Editing moments with darktable

[s7habo (Boris Hajdukovic)]

@garibaldi

How did you decide initially that the greens in the shadows should be blue-green and the greens in the highlights should be yellow-green?

I enhanced the very subtle difference between direct (in this case also very diffuse) illumination (warm green) and shadow (cold green).

Although the sky was cloudy, through the thinner parts of the clouds a very faint yellowish radiation of the sun penetrates to the leaves that are directly open to the sky.

The leaves in shadow are naturally darker and are more affected by the reflection among themselves and from the ground. There always prevails a colder shade of green color.

@garibaldi

Is that just a well-known combination for trees or plants?

Not only. This is actually one of the basic rules, for example in painting, that there are different color nuances between direct illumination and shadows. This rule can be applied to everything, even portraits can create a beautiful mood if the lighter and darker skin colors of the face have slightly different shades of color.

[rvietor]

Keep in mind that, in practice, diffuse light means reflected or refracted light (exceptions are e.g. light boxes in studios). Diffusely reflected light will take on the colour of the reflecting object, which can be grass or leaves. In that case, a portrait could end up with a greenish hue on parts of the face.

Refracted light can also take on a colour, like the light from the sky, which illuminates shadows in sunny landscapes. This is particularly visible in sunny snow landscapes (either the sunny parts become orangy, or the shades become blue; in both cases the snow is “white”).

[s7habo (Boris Hajdukovic)]

@rvietor

Diffusely reflected light will take on the colour of the reflecting object, which can be grass or leaves. In that case, a portrait could end up with a greenish hue on parts of the face.

Of course. What I meant was to look at the light the way painters do. When photographing you must pay attention to the light conditions, but when editing the photo you have the opportunity to creatively influence the different color nuances in shading.

[garibaldi (Andrew)]

Thanks, this was a helpful explanation (and good graphic too).

I feel like the process in Episode 43 really helped me to see how to approach enhancing existing color contrast in an image. I don’t know what you have planned for Episode 44, but repeating that same process on other images (maybe other types of scenes) would be a really valuable resource.

[Rajkhand (Raj)]

Superb! I like your editing style

[pass712]

Always a pleasure to watch your videos ! A must see for all users who ever wondered why midgray is 18% and filmic is called filmic .

[s7habo (Boris Hajdukovic)]

New episode: How to deal with the colors in the darktable part three.

Darktable Episode 44: How to deal with the colors in the darktable part three

[garibaldi (Andrew)]

Thank you so much for creating these tutorials. In addition to demonstrating how to use the modules, each of these videos really helps me to think more as an artist.

I hope you plan on future videos with similar explanations for more scenes; I think it’s really helpful to see a variety of photos to get a sense of how to handle different situations.

[Marcsitkin]

Hi Boris-

Really enjoying the new narrated videos, thanks for producing them.

I’ve still not found situations where the low pass module combined with a multiply blend is working for me. May be my subject matter and way of seeing.

I’ve often wondered about the stacking order of modules. You seem to move them about in some sensible manner. I wonder if you can suggest some do’s and don’t s when doing this? I do currently use the scene referred workflow and avoid the older display referred modules, so they are not of concern.

By the way, I read on some of the posts hat you were concerned about narrating in English. I have to say you are coming across very clearly, and I’m glad you are comfortable adding the narration. I live just outside of Boston, MA. You’re easier to understand than my neighbors.

Thanks again for your great tutorials.

[Cranky (Granky)]

@Marcsitkin

By the way, I read on some of the posts hat you were concerned about narrating in English. I have to say you are coming across very clearly, and I’m glad you are comfortable adding the narration. I live just outside of Boston, MA. You’re easier to understand than my neighbors.

As a Brit, I would like to second that.

I suspect that many folks do not appreciate that English is a very adaptive language that is constantly changing as a consequence of immigration, media, and the influence of vast numbers of people who use it as a second language.

Most folks hear good and bad English spoken everyday by natives and non-natives alike. The majority of users are completely used to this, and never give it a second thought.

That said, Boris has a good command of English, he speaks it very clearly, and I am grateful to him for producing these excellent and informative videos.

[s7habo (Boris Hajdukovic)]

@Marcsitkin

I’ve often wondered about the stacking order of modules. You seem to move them about in some sensible manner. I wonder if you can suggest some do’s and don’t s when doing this?

Except that you have to be careful not to create the artifacts, there are no rules for that. It really depends on what you want to achieve.

