveza>Structure (which I suspect is a version of local contrast). And corrected the lens distortion.
One of the things that has occurred to me is that I don’t have a good way to select everything that is above the horizon line. For example, I know that the trees and power lines are not part of the sky, but the software does not understand. I’m hoping AI software will address that.
I think something very simialr to this technique can be done very easily using the colour calibration module in darktable now…
It does bring out noise though…
I also applied a gradient to darken the whole sky area compared to the ground.
