Hi, some questions from a newbie to darktable, but not to imaging, after quite some time at the dark table:
Auto-Mask: When painting a mask with the brush, can i use “auto-mask” so that the line follows a subject’s contours? (Aware that in “parametric” I can reduce the mask to certain colours, brightnesses, blurred or sharp areas. Aware that i can use multi-instances.)
Film-Roll: Sorry, I am coming from Windows. I have no idea how a “film roll” differs from folder/directory or collection/album. I do understand folder/directory and i do understand collection/album in the way Lightroom and many others use it. I see darktable often jumps back from “Folder/Directory” to “Filmroll”, even if i had expressively selected “Folder” first.
Virtual copies: Can i do them and change their adjustments independently of the source file without having a physical duplicate, more like a link? I see the “Duplicate” button in the “Duplicate Manager”, but is it a physical copy or a virtual one?
Thanks!
PS. Using a non-English version, terms above may be not precise.
@h2k Just to expand on this since English is not your first language you can duplicate the edit at any point based on your current one or ask for an original so as you would have opened it in the first place…they are in a sense virtual copies as you are just creating a new side car each time as Mica indicates to the same reference image. You could for example take an image so far then duplicate that and then do more edits beyond that and then compare those or you could ask for an original and do a completely different edit…maybe B&W just as an example…You can rename them by clicking on the number next to the duplicate and then use those names with the $(version_name) variable to name files when you export as well which is a nice feature
Hello, thanks again for your clear answers. I just tested and pondered and think my understanding of masking and duplicating is ok now.
To clarify the other thing:
A “film roll” contains those pics from a folder that have been imported? I still find the distinction between film roll and folder a lil difficult.
A “collection” is the result to a saved search, also for multiple criteria like “must have this date + this tag + this camera make”.
But I cannot manually gather assorted pics in one place (1 collection) from various film rolls/folders for a presentation or photo book, right? For such an individuell gathering of pics I’d need to give them the same tag or colour label first, for example? Or am I wrong?
Also I could not manually drag images into the desired order, right? Neither in folder nor collection view. (Aware of the many sorting criteria.)
There isn’t really a distinction. The main difference is that with folders you can view the whole path structure.
You can collect images together using any criteria you want across multiple film rolls/folders but if you want to define the criteria yourself you have to set it against the images (tag, colour label etc.)
If you change the “sort by” field, in the top bar, to “custom sort” you can use drag-and-drop to change the sort order. Alternatively you could put a sort order in the title field (for example) and sort by that. You could then use that field to set the order when exporting (by including it in the export file name).
I am trying to recall as I don’t use them but I think filmrolls equate to a set of files you import in one set. So if today you import 3 folders that would be one film roll. Then tomorrow if you import 2 more that is a film roll.
I could be wrong…its not the way I work or think so I have never really made any use of them…
Yes, it shoud show only the images at a certain folder level, no recursion. The filmrolls are completely independent between them.
For example, if you import the pictures in folders “Work” and “Work/Rejected”, you should see by default two different filmrolls: “Work” and “Rejected” (*). If you use the collect module and select the “Work” filmroll, you should see only the imported pictures located in the “Work” folder, but not those in the “Rejected” subfolder.
This is different if you use the collect module selecting by folder. In that case you are filtering by the path hierarchy, and this actually has an option to show images including subfolders.
Yes, it’s a bit confusing…
(*) You can change this filmroll naming scheme and show one or more parent folders in the name of the filmroll, but it doesn’t change the described behavior.
To complete this, if it still works… When your first level collection criteria is a tag, the images order you define (custom or not) is associated to that tag. This is particularly useful when you want to export your images in a specific order.
Not exactly (I’ve made the same mistake in the past ). Film rolls and folders are equivalent. You can switch from one to the other with ctrl+shiff+click if I’m not wrong.
). Film rolls and folders are equivalent. You can switch from one to the other with ctrl+shiff+click if I’m not wrong.