For example, I have prepared this beautiful rose for black and white version:

I can do that with the help of color calibration module by going to “Gray” tab, and playing with color channels there:

Now I would like to have a little more contrast and texture on the rose. Since the rose has different red-orange tones, I can take advantage of that and - before converting it to the black and white version - use one instance of the Color Balance Module to mask the warmer tones and increase the contrast only on those tones:

However, since the Color Balance Module is hierarchically higher than the Color Calibration Module, I have to place the instance of this Color Calibration Module, with which I want to make the conversion to black and white, above the Color Balance Module, which serves me to increase the contrast of the warmer tones:

@Marcsitkin

I’ve still not found situations where the low pass module combined with a multiply blend is working for me.

Here are two examples:

I want to increase a soft contrast on this sheet to give it a soft “glow”:

Now I do that with the Lowpass module and Multiply blend mode:

You can see how the contrast has been increased without increasing the texture of the leaf. And the leaf has also gotten a little bloomy vibrancy. This is due to the fact that we practically used the blurred de-saturated version of the Photo for multiplying.

As a difference, here is the version where I used the multiply blend mode on a simple black and white version with the color calibration module:

Another example:

In this photo I would also like to increase the soft contrast, so that the path is expressed even more:

With Lowpass module I get that without increasing local contrast:

This is how it looks with Color Calibration module:

You can see immediately how the contrast is very harsh, with strong local contrasts/texture.

And with the lowpass, by changing the blur radius, I can change the soft contrast level as well, giving me even more control over the expression. Here for example, a little more " bloomy" look:

[Marcsitkin]

Hi Boris-

Thanks for that very detailed reply (actually a mini tutorial) I’ve read through it, and now that I’ve straightened out some problems with my computer, plan to go through it step by step. Sorry for the delay in responding, I appreciate your effort and the value you add to the community.

Best wishes

[s7habo (Boris Hajdukovic)]

New episode: How to deal with the colors in the darktable part four :

Darktable Episode 45: How to deal with the colors in the darktable part four

[Nacho_R (Nacho Rodríguez)]

Please, continue this series. The chapters on contrast and colors have been a complete change in my mind. I’ve learned and understanded so many things, and specially create a good way of working, that my results and workflow have improved exponentially!
Your no-talking moments in which you show the amazing possibilities of darktable are highly inspirational. But this explanations are pure gold… Just THANKS!!!

[Roland_Rainer]

I can only agree with @Nacho_R . Your last videos with narrative are incredibly helpful for so many of us. Don’t be misled by the litttle number of reply posts, we appreciate your effort very much!

[Nacho_R (Nacho Rodríguez)]

Just for my information. Which settings do you use for clipping indicator. For I se that you try avoid completely both highlights and black point clipping. But if I try to do the same, I’m mostly forced to restraisn a lot contrast. So, I guess my settings are not optimal, probably…
Thanks for your work!

[s7habo (Boris Hajdukovic)]

Actually only standard settings. Sometimes I also use Adobe RGB, because I can display that with my monitor. Otherwise, for histogram profile, I think you can also take a wider color space, like linear Rec 2020 RGB, because anyway after the filmic everything is remapped to sRGB where for the missing colors suitable replacement is found.

@Nacho_R

But if I try to do the same, I’m mostly forced to restraisn a lot contrast. So, I guess my settings are not optimal, probably…

I rather suspect you have difficulties in dealing with dynamic range. Many have this problem. I’m doing an episode about it right now.

[Nacho_R (Nacho Rodríguez)]

@s7habo

I rather suspect you have difficulties in dealing with dynamic range. Many have this problem. I’m doing an episode about it right now.

That’s angelic music for my ears! I’ll be looking forward to reading it!

[Lander_corleone (Leanndruss)]

I see in your videos that you use many different modules in 1 edition. And I have learnt a lot with them.
I’m always thinking if I would be able to simplify the number of different modules used and get similar results.

Maybe in a play raw I will bet you . It would be funny

[priort (Todd Prior)]

DT has a problem of where the display profile is…to see true clipping you need to set your display and histogram profile equal. Your image might not look good but it will be accurate. I will dig up the reference. Data goes from working thru display and then to histogram profiles which provides the day for clipping…so typical might be rec2020 to display (sRGB or adobergbish) then back out to rec2020 for clipping…the pass through display alters the data…setting display to rec2020 will give you more accurate numbers…also there are setting for the clipping limits and settings for gamut that affect things