Thanks Boris for the very informative video. I have realised that the problem with AgX is one of plenty.
At the end of the video, I am not sure where to start, and what should be a typical workflow.
maybe you could create another video giving 2 or 3 alternative workflows depending upon the picture at hand.
For me now it is still shooting in the dark as to where to start and what to do next.
Thanks again for clearly defining what each slider is capable of doing
Have you read the draft docs? A suggested workflow is included.
Yes I have, the one in dtdocs. It is a generic one, and I follow it in many cases. I am looking upto @s7habo to talk about workflows based on different situations, a flavour he gave in the presentation. But those examples were to show what a slider can do. Not a workflow
AgX is now a module that is inherently vast
I donāt think itās vast. For most images, I donāt modify the primaries: the Blender people have fine-tuned them. Under extreme lighting, sure, but my own photos are usually snapshots taken during my walks, so landscapes with natural light.
For the curve, you donāt need to tweak each and every slider. The toe/shoulder start are rarely needed, as a high power setting delivers very similar results. The gamma is only needed if the curve loses the S shape, and you donāt like the result.
I really rarely use the look controls. If your contrast setting is low, and you want more saturation, or contrast is high, and you want less saturation, you can do it there. Power can be used to boost contrast, saturation and darken the image at the same time, or for the opposite operation. Donāt forget that the original Blender AgX didnāt have the curve controls at all (no contrast, no pivot, no exposure range: everything was baked into a LUT), so the look controls (e.g. offset) overlap with some curve controls (target black, in this particular case).
100% This with every module
Thanks for doing this, Boris. You put a lot of hard work into that tutorial.
I donāt know which sweep he had used, but thereās a treasure trove of sweeps and other test images at Troy Sobotkaās GitHub site at GitHub - sobotka/Testing_Imagery: Colourimetric Test Imagery
Perfect! Thanks!
I think this way of thinking where the tool somehow drives the edit and has a workflow can be counter productive.
The modules are a tool set. What you do with with them comes from an analysis of the image and deciding what you are going to do with it to āformā your picture. This is often a very personal or individual assessment.
You of course need a base of knowledge on the functions of the module and some experimentation to see them in action so as to get a feel for them but then it comes down to what technical and artistic uses of the modules you need to form the final image for each edit.
With AGX, the graph displayed in the module and this excellent video itās pretty clear what the sliders for tone and DNR are doing and checking in with the vectorscope you can monitor color changesā¦ Much of it has been covered over the years with filmic and sigmoid.
So I think the technical use of the module seems pretty straightforward even though there are quite a few slidersā¦ and knowing what you want to do will mean that only a few sliders will often be all that is needed. The artistic editing at least for me is far more difficult. Guiding and shaping color I find hard. Others like Boris are very artistic and skilled at using and controlling color.
agx is a tone mapper, one of many tools, and it surely should not drive an edit. I just described my usual steps. I would, of course, use tone equalizer and other tools as well, if needed.
Yes my reply was actually in support of your comments back to @PD1 .
I was on my phone and I wasnāt clearā¦it just reminded me of the endless discussions when new things were introduced into darktable esp around the scene vs display referred workflow and people would obsess about what module could or should be used and where or how as if there was a new ācorrect recipeā or the right way to do the edit everytime something new was introducedā¦rather than just treating them all as tools, understanding what they do and then using any and all tools if they contributed to forming your desired final imageā¦
For sure there are nuances to consider during the edit to be efficient and to use modules in the pipeline but getting lost adjusting sliders just because they are part of the module does seem to be a thing that happens for some usersā¦
I recall in many videoās Boris would walk through his edit and apply the basic lens corrections exposure and then apply filmicā¦often he barely touched it and many times left it mostly alone and then went on with rgb color balance, color calibration module and the tone eq to craft some amazing editsā¦contrast that with some of the endless discussions around all the various sliders in flimic, dymanic range etc etc or some other modules and I hope that AGX does not get bogged down by similar thinking.
I think you have done a good job explaining things and this video by Boris seems pretty clear to me but I guess bracing for slider overload for some new users is inevitable
Another wonderful video! Those first 20 minutes really helped me wrap my head around what tone mappers are doing (or not doing).
Even though this module has a lot of options, I think you did a good job showing how those controls can be used without implying that all of them must be used.
I havenāt tried this module in many months so a lot of the controls are new since the last time I tried, but Iām looking forward to making it a core part of my process for macro photos in the coming months. On the other hand, in some ways Iām not looking forward to my development process becoming even faster and easier 
Iām excited to give it a try with some infrared photos too, where color, saturation, and contrast can all be really wacky compared to other photos.
That was precisely the intention of the video.
@kofa put a lot of effort into creating a module that is hard to beat in terms of functionality. In doing so, he has given us a tool that can be used to deal with many situations that had previously caused us difficulties.
I remember many discussions about incorrect color reproduction in many subjects (sky, flowers, etc.) and problems with lack of contrast/saturation in highlights, etc.
Darktable has always given us the options to master this, but now it is much easier.
However, it is essential to understand what causes these problems.
90% of the work on my last job was done with exposure correction, white balance, and increasing the contrast in AgX with contrast, toe, and shoulder power. Occasionally, I also used white and black relative exposure to avoid over- and underexposure.
And thatās it:
However, for situations later in the evening, I also had to deal with monochromatic light sources, which was very easy to master with primaries:
Overall, I needed one to two minutes per photo.
I didnāt have to use all the available options with any of the photos.
But first I need to know what I want to achieve with the photos in order to find the right solutions.
Once I know that, it becomes obsolete to think about where to start.
I know it sounds a little arrogant, but I think the problem of where to start lies elsewhere.
But if you need help, Iām willing to make videos if you provide me with raw files and are having trouble figuring out where to start. And Iām not just referring to AgX.
HI Boris,
Love your work and superb YT channel, if you are still open to requests for topics I would love to see your take in dt of the very popular fuji styles of Classic Cuban Negative
And/or
Reggieās Portra please?
Thanks, Shelton.
Thatās a really good idea.
Hi Boris! Maybe thatās an interesting point to further improve your already great videos? Show the āafterā at the beginning of a sequence to show what you want to achieve. That could help understand the logic and target behind your editing steps. Just a suggestion, no criticism!
Just a quick update on this: I did put in a request to have the sliders on Color Lookup Table less sensitive, but it wasnāt viewed as necessary, and it has been closed as not planned.
The solution given was to use Ctrl-scroll instead for more incremental adjustments.
@s7habo Helpful video about AgX.
It would be interesting to know if the highlight details/contrast recovery that you performed in the video series āDarktable Episode 88: sigmoid and contrastsā is simplified if you use AgX for the same photoās?
Hi @s7habo I would like to make a video request on how to achieve this look. It is quiet a popular and natural look among professional color graders. Wanted to know if it was possible and since you are an expert in dark table would be great to learn from you
Look up the episode
and
