Darktable when importing standard preset skips 2 out of 11 actions

Processing
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Darktable when importing standard preset skips 2 out of 11 actions

As said above, on my MAC, I have on some lenses 11 presets what is good and on some lens 2 presets have not been applied when importing the DNG files.

Mac M3 Pro
Darktable 5.2.1
Lenses which have 11 actions (standard importing preset): manual lenses from Zeiss Jena, Sony f1.8 20mm G
Lenses where 2 actions are missing: Sony f1.8 14mm GM, Sony f4 24-105mm G
Missing actions:
exposure (scene reference) - I can apply afterwards
output colour profile (sRGB web safe) - cannot apply afterwards

Camera: Sony A7IV

What is going on there?

I have noticed that older photos from 2024, the problem lenses have got 11 actions and the newer photos from last few months, these have only 9 actions applied.

The only what I have done in the meantime was the installation of the newest Adobe DNG-converter and updates camera software before one month. But, also older photos before several months in 2025 have the problem on these lenses.

Maybe something simple, but I am “blind”….

Thanx in advance!

2

Are you talking about applying styles?

3

I actually mean something else. On the left side under the “HISTORY”, when you import (add to library) the new DNG files, Darkroom goes through 11 actions to prepare every file for further processing:

  • raw bleckwhite point
  • demosaic
  • input colour profile
  • output colour profile
  • display encoding
  • white balance
  • highlight reconstruction
  • color calibration
  • exposure
  • filmic rgb
  • orientation

With these 11 actions I get a relatively nice starting point.
Some of my DNG, as said before, have only 9 actions done and these photos look somehow red-coloured and without contrast.

4

Which ones are missing??

5

Without providing those presets it’s pure guessing.
Most obvious estimation: if that happens with each image then maybe the presets auto apply settings aren’t no longer correct.
maybe newer exif library versions changed something on extracting metadata used in the presets…

6

Those eleven “presets” are the ones I see auto-applied for raw images with no further action on my part, i.e. they are not user-defined presets.

What I find very strange is that “output colour profile” is not present, as it is always needed, independant of the input image (same as “input colour profile” and "display encoding, those three are present even when importing a jpg file).

7

Quite weird.

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I just cannot work with these photos without the output color profile.

What shall I provide here for a better help? Maybe this can bring us further. I’ll try if you tell me what. Please also read above for the history and which actions are not working.

9

This can be, but, what can I do? The new is the Adobe DNG converter installed, but also older photos with older DNG converter have problem with these lenses. Looks like the DNG Converter caused some problem when installed, but maybe I am worng. Why should it to that?

10

Can you upload a problematic DNG (subject could be anything), and the xmp that gets generated when you import it?

11

This is a very good idea!

… hmmm, I have tried to upload, but the files are too large. Do not have a cloud account.
How to submit photos?

12

Are you processing these files in some other way, say with DXO or some denoising or other software or is this a direct conversion to DNG…Do you have the original raw files?? Are they a problem??

13

No other processing. From the Sony A7IV to Adobe DNG converter to Darktable 5.2.1

But!!! What I have done now, I have imported original raw files from Sony A7IV camera (.ARW) directly into Darktable, without the DNG converting step in between, and these have (all of them) 11 actions! This is great!

Still, the problem with DNG is strange and it seems to be some issue with the DNG converter processing or some interface with Darkroom vs. DNG.
Maybe still interesting to analyse the problem, but I need to upload these files somehow…

14

DNG is mainly a container standard. It can hold multiple image types. I don’t know what settings you are using during the conversion. If you have the original, use the original raw to avoid stuff being lost in the conversion.

PS I think the newest version of the dng standard uses jxl, which darktable cannot support at the moment (work in progress).

15

It’s very likely the conversion was done with “some option” resulting in no valid profile, in that case some modules will not be activated (and must not).

Also - please note that the demosaiced dng files will leave out some dt options for raw processing like some highlights corrections or raw chromatic fixing.

16

Why would output color profile be missing, though?

Could you please upload at least the xmp file, so we can have a look?

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  1. We definitely need the dng file to inspect available and possibly bad color related tags.
  2. @kofa honestly I don’t know why out profile is not active here. Not sure if this a bug at all or if it misses necessary data and thus is disabled.
  3. We also have wrong colors reported here, not sure if this happens on the data input side or it’s the missing out profile.
1 Like
18

Here is the link to Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18qPOjqY98z74arJuseB897lj4WMbnaS3?usp=sharing

Note that the…

A7402426 made with Sony 24-105mm, this year, 9 actions, 2 missing (see my first posting for detalis)
A7409672 made with same Sony 24-105mm, but last year, 11 actions, all is OK

XMP files are there too
A7409672.ARW is also there, Sony raw file.
I do not have the A7402426.ARW any more - only DNG

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Pleas, tell me if the link works. There have to be 5 files.

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Strange colors but nothing obviously wrong with modules and history. Very small file though …