I know the Ctrl-Shift-C popup menu with tickboxes.
How can I copy only the exposure setting directly?
Ideally with the same shortcut in lighttable and darkroom.
Synchronising exposure settings among a group of images is the main slow-down in my current workflow, and the ctrl-sh-c dance gets really tiresome when editing several hundred images. I already have full manual exposure, so groups are identical in themselves. I tried using a list of styles with ranges from -2 to +3EV, but that is just as slow as the selective copy paste. Plus it clutters the tags with potentially multiple false tags which I would like to avoid.
DT actually has an exposure matching feature…so select an area in one image (Key frame if you like) and then you can do the same in subsequent images and it will apply the right exposure to match them… Initial one uses exposure module in measure and after that you use it in correct…
… but without the manual (hasn’t been working for days) I do not even get close to making that feature work. Which tells me, that a simple copy/paste even with the three-clicks and erratic mouse movement inbetween is way, way simpler and faster.
Its actually very easy. I use a version of it on every image. Instead of the default 0.7 EV I have my setting at 60% for a while I used 50% setting the average exposure for the image there… but I found if I use filmic or sigmoid a bit higher was better so basically if I use a script or click the autopicker my exposure is set…. So extending that all you need do is get an image to where you want it… in the exposure module be sure the mode is set to measure… capture a common area with the picker that should be the same for all then go to a new image… This setting is sticky so until you do a measure again any image that you draw on with the picker will exposure match that original patch to the area you select in the new image…to keep image the same just select the same are which I think it actuall does by default you just hit the auto picker…I think you can select a whole set of image to just apply this to…. You can do the same with color in the color calibration module…
Cool, but sadly it runs completely against my workflow since I edit the keyframes first.
But a full copy/paste can not be applied to the surrounding images because keyframes usually get detailed treatment like precise crops, rotates and so on. The other pictures of a block can only have the exposure transferred from the keyframe without messing things up.
Also exposure is rather easy and simple to copy on the lighttable where selecting a bunch of images is a breeze and not so error-ridden as in the darkroom.
Thanks for the hint, but really only a straight up copy of a single setting (the exposure) to clipboard could be a much sought after improvement.
maybe there’s a way using lua scripting.
Write a script that creates an event that reads the current exposure parameter and copy the value to the system clipboard and another event that reads the value form the clipboard and sets the exposure parameter.
Then you can assign a shortcut to these events
Thanks for the reminder, Lua scripting seems to be the only truly viable option.
I was looking at keyboard/mouse automation tools, but since the “exposure” line is not in the same place depending on the order of the history they can not work.
So that’s a project for the summer, studying software design next to a job leaves little time for coding during most of the year.
I guess one nice feature in Adobe’s Lightroom program is the ability to select one representative image with nice exposure and then select multiple images and request Lightroom to match the exposure for all the images. I wonder if DT users would see a similar feature in DT as useful. For my uses I am very happy with the exposure matching and color matching options that AP has created. But that may be tiresome for those who like to do bulk processing.
that solution was already mentioned in the initial post - one key action, 3 mouseclicks to select, one key action to paste
The OP asked for a way to do this with just two key actions
As @MStraeten said … I’d like to speed that up. And the LR solution is okay, but in reality just as “tiresome” as the current selective copy in dt. I am perfectly aware that this is not a problem for regular usage.
I’ll give some numbers for reference. Last weekend I did a two-day reportage/documentation of outdoor sports (pumptrack race) with almost 2000 initial images. 1100 were in the keepers, 270 were in the selects. The lighting was a heavy mix of all kinds - from fog to harsh sun to deep shade. So pretty much every other block of 3 to 5 images was completely different. And when you do 200 times a selective copy you quickly start thinking about ways to speed that up.
If you are interested, here is the (main) output for that event. All editing in darktable, output to 4k JPGs, scaled to final size with an imagemagick command in gThumb.
@MStraeten I am processing some images today that I shot with exposure bracketing activated in the camera. I have now used ctrl + shift +C to select all the modules to be copied including exposure. However, when I paste these settings onto the next image in the series the exposure looks wrong until I go to the exposure module and click on the eyedropper to get it to match the match the exposure spot mapping. While this is not an issue to me it does seem a difference in how DT handles exposure matching to some other programs like Lightroom. I should point out however, that the compensate camera exposure is unchecked on my exposure module.
if you use exposure bracketing and copy just one exposure parameter set it’s obvious that you won’t get a good result if pasting that to images with different time/aperture/iso settings.
You just paste the parameters of the exposure module, not a exposure matching action.
exposure matching in darktable is a manual action - I doubt that can be automated with lua yet…
It’s not recommended to assume the same name in darktable, Lightroom, C1 etc.pp. indicates comparable functionality …
I am now working through more images with exposure bracketing and this time have activated the tick box for camera exposure compensation and the results are much more reliable. Either way it is not a big deal for me to click on the eyedropper for exposure mapping when I am editing. I can see it may be for the OP.
