DT preview looks great in lightable but in darkroom wow turns bad really...

kaymann · August 8, 2021, 12:29am

The title kind of sums it up going into darkroom for editing and the photos turn off color way dark low contrast and hard to pull back out… something is different this 3.6 is the first time I have had this problem… DT 3.6.0, scenic, modern

priort · August 8, 2021, 1:24am

Always been this way…you see the jpg preview initially in Lightable and the raw image when you move to darkroom view to begin editing…you can make a few changes and start with a 1/2 size raw file in the preview which is more accurate representation of the raw image but slower

github.com

darktable-org/dtdocs/blob/35c867950d78c2b5a8875fa4a3918f79ce8934fb/content/overview/workflow/edit-overview.md

---
title: "editing an image: workflow overview"
id: workflow-overview
draft: false
weight: 20
author: "people"
---

This section will guide you through the basics of developing an image in the [darkroom](../../darkroom/_index.md) view, where an arsenal of modules is at hand to help you reach your creative goals. Many other raw processing applications try to present an image approximating the jpeg file produced by the camera, however the philosophy behind darktable is to do minimal pre-processing and provide the user with a neutral image onto which they can apply their creative vision.

As an example, see the 3 images below. The first image is the JPEG file produced by the camera. The second image is a raw file opened by darktable, with just the default modules applied -- notice how the image looks somewhat flat and neutral. The third image is the sort of image you might get by following the steps in this workflow page.

![edit-overview_ooc](./edit-overview/edit-overview_ooc.jpg#w33#inline)
![edit-overview_flat](./edit-overview/edit-overview_flat.jpg#w33#inline)
![edit-overview_edited](./edit-overview/edit-overview_edited.jpg#w33#inline)


To begin editing an image, open it in the darkroom by double clicking its thumbnail in the [lighttable](../../lighttable/_index.md) view. 

In the darkroom mode, you see a list of modules to the right hand side of the screen. Each module performs one processing step to bring an image from raw format into an image that can be seen on the screen or printed. The processing steps are performed in the order shown in the module list, starting at the bottom of the list and moving up to the top, like a stack of building blocks where each block builds on the processing done by the modules below. The order in which the modules are applied is important to provide a correctly processed image.

This file has been truncated. show original

paperdigits · August 8, 2021, 2:54am

Yes this is expected, the raw file is flat. Use exposure, then filmic to get it looking decent.

Peter · August 8, 2021, 6:05am

Turn on subtitle

Use the new way with exposure and filmic
Use the old way with basecurve

In this thread we are creating SOOC styles for different cameras Do you want a straight out of camera JPEG style in darktable? Here we help each other

The styles available are:

6D - basecurve, filmic or LUT
M5 - basecurve, filmic or LUT
1Ds - LUT
7D - LUT

kaymann · August 8, 2021, 8:32pm

Here is a side by side. Left is DT lighttable and right is DT darkroom after a double click.

If this is all normal awesome. However, the darktable just seems a darker than what I used to see in DT 3.4.1.1

Peter · August 8, 2021, 8:39pm

It is normal. In your previous version perhaps some modules where activated to brighten your pictures. If you have some old pictures you edited in 3.4 but not 3.6 you can take a look at active modules.

priort · August 8, 2021, 9:42pm

Did you use the basecurve before. I think 3.6 defaults to modern workflow so you might be seeing this as the result

elstoc · August 8, 2021, 10:00pm

3.6 does default to scene-referred for new installations but if you’ve kept your configuration from darktable 3.4 it shouldn’t change it automatically.

priort · August 8, 2021, 11:59pm

There is always an “if”

Peter · August 9, 2021, 6:15am

Easiest may be that you just upload a raw file, if SOOC look is what you want.

kaymann · August 9, 2021, 1:09pm

I have gone through all my settings and turned on all defaults for 3.6 with the exception of "auto-apply chromatic adaptation defaults = modern (legacy is default). As far as “auto-apply per camera basecurve presets = unchecked”. However I have gone back and forth on that one with no perceptual changes…

priort · August 9, 2021, 1:58pm

As mentioned above if you could share a file…one or more of us could check what we see and give you feedback…hard to troubleshoot sometimes just from a screenshot and a back and forth…

kaymann · August 9, 2021, 2:13pm

Here is the RAW CR2 and the XMP created by DT without any adjustments by me:
2021-07-22-10-10-11-0781.CR2 (19.4 MB)
2021-07-22-10-10-11-0781.CR2.xmp (18.6 KB)

priort · August 9, 2021, 2:17pm

Thanks I will take a look…

elstoc · August 9, 2021, 2:27pm

@kaymann please can you add a license to your Raw. Something like

This file is licensed Creative Commons, By-Attribution, Share-Alike.

priort · August 9, 2021, 2:46pm

I am using ART because they have a feature that will show easily what to expect…The inspector can show the jpg preview and a linear raw render as preview options…see below…jpg first then linear raw…for me linear raw looks like what you see in DT…dark, no dynamic range…so not much to work with on this image…I would try another image as an example…

In the editor neutral profile…

Not much better with ART automatch which usually will bring it up to similar tones of the jpg…

Darktable gives much the same result upon opening…dark… If you add 1.5 to 2 ev you will get something close to your Jpg. In camera your jpg must be getting the same ev bump…

DT 3 shots in LT initially then in darkroom and then with ev bumped to 2.

kaymann · August 9, 2021, 3:36pm

So first off it looks like my DT config is not out of whack and it is normal what I am seeing. Yes I can bump up the EV and move on from there. I will create a virtual machine with 3.4 installed and see if there is any difference. BTW here is what it looks like in RawTherapee which is in between:

kaymann · August 9, 2021, 3:41pm

So I guess I have answered my own question It is what it is and I will start the processing from where DT starts me. You all were very gracious to help me out and I really do appreciate it you have saved me a lot of config tweaking that is not necessary.

Thank you all for your time and consideration.

BTW I picked this worst case scenario to make it obvious of what I was experiencing. In other words I know it was a crappy picture.

Peter · August 9, 2021, 8:37pm

Noisy and dark, no really difference even with basecurve. Exported to tif, cleaned up the noise, brighten it a bit and added contrast. You have the tif file and its xmp file.

2021-07-22-10-10-11-0781.zip (63.2 MB)
2021-07-22-10-10-11-0781.tif.xmp (17.4 KB)

priort · August 10, 2021, 12:03am

You will likely find that there is a fairly consistent ev bump that you can use as a starting point.