Recreating (partially) the look of a Photoshop (elements) dev. in Lightroom?

[hjulenissen]

I have this image that I quite like. It is old, technically imperfect, etc. I did at one time (ca 2007) develop it using some trial version of Photoshop Elements (jerking around with presets and sliders), and I am pleased with parts of that file. It would have been nice to be able to recreate those parts that I was pleased with using Lightroom, with better flexibility (and to me: non-destructive editing, as I do not have Photoshop).

Many would probably say that the breaking waves are way to much sharpened, that there is some false "worm" structure in the ocean etc. I am ok with that. Those parts looks good to me, when printed on metallic lustre paper. Of course, I wish that I had had access to a higher-resolution camera/lens at the time.

My main gripe is with the structure of the wet rocks in the bottom 1/3. In the Photoshop Elements version, they seem to have a somewhat natural, fine structure. The Lightroom version, on the other hand, looks "blotchy" and clipped in whites. I figure that it has something to do with sharpening parameters and (perhaps) local contrast, but I just can't find the right settings.

Anyone with better coupling between vision and parameter understanding than myself?

I can make the "wet look" better by decreasing sharpening radius and increasing the amount and lowering the mask, but then I get significant "worming"/"mazing" elsewhere.

Selected LR parameters:
Exposure: +1.15
Contrast: -24
Highlights: +55
Shadows: +48
Whites: 0
Blacks: +25
Clarity: +31
Vibrance: -100
Saturation: 0

Detail
Sharpening
Amount: 84
Radius: 2,3
Detail: 69
Masking: 61
Noise Reduction
Luminance: 29
Detail: 19
Contrast: 0
Color: 69
Detail: 0
Smoothness: 50

Process: 2012
Profile: Adobe Standard

[PhotoEcosse]

Without being able to see the original Raw file, it is difficult to comment on the adjustments you have used.

But to get it closer to the PSE version (and assuming that your very large adjustment to exposure means that the original was badly underexposed, then I would suggest, for starters:

Restore Contrast to 0
Cut Highlights back to -50
Try giving Whites a small positive value (rather than a positive Highlights setting) if necessary
Drop Clarity back to +20

Take all your sharpening and noise reduction settings back to Lightroom's defaults

There is a useful rule when processing in Lightroom that oftem pays dividends - that of making adjustments strictly in the order they appear on the Develop module panel.

The other possible problem is that your Raw file, if fairly old, simply does not have enough data to allow Lightroom to work effectively. But, as I said, without seeing the Raw, it is difficult to offer much assistance.

[hjulenissen]

Without being able to see the original Raw file, it is difficult to comment on the adjustments you have used.

I appreciate your help and comments.

Here is a link to the original raw file:
http://sharesend.com/i5tkuwby

-h