Hello everybody.
I found this article on fstoppers and I tried to replicate the look they are after, with Darktable and then Gimp.
Of course, I’ve not been able to come close
The only way was - for me - to download a similarly graded image and then use the color map module. It looks like cheating
In the video they are using the camera calibration panel in Camera Raw. It bore a superficial resemblance to darktable’s color zones, but I couldn’t get very far.
Do you have any idea?
@Dario Looks like the author of the video did many things to the image. Probably the easiest way to approach this is to separate it into manageable chunks and try to narrow down which particular manipulation contributes to that look the most.
My suggestion would be to try the channel mixer tool with @patdavid’s tutorial on luminosity masks in mind (GIMP - Luminosity Masks). Also provide a before and after and an XCF or XMP file to show what you have tried so far.
I’d really urge you to post the photo you’re working on, or a similar photo.
It also isn’t clear if the color map module produced results you were happy with or not. If you’re happy with the results, then go with them, even if it seemed to easy
If you want to achieve the effect manually, I’d use several instances of the color zone module: isolate the colors you’re working on and either desaturate or shift the color to the desired color. I find it easier to use one module instance per color (approximately).
The colour correction module will get you close.
Just drag highlights one way (the white dot) say towards the aqua,
and the shadow the other way (the black dot) towards the brown.
Try the other way around as well.
You can get quite close just using RGB curves, and you can get even closer using RT’s Hue vs. Hue curve either in the Lab tool or in the HSV tool (There certainly is an equivalent in darktable, but I don’t know it’s name right now).
When using RGB curves look at the histogram, in the video you can see how the RGB histogram changes when the sliders are pulled. Try to understand what is happening and mimic it.
When using the Hue vs. Hue curve, shift the blue towards teal and the red towards orange and maybe the pink towards red or orange. Also desaturate your reds and oranges slightly using the Chrominance vs. Hue curve. This should easily get you there.
As @agriggio said, channel mixer is likely the simplest method. Many apps have this including darktable, GIMP and Photoshop. I intended to write about it in my original post but after searching for Pat’s excellent tutorial on luminosity masks I totally forgot about it – oops. Added it back in .
@Dario Can’t wait to see what you have planned for this .
Hi.
As usually, good insights from you:slight_smile:
I experimented with a photo of my wife, so I’m not really into sharing it online. If I find a photo of a beardy hipster I’ll post it here:)
I said that using the color map module is like cheating because I’d like to actually understand what’s going on, instead of relying on some black magic shortcut.
With regard to this, I have a question for Alberto @agriggio : what was the logic that brought you to manipulating the color slider that way?
basically, RT’s own logo
if you have a look at a typical “colour wheel” you’ll see that you need to mix green and blue to get aqua, and you have to put a bit of green into red to get brown… this gives you a hint on how to mix channels, and from there you adjust to taste
This is one of those things that could probably be accomplished using one of the split toning approaches (sufficiently blended in some fashion). The (mis?)-use of the camera calibration tools in camera raw seems like an odd approach.
I think it’s telling to also notice the example image used in the video. Notice that it’s already very heavy on complementary colors to aqua/brown (this is really just a sort of shifted teal/orange color grading).
I’ve been busy, but I screengrabbed the original image and will try to see if I might be able to add something beyond the great stuff already posted.
This use of Camera Raw on layers, made available due to user demand, is no different from importing a TIF or JPG into RT, dt or PF. The actual raw tools are either disabled or adapted for non-raw use.
What I pointed out earlier is that it is a rather convoluted way to go about it, given that it is an instructional video. Best to keep it simple .
I took before/after screen grabs from the tutorial video, and used RT to try and match. I used only the Lab* adjument tools: LH, CH and HH curves for color matching, and L* curve for the final shadow lifting they did in the tutorial.
I think it comes close enough.
Here’s the pp3 if you want to try: aqua-brown.pp3 (1.7 KB)
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