PROCESS
>hot pixel filter
>demosaicing
Changed the algorithm from AMaZE to IGV to improve the look of the noise patterning.
>white balance
>noise reduction
Reduced the gamma to target shadows more, used a luminance curve to reduce the graininess and turned on the median filter option to eliminate artifacting. After reviewing the JPEGs though, it seemed like I went too far, so I went back and turned off the luminance adjustment and the median filter.
>haze removal
Adjusted it until it seemed like an improvement.
>tone curve
I couldn't use the standard curve option because the photo was already oversaturated and the standard curve increases saturation and contrast simultaneously, so I used a saturation and value blending curve which, iirc from the Rawpedia article, adjusts saturation less which gave me more leeway to increase contrast. I used the second curve to just increase contrast in the midtones (see: https://ibb(d o t)co/W4zGbZZD)
>HSV equaliser
Used the hue option to reduce the green-to-red cast produced by my camera's max ISO settings.
>color toning
Used the RGB curves method and, by looking at the hue-saturation vectorscope, decided what colours to use in my light and dark areas, then I adjusted the curves for color and opacity until it "looked good."
>local contrast
Turned it on and it immediately threw a bunch of dark areas out-of-gamut. I prefer to preserve as much detail as possible for smoother grades between colors. By the time I was finished decreasing the intensity, I could barely tell the difference between it turned on or off, so I left it on. Waste of time?
>impulse noise reduction
Removed salt-and-pepper noise.