Maybe this is a weird question, but I’m not really sure if what I’m doing is brilliant (because I’m lazy) or if there is something I’m missing.
I almost only do b/w and use the grain module a lot. I shoot a lot of historical architecture (a lot of bricks) and some nature, and I’ve found that an easy way to up the contrast and add some drama, is using the grain module and blend mask in overlay mode (or maybe hardlight/softligt) as contrast enhancement using the opacity slider to adjust the amount of contrast.
Any reason why this is a bad idea? Any thoughts on that?
Examples: Here is a somewhat flat image of some grass showing the overlay at 0, 50 and 100 percent opacity.
Huh, I’ve never thought about using the grain module like that… the more you know! Also, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this procedure per se.
For color pictures it seems to really overcook saturation, but BW is obviously fine. I wonder if grain + any other contrast slider yield the same result or if there’s something unique about your way
There is a contrast and texture module (in the master branch) you could also try and for punch on BW you could try the DorS module and use the dehaze extra contrast preset and play around with the number of iterations…
But the tool is there and if it gives you the look that you are going for then why not??
An exposure insurance with 0 adjustments in one of those modes, or with multiply, and adjusting the fulcrum could also work, especially after the tone mapper when everything is between 0 and 1.
Actually you can do the same with other modules that have the overlay option (not all do), including the Local Contrast module and even there I prefer the overlay mode to adjusting detail level. It seems to give a more smooth adjustment of contrast.
Assuming overlay and hard light work the same way as Krita, they do exactly the same thing if you blend an image with itself in overlay/hard light. (grain module will show the added grain but won’t change the overall effect much) They’ll boost contrast and saturation around whatever value is set as the pivot. It’ll be a fixed amount but you can control mask opacity to back it off globally or locally. Pivot seems to be mid grey in the default working space so 18% (50% lightness).
There was discussion recently around adding saturation boosts early with no-op exposure/colour calibration/rgb primaries instances.
The only thing I can think of is that it might lead to a loss of details when exported. The module comes after your tone mapper, so any values close to the edge (blacks or whites) might get maxed when adding contrast. The image might look one way in the darkroom and another in (for example) an sRGB jpg export. So long as you are paying attention to your scopes you should be ok…and its easy to pull back in the tone mapper so that your additional contrast doesnt ‘clip’.
Assuming overlay and hard light work the same way as Krita …
I have never used Krita, but overlay and hard light in Darktable seems to resemble their counterparts in GIMP.
The grain module will add grain (obviously), but because you can not work with layers in Darktable, even though you can have the same effect, you have to use a module of choice. But Grain can be set to 0% strength and thus avoiding it altogether.
Also, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this procedure per se.