What could be very helpful would be the possibility to switch between different primaries presets inside primaries tab (0, blender like, smooth) without reseting the whole module.
This way you could make the comparisons without having to set the curve all over again.
This is a good point. AgX really shines when you are more Intentional about your image. And I know @s7habo advocates for analyzing your photo before you start so you can decide what your subject is, which direction you want to take it, where you want the most contrast, etc. I think beginners should learn this way of working, and therefore AgX will be a good tool to learn on.
However, users often just want to get quick results (“I just want it to match the JPEG!”) so I think Sigmoid will still be the best tool for those people, at least initially. Sigmoid just has a wonderful simplicity to it, and it produces nice results with minimal effort. But it does lack the ability for finer control, which is where AgX comes in. I think it’s great we will have more options.
@PD1. were those Notorious 6 summaries AI-generated? There’s a whiff of ChatGPT about them
An even better idea would be if you already choose a preset, let’s say blender base, that you only have one button to switch primaries between this preset and 0. That would be enough.
The point is to compare what a given preset does to the colors.
This could also have a learning effect, in that you can easily recognize the unwanted color shifts that are not immediately noticeable from the start.
That’s right, but @kofa just suggested an elegant solution that you don’t have to repeat all the curve settings again if you want to make a comparison :
Why use AI to answer without even validating that the output is correct? If you searched this thread for the notorious 6 you would find out it’s not those 6 things at all.
I think this sort of control would be very useful. It could be like masking where you show the eye icon or something to temporarily show the primaries as applied or not. Default would be applied. and clicking would remove. Not using masking of course but zeroing the values.
Coupled with a reset to preset values would be ideal.
So for example if you start working on primaries from the agx defaults or any preset that you might have started with and you tweak 2 or 3 or 4 sliders and you decide you want to start over you could reset to preset values, ie set the primaries to match the module preset setting and not lose your curve…
Those are excellent points. I was using AgX for a while but stopped and went back to Sigmoid and Color Balance RGB because the combination was simpler to use. I preferred the results of AgX in the highlights, but got overwhelmed by the labels and terms and thought about just waiting util all that got sorted out in the next version. I continue to be impressed and optimistic about the evolution of AgX and can see it becoming an important part of Darktable in the future. Thanks to everyone working on it.
Sorry for not being responsive enough on the forum.
That was exactly the suggestion in this post.
If it’s too difficult or technically impossible for users to save their own presets, that’s okay.
We could also add a series of basic settings for photo styles, e.g. Portrait, Nature, Landscape, etc.
Here are a series of tests carried out some time ago.
As Boris suggests, it would be useful to have a small drop-down menu where we can choose a basic ‘profile’ such as blender like, smooth, Portrait, Nature, Landscape, etc.
But those would be fixed by the devs and can not be modified by the users(*), which is quite different from presets.
(*: of course, once a profile is selected, the parameters could be modified by the user. But there would be no way to store modified settings without also freezing the curve settings).
But (this thread is getting very long ,so I probably missed something), doesn’t the “RBG primaries” module do a very similar job to the “primaries” here?
The same code is used in rgb primaries, sigmoid and agx, when it comes to manipulating the primaries [edit: as linked below by Boris, the code is the same, but the way it is used in rgb primaries is different from sigmoid (and agx)]. Here, we have:
primaries (in)
log tone mapping to bring the range between black and white relative exposure to 0…1
tuneable ‘S-curve’ (sigmoidal curve – not the same as in the sigmoid module)
‘look’
linearisation
restoration of the hue (preserve hue slider)
primaries (out)
agx does not offer the tint controls - I’ve never used them in primaries. The original Blender AgX has that feature. If there is great demand for it, I can add it, but I myself do not care for it at all.
Same code, I can easily believe (reusing code when possible is just good practice). But I get the impression from the rest of your post that the effect is not the same, as the primaries changes are applied before the tone mapping and then reversed for final output.
The “primaries” module would only do the first part…
If that impression is wrong, why do you need the primaries in AgX? Using the “primaries” module would allow dedicated presets for just the primaries.