darktable 3.0 for dummies (in 3 modules)

Ah, I never knew that! :slight_smile: Iā€™ve had another play with @anon41087856ā€™s test images and guide posted above, now that Iā€™ve disable the base curve, Iā€™m getting good results, very quickly!

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@anon41087856
Great post and I think really welcome for many users.
What if the colour pickers donā€™t deliver a good starting point ?
Could one provide a similar simple workflow ā€˜for dummiesā€™ without using the pickers ?

Second question : is it safe, okayā€¦ using ā€˜dynamic 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 wonā€™t ā€œbreakā€ anything. If you are trying to avoid clipping though, maybe itā€™s 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 doesnā€™t have any orange bits at the ends, the controls on the ā€œlookā€ tab can take care for that.

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combining all these 3 steps in one single module? just kidding :slight_smile:
thank you

Great how-to-guide @anon41087856 ! Iā€™ve been following the documentation of the filmic since the moduleā€™s 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. :wink:

This is excellent!

But one little thing that would help new users (like me; Iā€™m 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 ā€œdefault 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.

Thereā€™s a preset on the ā€˜More Modulesā€™ module (bottom right-hand-side of the darkroom) called ā€œworkspace: 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.

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Oh, good. But if I click that option, this is what I see.

Screenshot%20from%202020-01-17%2009-30-30

Hmm, how about one button : ā€˜automatic filmic colorbalanced local contrastā€™ ? :):grin:

Youā€™re just looking in the ā€˜basicā€™ group. I think (I donā€™t have darktable in front of me) that filmic is in the tone group (the shaded circle at the top)

Why donā€™t you put these modules in the favorite tab, something like this:

image

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Thatā€™s called a ā€˜styleā€™ :wink:

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 Iā€™ve no idea whether they operate within or beyond RGB.

Iā€™m guessing that the RGB Levels and RGB Curve must operate within RGB but I donā€™t 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.

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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.

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Please read article suggested here:

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Apologies. I had opened the the tab from the earlier link but was distracted before viewing it :upside_down_face:

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Well, here comes the craftmanship thenā€¦

Coming soon, darktable 4.0, now with ā€œSIā€ (sentient intelligence), leaving AI in the dust!

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AurƩlien
Craftmanship is king :slight_smile:

The coulor pickers (white and black) do the job about half the time, with the pictures Iā€™ve 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 itā€™s the best thing to have that last bit of punch to make the edit the way I want it to be.
Thanks in advance.

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@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?