While I routinely use darktable’s masks - at least in a basic way - there is much I have to learn about using darktable. At some point I had read the description of blending using HSV Lightness and looked at the Color Look Up module but honestly never thought of a way they could be relevant to my B&W processing.
it is very clear that I was wrong!
Your examples open new avenues for manipulating images for me, and give me hints of additional darktable capabilities that I should experiment with.
This is great. Can you please explain why you add the step of the first instance of channel mixer with the HSV Lightness blend? Why not go straight to the color lookup module and darken the sky and reduce the number of steps?
@s7habo thank you for this detailed explanation and example! I too would like to improve my black and white processing skills so this gives me some new things to practice.
Does anyone else have additional recommended black and white workflows, especially ones that follows the recommended list of modules to use with filmic and a linear RGB workflow?
With channel mixer you can in many cases get the results very fast without the need of additional instances because you only mix three color channels.
But in many cases it is not immediately clear if the photo is suitable for black and white conversion.
In this case, I used the first instance of the channel mixer for two different purposes; to see if the photo was suitable for black and white conversion and to see how the changes would affect the color version.
Sometimes the color version is simply improved, especially if the photo has strong color contrasts, which are further enhanced in this way. Then I can decide whether to keep the color version or convert the photo to black and white.
With the second instance I increased the contrast between the sky and the field even more and because I wanted to have a part of the sky even darker I used color look up table.
So this was a process and not necessarily the “shortest” way, as it is not always clear what the result might look like.
With an instance of channel mixer and color look up table this would be possible too, but I’m not sure if this would be faster because you had to play with a lot of patches which could be quite tricky.
This is freakin’ awesome, I’ve never considered the use of these modules, used these ways. I typically use ColourZones to eliminate saturation and lower the luminosity of blue to darker. Sometimes, to magnify that, I’ll use Multiply blending and while that darkens the blue, it also makes the blue visible so I’ll use the Monochrome module. To increase contrast, I’ll reduce the dynamic range in the Filmic module (negative numbers).
Some of the LUTs I have (free from ON1) produce quite nice results but I consider these to be out-of-the-box presets and because I don’t (know how to) modify the LUTs, I don’t think of them as being part of my “creative process”, I prefer to use my own methods and skills to be creative (which sometimes fails but, I think of failures as weaknesses in my knowledge that I need to acquire).
This is the best way to learn, boost your creativity and develop your own style!
The modular structure of darktable is the ideal playground for this. I wish people wouldn’t be so scared and dare to experiment with modules much more.
Definitely. I’ve learned so much from the ‘you-stack-em’ toolchain of rawproc, where I could add, omit, and change around things to see what would happen.
What is your go-to method for working on individual colours or narrow colour ranges? For example, if you wanted to work on the reds of an image and adjust the HSL for a more orangey look, which module would you use? I would immediately think of the color zones module, but to work on hue, saturation and lightness, you have to work in three tabs and set up nodes for each one - not perhaps the easiest way to do it. Color lookup table has a much easier interface in this regard, where you can select a colour (or create your own) and then adjust the HSL quickly. But this works in LAB and probably not recommended anymore for a scene-referred workflow…
I know from previous posts you’re a big fan of the channel mixer module, but not sure this would be suited to working on an individual colour or colour range. So do you have any tips or recommendations for how best to approach this?
LAB is not a no go in scene referred workflow - you just need to take care it’s limits. At least when you’re having a b/w result in mind, inaccurate colors aren’t really a problem …
I’ve experimented a lot but still haven’t found what I would call an easy way to work on the HSL of a particular colour. I was just wondering if I’d missed a trick somewhere.
I feel like an RGB version of the color lookup table would be great. I’m not always happy with the results I currently get from it. And the color zones module is great for working on the Hue, Saturation or Lightness individually, but cumbersome for working on all three at the same time.
How about a one nice “Play Raw” where you can describe your difficulties and we can look at it to see with which approach we can find the solution?
The advantage of this is that it becomes concrete and many people can participate with the result that different ways of solving the problem can be found.
For sure I’ll post a Play Raw if I come across a concrete example. But I’m not really having any difficulties per se, I can usually always get the results I’m looking for. I was just wondering if there were easier or cleverer ways of working with modules for individual colours. I brought the topic up because some of your posts (like this B&W one and the Channel Mixer one) bring up new techniques I’d never thought of before and I find them enlightening. Also, I realized there was no direct equivalent of Lightroom’s colour mixer module, which I remember from my Adobe days. It allows you to play with the HSL on individual colour ranges very quickly and easily. It’s nothing special, but it is very simple.
Is there a reason that you and everyone are making this so complex? Maybe I am missing something? Why not use color zones to do your B&W conversion? Just select the black & white film preset in color zones and then adjust the colors to get the B&W look you want. That is what I do.
Note I am a complete novice darktable user. I am just trying to learn how to use it and experimenting right now. If all goes well then maybe I will leave Lightroom behind. I am using 3.2.1 on Win10.
I don’t think so, as long as you’re using the module at the correct place in the pipeline. Color Zones uses the LAB part of the pipeline, so if you push the module too much, you may end up with harsh transitions or banding.
I still use Color Zones a lot, but mostly for smaller adjustments, so I don’t experience the downsides of working in LAB.
Thanks for the explanation. I thought I read somewhere in the documentation that the default pipeline was chosen to be optimal and normally shouldn’t be fooled around with. It sounds like what you are saying is that color zones may not be in the optimal place in the pipeline. If that is correct then shouldn’t it be in the optimal part of the pipeline? Or are you saying that by default it is in the optimal place, but as a user I could screw up and move it to a non-optimal place?
This is the best way to learn, boost your creativity and develop your own style!