Exporting image from Darktable to JPEG creates a different image

Processing
1

Hello,
I am using Dark table on Mac book pro 2018 and MacOS BigSur 11.6 (latest). My dark table export module is using "sRGB (web-safe). My image after editing in Darktable (darkroom) has good contrast and saturation. when I export it to JPEG with 100% quality it produces an images which is washed out and doesn’t have the contract and saturation which was applied in dark table.

I am attaching here my RAF (raw) file and also the side car file from dark table.

Can you please let me know how to export this so that the export image looks kind of same as the jpeg? It seems to me that darktable doesn’t apply all the modules before exporting the JPEG.

DSCF1229.RAF (31.0 MB)
DSCF1229.RAF.xmp (28.3 KB)

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What app are you using to view the jpeg after the fact? Is it color managed?

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Just Mac OS Finder.

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I also dropped the image on Firefox but there also it looks washed out. it doesn’t look like how it appears inside the darkroom of darktable

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Can you please open the image I have attached and the sidecar file and then export and compare the exported image to the one in the darktable and see if they look the same or not?

6

When opening the image here on linux dt 3.6, the exported JPG looks also much less saturated. I have no time at the moment to figure out why.

1 Like
7

Looks washed out for me too, but already in darktable. Exported to JPEG looks the same in Firefox.

Turned on and off all your modules. Haze removal didn’t make any difference no matter if it was turned on or off. Turn it off and export to JPEG and your picture should look the same in darktable and in JPEG. A value from 0 to -1 changes my histogram. From 0 to 1 nothing happens with the histogram. Haze removal works with my CR2 files. Seems like a bug in darktable.

I did reset your history stack and still I wasn’t able to turn on Haze removal in darktable together with your raw file.

darktable 3.6.1 and Ubuntu 20.04.

8

Yes, it seems to be the haze removal module that behaves weird. However, if you move it up in the pipeline, e.g. above color calibration, the export works.

1 Like
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For me, if I switch off the haze removal in dark table then my image gets totally washed out like the JPEG. So I am little surprised when you say that enabling/disabling haze removal is making no difference for you. for me it is making a difference in dark table.

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Haze removal makes no difference with respect to the export result. (For me) it makes a big diffrence with respect to the dt preview.

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I also noticed this issue: I exported a file to upload it into a web-gallery as jpg with sRGB (web safe) profile. While the image looked fine in both darktable 3.8.1 and the image browser on my Linux (Debian bullseye) machine, it looked washed out in Chromium. However, it looked the same as in darktable in Firefox on Linux. Then, I switched on a W11 PC and there, it looks like in Chromium when using Firefox (But on Windows both Firefox and Chrome look the same: washed out).
I found out, that for Chrome/Chromium there is a workaround. You can enforce it to use sRGB Color profile, by setting “sRGB” in chrome://flags/#force-color-profile - which works for me both on Windows and Linux. I have not actively set any color profile for my PC though.

So it is indeed somehow a problem with the color profile, but I have not figured out why that happens exactly :confused: