Photoflow is a bit unusual - it looks like it is layer based, but you can also have group layers which give you side-chains of layers which are merged in to the main design in one step. Also, you can take the input of a layer from any earlier point in the processing graph. Its kind of a hybrid between layer and node based.
The user interface is a bit rough in parts (especially around mask editing if you have a crop, rotate or perpective correction active), and some operations are likely to crash it. However, it fits the way my brain works and I like using it (I started out in electrical engineering and I think about image processing in terms of circuit diagrams…).
Unfortunately, development has stalled (the last update on github was in Ausust 2020). I hope that @Carmelo_DrRaw picks it up again one day, it would be a shame to lose it.
vkdt looks like it could become something very interesting - however right now its in very early stages. More of a research framework than something you would want to use to edit images.
I’m using a blur, and a colour correction (basically a red filter) which is then added to the image. I’m not sure how I would approach this in darktable, as the way I’m doing it requires a side chain rather than a simple pipeline processing model. You can get a wide range of effects - from halation to an orton effect to smoothing out highlight transitions - by adjusting the blur radius and the colour correction step as well as the amount of effect that is added to the images.
I tried a second version of my edit to see if I can improve…
Keeping detail on the sheet music is tricky - its very bright and global ‘filmic’ style curves squash detail in bright areas because of the highlight rolloff. I tried adding a masked highlights adjustment which brings some detail out. I masked the highlight adjustment becuase applying it globally makes the lights look ugly (you get a ring around them).
My halation effect makes the magenta worse by adding a red glow around it. I’ve tried masking the red filter from the halation effect around the truss bars, which tones the magenta down (it replaces a red glow with a white one). I’m not convinced the result is better though.
AT001219_v2.jpg.pfi (75.4 KB)
Thats probably quite enough wall-of-text for now.