This is my first raw upload - I hope I’m doing it right! This is a really cool game/idea and I’m keen to learn from everyone here.
It was very windy so I shot this at 1/1000 and it’s severely under-exposed. I took it toward a two-tone final result, but I’m not very happy with the background.
Have at it if you like!
DSC09756.ARW (81.6 MB)
DSC09756.ARW.xmp (21.1 KB)
This file is licensed Creative Commons, By-Attribution, Share-Alike.
In my eyes the bokeh isn’t the problem, but the noise and the fact that there is sharpness missing on areas where there should be. You did a very good job to surround these problems but this is leading to the fact that you somehow have to search for the subject.
I’m not happy with my edit but have given up at this point.
Thanks for sharing! I really like how you added contrast to help bring out the details of the subject.
Thanks david! the pink you added is quite nice. 
@Popanz fully agree! I didn’t have the enough of the flower in focus for sure, and yes quite noisy. I really appreciate your edit - love how you balanced the colors with the yellow/orange/green and I like your crop quite a lot. Thanks!
Since the composition is in two halves, I used a couple of graduated density to section the photo and reduce the brightness of the bokeh. With a bit of tone equaliser on top.
Then three separate modules to reduce local contrast on the left and increase it on the right, using gradient masks.
I think these are White Bougainvilleas that haven’t fully flowered? So I kept the yellow green tones.
I would probably have cropped (a lot) if I were editing my photo. I read on another play_raw thread that we naturally scan from left to right, so flipping the image could be another idea.
I thought about adding more color to the stamens or maybe going dreamy as the flower and focus might have supported that but I landed on a bit sharper and didn’t bother or check too much about noise… thanks for sharing your image…
My attempt has been to respect the delicacy of the flower and its subtle tones.
Cheers.
@gigaturbo I actually hadn’t considered adding blur specifically, I’m gonna try this out for sure, as I do enjoy some creamy natural shots like these. Very nice edit!
@jacksonzche thanks for the explanation - I didn’t even know darktable had a graduated density module! You’re probably correct on the flower ID, although I am completely ignorant when it comes to flower names. There were red and pink variants of these in the same area, which tracks with Bougainvilleas afaik. Mirroring the image is an interesting idea, i’ll have to try keep that in mind too.
@Tim this was the double subject I originally had in mind. nice edit, thank you so much for sharing.
@Jose_Figueres this is stunning. the flower is definitely standing out, but you also managed to keep the other elements I liked about the original scene and balanced them really well. thanks for sharing, it’s quite inspiring!
Brilliant!
It is a battle. Me against this photo. There are moments I think there is light at the end of this tunnel, but in the end it’s just a ghost light. No way to win no way to escape. Here I stand, beaten and defeated.
Anyway here is my last desperate attempt to get away 
:
Or what do you think about this? This is what I get if I export with high quality resampling:
