I guess you might have to make your own after a little practice… 
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Thank you very much @s7habo for a very comprehensive answer. I will study it several times and let it all sink in. I greatly appreciate the time you put in to help users like myself.
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Thanks @priort, I will see if that helps. There’s a lot of information contained in that!
Yes, I would love that, and probably would many other users. I’m also still hoping for the scene-referred HSL module that was talked about for a while and got abandoned. I want to like the channel mixer, but it is really hard to master, and other colour alteration modules are much more intuitive.
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If you just visualize the rgb values of the pixels that you want to impact vertically aligned in the channel mixer section for each output color next to each slider and then realize in each output channel these are the values that each slider will impact so say the starting pixel is 255 128 0 In the red output each slider adds to red value of the pixel by the amount equal to the product of the slider and the input pixel value. So edits to the red channels will make the value of that pixel be x 128 0 where x will be more or less than the original value of red in the rgb value of that pixel. Bigger numbers are brighter and smaller ones darker. All pixels in the image will have their red value changed in proportion to the slider values applied to each of rg and b. The logic extends. The next set of set of 3 sliders will only change the 128 value with changes in the red slider impacting green the most… In all cases the blue slider will do nothing as the value of the blue pixel is 0. If you use the color picker to to show you the rgb of any input area then you can sort of predict what the sliders will do …and keeping the vectorscope on lets you follow how the color changes helping you to see how to shift them… watching the vectorscope and practicing will make it easier… I use these edits for tough changes otherwise I use color zones or clut module depending on what I am trying to do because its quick and easy. The channel mixer is great for tweaking skin tones and foliage and skies. I tend to use rgb color balance more for tonal color grading than targeted color changes but you could with masking also do it using the controls… I think someone offered up a set of mask presets for the primary colors normally found in an HSL control for rgb color balance… I am sure you could also try those
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IMHO very good explanation of channel mixer is here :
Darek K
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Dave does a nice job with his Affinity videos…
Pat David did a very nice and simple example here
As part of this thread on the channel mixer
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Thank you once again @s7habo for a wonderfully informative video… can’t wait for the next episode. Still i find it strange that so many use DT and so few views and even fewer likes to support You Tube algorithms…Currently most of the other creators have stopped publishing vids on DT…maybe too good for the paid alternatives? I wonder …Still i hope that the devs will continue the good work so that DT has a future. Boris thank you again for your efforts.
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Basically, it has remained the same as always. For the most part, the creators of videos about darktable have focused on explaining the functionality of darktable and that exhausts itself with time. Since many do it in their spare time, when there is nothing special to report, they don’t do it anymore. This is quite normal.
But what is missing are the professional photographers who are not too concerned with the functionality but with the creative use of darktable. And that is, in my opinion, that darktable is still not seen in this segment as an alternative to the commercial (“mainstream”) products, despite the fact that it is equivalent or even better in functionality.
This is due to the fact that many people have been using the commercial products for a long time and - either because they have already bought them or because they are contractually bound to them - are reluctant to switch.
But I also see the increasingly opposite tendency - those who are dissatisfied with commercial products are already happy to switch. However, that is still the minority at first.
What free software like darktable can’t do is have an extensive marketing strategy. The spread stays on the backs of dedicated users and developers.
They do. The development is progressing relentlessly. You don’t have to worry about the future of darktable at the moment.
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I totally agree with you Boris after all Photography is much more than a craft … its an art… Darktable is a very capable TOOL for CREATIVE expression (among others paid or free), the camera and lens are too… still as someone said its not the pan that makes the cook 
Really happy to hear that !!!
Thank you once again and keep up the good work @s7habo
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And of course, switching to a different program means retraining, which takes time. Time a professional may not be able or willing to spend, unless they are sure the investment is worth it.
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I think there’s also another (maybe closely related) factor. FWIW, this is just my observation and neither a criticism nor in-depth analysis since both approaches are valid.
Many users prefer to work on a more purely image-visual level with a little less obvious color science than darktable exposes. For example, in terms of UI there might just be sliders to adjust something, rather than the underlying options that support and affect the slider. Although the exposed color science has defaults that – at that level – can be mostly ignored if desired, it’s still there competing for attention in the UI. Plus, the capability to make “underlying” adjustments in one area can affect other areas, so that complicates matters if the user wishes to keep it simple. That’s intrinsically neither good nor bad, it just is. It’s kind of like an automatic transmission rather than a manual – Not as precise nor ultimately as (theoretically) powerful, but since it’s sufficient for their needs there’s no compelling reason to change.
Again, I’m not saying one is better nor worse, just different. Speaking purely for myself, the ideal tool would have the power of darktable but a slightly more visual and less "color-sciency "UI (or maybe just have the color science more hidden). But that’s highly personal to my preferences. Then again, the power of darktable may be inextricably tied to the ability to make underlying manipulations.
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Open to ideas, but it seems like a very direct trade off between control and easy of use.
I suspect you’re exactly right.
The idea of always hiding the more detailed / “non-mandatory” advanced capabilities behind an Advanced button (in UI terms) is tempting but I don’t know if it’s worth the effort considering those advanced capabilities are basically what makes darktable what it is. Also, where do you draw the line, i.e., what constitutes “advanced”, broadly speaking? I guess you could have multiple UI personalities (like Hugin does) but that’s even more work for a potentially minor usefulness gain.
Again, that’s just my personal take on it anyway.
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A fairly radical approach to this question is to separate between the simple use of (selection between) presets, and where one start to move sliders oneself - UI tools that could be hidden until one depart form just the use of presets.
But I agree a basic character of dt is its granular control, and initially hide most of that, may be somewhat awkward.
New Episode: Color harmonies part 2:
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@s7habo is there a significant advantage to using iterations of color calibration rather than using color zones? I know color zones is display referred. And, since it is display referred are you just trying to avoid any artifacts that might be produced by using it? Or, does color calibration offer more control and/or precision?
Yes.
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The precision of the masking. Masks and masking refinement options are unbeatable. Among other things, because you do not always want to change certain color in the whole image.
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With channel mixer I can change colors much more precisely/selectively across the color spectrum. And that’s in addition to masking.
Color Zones is more intuitive and also more effective when you want to make rough changes. But if you make the changes after the tone mapper, you run the risk of creating artifacts:
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Awesome. Thanks for confirming my assumption and explaining it well.
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After further close study of Boris Hajdukovic’s YouTube episode 56 (explaining the channel Mixer) and 57 (processing high dynamic range raw files), I revisited this image of the river Derwent in Borrowdale, English Lake district. It was late evening and the light was reducing rapidly but I was attracted by the colourful sky. I carefully set the exposure so that the sky was just short of highlight clipping but that meant the remainder looked very underexposed.
I used two instances of tone equaliser to balance luminosity and increase contrast. I set WB with colour calibration then removed some red from the sky with channel mixer. I used two instances of Colour balance RGB one of them to liven up the green using a mask. Finished off with an instance of diffuse and sharpen for local contrast and a 2nd for sharpening.
2nd image is unedited.
Comments welcome.
CC BY-NC 4.0.
P1380088.rw2 (22.7 MB)
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