I am attaching raw+jpeg with pictures show here:
While using base curve, I was able to get kind of close to imho super nice sooc jpeg on my XT1 (vivid sim), I kind of struggle to do the same in scene referred. I would appreciate some basic hints.
BTW, this is beautiful skys in Lake Tahoe.
Archive.zip (26.2 MB)
Done. TIL.
To be honest, the cameras JPG makes me cringe. It looks so overcooked. I appreciate that many people like punchy images like that and I respect individual artist preferences. However, I chose not to try and replicate the cameras JPG, because if I like that look then I will just accept the JPG. I decided to do what for me was a natural edit, which is always challenging when you have not taken the picture and therefore do not know what is really natural. I see @priort has done a nice job replicating the the cameras look.
20230303_0009.RAF.xmp (15.5 KB)
I have uploaded the image again and brightened it a bit more because the original posted image did not come near matching my screen image. Hmm…not sure why but sometimes I notice this problem.
20230303_0009.RAF.xmp (17.0 KB)
Thx maybe a bit cold so I would just spot wb on the foreground boat between the bumpers and then leave it at that…
This is as close as i could get at this moment. Sigmoid, color balance rgb and color calibration channel mixer.
Thx all for the samples. I am stuck currently with importing side cars, as in spite of many attempts my freshly updated DR 4.2.1 does not read them for some reason. And yes, I have “look for updated xmp files on startup” turned on.
Some of us might be on dev versions…so newer than that… likely your issue if they won’t load…look at the xmp in a txt file editor and you will see the version…will be something like 4.3 + 900 commit number
I’m a few days old now…
I was looking at @123sg side car and could not find “something like 4.3” and a regular diff between my XMP and Steven’s did not really show anything dramatic.
But in meantime, I just removed .config/darktable on my machine and I can now see edits.
I stand corrected…you see it when you run the debug logs but its not in the xmp… I thought it was….
Sorry, in my case I am using DT V4.3 and the XMP file won’t work for you.
I think my sidecar should work in 4.2.1 as I didn’t use any new features… as far as I know… My database would be (is!) incompatible with 4.2.1, but I think sidecars are ok, as long no new bits are used. I stand (as always) to be corrected. 
I actually reverted to my old db and after a bit of wait, the override side car dialog showed up as expected. Perhaps a skewed clock or copy from different machine. Not sure what happened, but the problem was on my side.
Glad it works now. BTW, are you aware of this handy button in lighttable?
I find it much more convenient than actually swapping xmps in the image folder. It lets you load any xmp from anywhere basically, but should be used in overwrite mode, on a duplicate if you don’t want to loose your own edit.
TIL
