Feedback on Spektrafilm documentation

As per comment in the Spektrafilm comment, here is some feedback on the Spektrafilm documentation. (Please note, as bit of background, I have excellent (scientific) reading English skills, but I am not a native speaker).

While in general the documentation is excellent and technical very good. Some of the sentences and sub-sentences sometime get me a bit lost.


Out of the box, film exposure behaves like leaving the enlarger on for a fixed time: expose the film more and the print comes out brighter. Switch on auto print exposure and it stops doing that, because print exposure now compensates automatically – which is what a real printer does, aiming for consistent print density however the negative was exposed.

I don’t really get the sentence… Switch on auto print exposure… what exactly is automated?

A few print stocks respond only to a very narrow slice of the spectrum – the duplicating and release print films (Kodak 2302, 2383, 2393) rather than the ordinary papers

Are these Kodak films examples? There seems to be a word missing here?

Film stock, print paper and film format are always visible at the top.

At the top of what? The top of module?

With auto print exposure on this no longer changes overall brightness (see usage above), but it still changes color and grain because it moves the scene to a different part of the film’s response.

I think: a comma should be added With auto print exposure on, this no longer changes overall

Look at the developed negative or slide directly instead of printing it. Switches on by itself for slide and reversal stocks and off again for negative stocks; you can override it either way afterward.

I think you mean: Switches on by default for slide and reversal stocks…
I now sounds as it the the switches is a person :wink:

Shooting the film at a speed other than the box says, then compensating in development, in stops.

I don’t really get it, which box?

How long the film is developed, in minutes. Only a few black & white stocks were measured at more than one time

I think you mean Only a few black & white stocks have multiple measurement for different development times. The sentence can also be interpreted that I measured multiple times, but as the same time.

In a real developing tank the chemistry gets locally used up where the film was most heavily exposed.

I think you mean: In a real developing tank the chemicals gets locally ** depleted** where the film was most heavily exposed.


So far my first comments on the documentation. But overall very very nice!! This seems a lot… but it is mostly nit picking, I hope It is useful

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This got posted in the original thread too - spektrafilm-ofx/documentation/spektrafilm_reference_guide.pdf at main Ā· chaert-s/spektrafilm-ofx Ā· GitHub - the explanations, albeit more ā€œscientificā€, generally sit better with me.

I understand, but keep in mind that the documentation is not a scientific explanation, but an explanation of how to use the software. And I think that the documentation is delivering a striking balans in explaining how to use the software and not keeping the end user in the dark about the science behind it.

maybe we could link to the OFX docs for users interested in more scientific background

I haven’t been following the threads about Spektrafilm, but if documents are being prepared does than mean it will be merged to master soon?

@Terry, it IS in Master since last weekend :slight_smile: .

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thanks, I made a PR for this:

Great! In the other toptic there was a comment about not understanding with the module does. My Suggestion:

** Spektrafilm aims to recreate the look of an analog film stock printed onto darkroom paper for digital images. It is not intended to replace Negadoctor, but rather provides a software approach to emulate the proces of developing film in the darkroom**


A few additional feedback pints.

There are two here, at different points in the chain: one at the camera, one at the enlarger.

For people not too familiair with analog film stock, ā€˜the chain’ is not that clear. What exactly do you mean?

quality, How finely the color simulation is calculated.

What is ā€˜finely’ ? Is that the accuracy? Is it referring to structure? From the context it seems accuracy?

How coarse the film’s crystals are, relative to the value measured for this stock. 1.0 is the datasheet figure.

1.0 is the datasheet figure., what do you mean by this. That 1.0 is default derive d from the original method in the referenced PDF?

uniformity
How evenly the crystals are distributed, relative to the stock’s own figure. Lowering it bends the noise into a bell curve: grain that peaks in the midtones and eases off again in the densest areas.

It might be good to include what a higher value does so that people will understand the effect better.

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thanks again! I made a another PR Rework text on feedback by piratenpanda Ā· Pull Request #1112 Ā· darktable-org/dtdocs Ā· GitHub

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I’ve also added some FAQ to the ā€œusageā€ section on things I thought about while using the module. Any more suggestions from you guys?

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Nice clear addition to the documentation!!

only use one display transform
Never use spektrafilm together with another display transform module (i.e. filmic rgb, sigmoid, AgXor base curve) – spektrafilm performs the film’s own tone mapping as part of simulating development and printing.

I am just wondering. Can this be automated: the moment you enable Spektrafilm, all the other tone mappers are disabled?

I am already picturing tons of people that just start to play with Spektrafilm, don’t read the docs and overwhelm us at this forum or other places.

And one additional thought: Would one of you, or maybe @Bruce_Williams be able to produce a video tutorial of how to the Spektrafilm module before darktable 5.8 is released?

Then the day darktable 5.8 is released, that video can be released at well.

I don’t think it can (and I would honestly be against ist). But having a warning similar to the infamous white-balance-warning might make sense for combinations of sigmoid/spektrafilm/filmic/AgX/basecurve

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That would also do the trick.

or @s7habo :slight_smile:

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Yes, i should be able to put a video together prior to the release of dt5.8 just before Christmas.

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That would be awesome!!

I’m thinking about writing an article about it too

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Are more film stocks planned to be added (e.g. Polaroid)?

Thank you for adding the ā€œwhy doesn’t the tone range hit 100% white?ā€ and ā€œwhy doesn’t the tone range hit 100% black?ā€ sections to the docs - I found that very helpful when coming from one of the other scene-referred tonemappers and seeing the highlights (e.g. clouds) look flat.

Is the recommendation the same as other tonemappers, where you should use an instance of exposure to properly expose the midtones, then turn on spektrafilm and adjust if needed?

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It is usually solved by setting tone mapper in preferences so that only the Spektrafilm module would be applied to an image never opened in dt before.

As we’ve seen in the Spektrafilm style thread, Spektrafilm can be combined with other tone mappers for creative effects.

It’s nice if you can use dt in unintended ways. When you know the rules you’re allowed to break them. :wink:

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