Ah, I never knew that! Iāve had another play with @anon41087856ās test images and guide posted above, now that Iāve disable the base curve, Iām getting good results, very quickly!
@anon41087856
Great post and I think really welcome for many users.
What if the colour pickers donāt deliver a good starting point ?
Could one provide a similar simple workflow āfor dummiesā without using the pickers ?
Second question : is it safe, okayā¦ using ādynamic range scalingā to keep blacks and white from clipping ? Sometimes after the steps you suggest I still have too much range and use dynamic range scaling to keep black and highlights further under control, although it reduces the overall contrast.
The dynamic range slidervis just moving the other sliders like black point and white point together in a coordinated way, for convenience, so you wonāt ābreakā anything. If you are trying to avoid clipping though, maybe itās better to set your mudgrey point, then turn on the clipping indicator and adjust the Black and White point controls separately to eliminate the blue and red indicators r spectively? You of course also want to check that the spline curve doesnāt have any orange bits at the ends, the controls on the ālookā tab can take care for that.
combining all these 3 steps in one single module? just kidding
thank you
Great how-to-guide @anon41087856 ! Iāve been following the documentation of the filmic since the moduleās debut in 2.6. At that time I had already been using Darktable for several years, but I struggled with how to get the most of that module.
But after seeing your videos it all clicked. With the best intent, I tell you that I believe your explanations of how to use filmic have gradually become clearer and clearer. Perhaps a side-effect of having to explain the same thing over and over again.
This is excellent!
But one little thing that would help new users (like me; Iām just coming back to seriously looking at DT with 3.0) is a default modules view that emphasized the new linear RGB-based workflow.
Right now, for example, the ādefault modulesā list includes base curve, but not filmic RGB.
I achieved much the same thing by simply defining as favorites the key linear RGB modules, but it took me a long time to figure that out.
Thereās a preset on the āMore Modulesā module (bottom right-hand-side of the darkroom) called āworkspace: all-purposeā. This contains a minimal set of modules, as recommended in this article: darktable 3: RGB or Lab? Which modules? Help! - HackMD, which is well worth a read.
Oh, good. But if I click that option, this is what I see.
Hmm, how about one button : āautomatic filmic colorbalanced local contrastā ? :)
Youāre just looking in the ābasicā group. I think (I donāt have darktable in front of me) that filmic is in the tone group (the shaded circle at the top)
Why donāt you put these modules in the favorite tab, something like this:
Thatās called a āstyleā
I wish I knew what the key linear RGB modules are. It appears to me that the recommended modules of Filmic RGB, Colour Balance, operate within the RGB workflow. Tone Equalizer and Local Contrast are also recommended, but Iāve no idea whether they operate within or beyond RGB.
Iām guessing that the RGB Levels and RGB Curve must operate within RGB but I donāt know whether this is considered as the same RGB workflow as above. I am also unsure whether the RGB Curve module operating as RGB Linked differs from Tone Curve module operating in RGB Linked.
Indeed, this is my point: that the UI can probably do more to make self-evident what the preferred workflow is going forward (which modules to prefer, which to avoid, and which to use with care), and that this in turn can help in tutorials and such.
Please read article suggested here:
Apologies. I had opened the the tab from the earlier link but was distracted before viewing it
Well, here comes the craftmanship thenā¦
Coming soon, darktable 4.0, now with āSIā (sentient intelligence), leaving AI in the dust!
AurƩlien
Craftmanship is king
The coulor pickers (white and black) do the job about half the time, with the pictures Iāve tried so far. I seem to have a better starting point with the auto tune levels.
Play with filmic.
Then Color Balance and the Contrast equalizer.
Mostly at the end a slight s-curve. As someone stated here above : is it better to do this in Tone Curve or in RGB Curve ?
I presume you would advise not to use any curve, but sometimes for me itās the best thing to have that last bit of punch to make the edit the way I want it to be.
Thanks in advance.
@anon41087856 Aurelien, why did you use Local Contrast here instead of the clarity preset in Contrast Equalizer (maybe softened with a 50% opacity)? I seem to remember that LC was somehow discouraged?