Ok I keep that in mind, but I think Darktable don’t have the ability to manually align 2 raw images. I never tried in GIMP but I guess it’s possible there. Still not sure if I can work with RAWS in GIMP with the DT plugin.
As for HDR blending it is rarely needed from a RAW. HDR blending was an essential technique when we were forced to deal with JPG images of high dynamic lit scenes.
There is software that will allow HDR blending from handheld shots, but I won’t elaborate on that here. I feel it is best to first learn how to extract the most out of RAW files with DT first. Enjoy the videos.
What the histogram shows is that you have mostly a very dark area and a very light area with little in between. You can use a luminosity mask and lighten the dark parts:
Hello thanks for showing me the Histogram, I spent an hour studying and memorizing how to use the histogram and how to verify and adjust the exposure of my picture before I take it.
This picture in your post is well balanced.
→ From now on, I will look at histogram way more often.
When you talk about a luminosity filter you think about which module exactly ? I just used the curve in the tone equalizer module to produce something similar to your picture without any masks.
The tone equalizer has built-in masks, so it can adjust areas, preserving local contrast.
Please read darktable 4.9 user manual - process if you haven’t done so, and start with some introductory videos. Tone EQ is not so easy to use, it can produce halos (glowing, bright, or on the contrary, dark artefacts on boundaries of brightest and darker areas).
You can find some videos at the bottom of this page: resources | darktable . For now, skip Aurélien Pierre’s videos, they can be very technical.
Following on the post above…there is some explanations here…
and here
For me there is no real need to create the masks as is done in Gimp they can be done ad hoc with the parametric sliders and as noted in the last paragraph…combined with other channels to achieve an even more selective mask if need be…
I am picking tips from videos, taking notes. Today I watched a video from “darktable landscapes”, the Darktable manual I find it complicated to understand often.
I will look at the Landscape youtube channel for now, there is enough stuff there for the next 2 months.
Like in this video I watched today… I picked up at least 2 masking techniques, and yesterday some masking techniques as well.
I just wrote a response in a different topic which I will not repeat here, but it defines the relevant terms so please read that first.
It is unclear what you are expecting from your camera:
OK-looking JPEG pictures with auto-exposure? Most cameras from the last ten years will do OK there, especially if you enable the DR compression tricks (“lift shadows” etc) in the menu.
RAW images which have selected an exposure level that is “pleasing” without manual adjustment? Most cameras that do (1) will do (2), but it is irrelevant: adjusting exposure ex post is one of the main reasons (among many others) for shooting RAW.
Selecting a reasonable compromise between clipping and shadow detail? Not a lot (if any) cameras will do that automatically, but you can do that yourself. The key question is if the camera gives you enough help (zebra patterns, histograms).
No, that is probably irrelevant. Since you are unfamiliar with digital photography (which is fine, you will learn), it is unlikely that you would get better results from an expensive camera. Auto-exposure is something cameras have nailed decades ago. More expensive cameras of the same vintage sometimes have a tiny bit more dynamic range, but this is unlikely to matter.
Finally, whether the EOS T7 is a “good deal” depends on your purposes. It is certainly a camera good enough so that it will not be limiting you as a photographer for years. I am assuming you bought it because you like the form factor and the handling, and you are aware that you can get MILCs with similar capabilities in a much more compact body. One thing that I would miss though is one more dial.
Fellow Canadian here. My budget has always been tight, and physicality poor, so I currently do not even have access to a camera besides the one on my budget phone.
T7 is rather dated and the lowest tier camera. Compared to the T2i my father gave me after he could longer take photos, it is not much cheaper: inflation, I guess. The T2i has since worn down and I made the death blow by bricking it with my aggressive Magic Lantern foray.
As @Tamas_Papp indicated, mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras (MILC) are where it is at: it does not appear that Canon is producing DSLRs anymore. Take a test drive with the R100 and R50 if you get the opportunity. They are in the same price range as the T7.
At the end of the day, it is not the gear that makes the photo. It is your knowledge, technique and experience. However, better gear would allow more room for better focusing (T7 is one gen off from having a dual pixel sensor and has limited focus points) and trying new things.
@priort Thanks I will look at this channel, I watched 1 video from the landscape channel during lunch today. Me an a colleague were amazed at the magic happening in the video.
I learned how to use the parametric mask at a new level today today, using the input sliders, I couldn’t understand how it worked but now I do, it’s very cool.
@Tamas_Papp Thanks, the subject of the camera was already settled for me with the previous threads. what happened to me was a code 18 and I will stick with the T7, develop my technique with that for some time.
@afre Hello from Canada also! Too bad for me if my camera is outdated a bit, I am still very impressed by some pictures I took with it, I’ll learn with it and when it breaks, I’ll buy a better one then. like the R100, R50. Thanks.
UPDATE:
Today I worked with the Histogram for a short and very difficult session outside, because of the mosquitoes. BUT when I turned the Camera on, the Histogram was already on in live mode, from my previous tests inside.
So I directly toggled the manual mode and used the histogram with surprising success, it’s pretty useful and cool tool. I learned in a video to take care not to overexpose and to expose with the brightest elements in the field of view, my camera has no zebra to tell me which pixels are overexposed. BUT with the live luminance histogram and the LCD it was faster to figure out then previously.
Nice I am glad you found in useful… I have not worked throught the series but they seem like a nice set of video’s… Now that you have mastered the sliders, you will see that you can combine a second channel to further refine the mask and also use a drawn mask with the parametric mask to help target it locally… finally the modifiers below ie the feathering and mask contrast and other sliders are also really helpful…enjoy your discovery…
The RGB histogram is very useful when you have very saturated colors in the image, like a deep blue sky or a yellow/orange/red flower. It’s very easy in those cases to clip a single color channel even if the overall luminance is below the clipping value. Again, it will depend on the post-processing if you can effectively recover that clipping, so experience will tell you when it’s OK to clip or not.
No surprise: many cameras still do not sport zebras. Nor do they have raw histograms, which brings me to the tip regarding histograms. The histograms on your camera will likely not be taken from raw output, but from the JPEG or live preview.
Usually, there is an overhead, partly to protect the photographer from overexposing. In other words, if your histogram or viewfinder clipping indicator lights up, the actual raw file may still have no clipping. One thing you need to do is to measure the difference by photographic stops so that you know how much more you can push the exposure to maximize your shot. Be careful though, truly clipping meaningful detail spoils the image.
@Pic-N3p , According to the manual (if I have the right version) the camera should have the so-called blinkies…or highlight alert warning…and there is some sort of highlight tone priority that you should check as well in case that is set or not set as you like…
@priort I am using drawn masks now, with the parametric mask along with creating new instance of the same module like exposure to use gradients (or circle) at various place. Watching a person use these masks is the very best thing. I like this a lot.
On my camera, yes, there is an alarm, a small logo blinking but no zebras… But, usually when I get the alert, I also see the overexposure in the LCD and the histogram, clearly peaking on the right.
@guille2306 ok, ok I don’t have a mental example of color clipping, to be verified this evening. But ok mainly it’s useful for saturation, thanks for the info.