In darkroom mode, there’s an icon at the bottom left, quick access for applying any of your styles, with one item, darktable camera styles that contains a hierarchy of cameras styles.
It’s quite painful to have to go through the whole hierarchy each time I need to apply the Nikon Z6III style to my photos as an initial step.
Is there a way to do that with a single click or keyboard shortcut (without it being done automatically, since I don’t use that every time)?
Sorry if the question seems basic. I can do some processing with Darktable, but I’m not proficient with any of the customization and scripting options, and the few answers I found by looking around seemed to apply to other use-cases or were too obscure to me.
EDIT: One way I found, but that looks more like a hack, is to export the style from lighttable mode, edit the file, remove the hierarchy in <name>, and import it. Now, I can access it directly as a 2nd item in the quick access pop-up without going through the whole hierarchy, but it probably won’t be updated if the original styles are, so it’s not a very good solution.
Tweak, save and make these styles your own. They are a great starting point. All of these styles are the work of a single developer going thru a great effort to open the raws from each camera and developing to visually match the camera jpg. It is an awesome work he did to help new users.
I tried to do that, but it creates a shortcut to the quick access for applying any of your styles, which doesn’t help since I still have to navigate through the hierarchy. I tried from the lighttable mode, where it’s possible to see the styles, but they can’t be directly targeted.
I suppose I’ll have to live with my export/import copy, but it’s very annoying if the original is updated, which I suspect it will. But thanks to confirm it’s a valid approach and not something that’ll break down. At least, there’s that.
Maybe it’s possible to create a script that calls that particular style, and create a shortcut to this script, but it’s way above my current knowledge.
Note that those settings are not anything that brings you closer to ‘truth’ or ‘reality’. They are not required for correct processing (the differences in sensors and filters are handled by the input color profile module). There’s nothing wrong in applying a Nikon style to a Sony camera, for example, if you like the ‘Nikon look’.
Oh, nice, thanks a lot! I completely missed those shortcuts when I looked.
Yes, I know it’s optional. It helps me understand what steps bring the image closer to what the camera is doing to the JPEGs after the first steps like demosaicing, etc. I suppose I’ll end up doing my own styles when I’m more familiar with the software, but for now, they give me a good starting point.
I have a Canon R7. I opened the supplied style but then added initial sharpening and denoising. I then saved this as a new style which I called “R7 filmic style” which is easily located because it is not in the hierarchy of the darktable camera styles.
However, inspired by this idea I created my own styles that try and replicate the look of the JPGs that come out of my camera and I call these JPG styles in my list. I created these by opening the JPG, taking a snapshot and then opening the RAW. I looked at factors such as exposure, saturation, contrast, shadow & highlights, and anything else which would bring me close to the JPG as a starting point. It proved surprisingly helpful with my travel shots although I don’t see the out of camera JPGs as the holy grail but rather a nice starting point. The RAW file produces sharper images with more fine detail and better shadow and highlights than the JPG files.
Hi, thanks, I read that in the “news” for dt 5 as well. However, I have never used any lua scripts. Could you give us a quick “how to” enable that?
(I checked, my lua is working, the “hello world” example in luarc runs fine – but no idea how to enable the script you mentioned as automatic import action – did not find this in the manual so far – sorry if I missed it, a hint would be appreciated).
In lighttable in the bottom of the left panel is a module scripts. Open it, go to the official category, then click the power button next to apply camera style.
Got it. Thanks so much.
Had to install git first, then I could install the scripts. It works for my Samsung NX500, but not for my Pentax K-3 Mark III. The style is not applied. Seems the Pentax exif does not match what the script is expecting. However, this is something that I can debug, now that I got started. Will update here (hopefully, if I find out something). Will also test some other cameras that I own and have a style according to the list.
As a plain and simple dt user (not yet used any lua scripts) I’ve for some time wondered in general what determines whether a new function is integrated into “core dt”, or provided as a lua script that requires of the user that he takes action in a new domain. This question seems particularly relevant for this script which appears to me to foremost be of possible assistance to new dt users now with the advent of new default darktable camera styles.
It would be interesting if @wpferguson or others can shed some light on this.
(New users are now not met with a completely empty lighttable, but rather some good hints/advice for use. These hints include “make default raw development look more like your camera’s JPEG by applying a camera-specific style”. For new and simple users, though, it’s a certain stretch to be able to take advantage of this advice – which I think is illustrated by some of the resent questions in the forum.)
Ok, found the issue. I set my Pentax cameras to write DNG raw files, but somehow, image.is_raw seems to be “false” for those. As a quick-and-dirty fix, I modified
dt.register_event(MODULE, “post-import-image”,
function(event, image)
– if image.is_raw then
table.insert(acs.imported_images, image)
– end
end
)
That is, I commented out the “if image.is_raw …” check. Now, the style is applied:
16.0186 LUA DEBUG: apply_camera_style.lua: apply_style_to_images: 382: got maker pentax and model k-3 mark iii from image 20250101-134609-MIST-K3III-2892.DNG
16.0187 LUA DEBUG: apply_camera_style.lua: has_style_tag: 321: looking for tag darktable|style|_l10n_darktable camera styles|Pentax|K-3 Mark III
16.0190 LUA DEBUG: apply_camera_style.lua: has_style_tag: 324: checking against darktable|format|dng
16.0973 LUA INFO: apply_camera_style.lua: applied style _l10n_darktable camera styles|Pentax|K-3 Mark III to 20250101-134609-MIST-K3III-2892.DNG
Works for me now, since I basically never import non-raw, but for sure a proper fix is required.
Hope this information helps to create one.
It’s a rather new addition to darktable with the scene-referred workflow (before that, basecurve did something like it with its brand-specific curves). So future versions may see an easier way to use those styles (e.g. automatic application of styles like we have for presets now).
And applying a style is hardly a complicated operation, especially if you are willing to use the manual. A lot of questions here can be answered with a link to the manual… But I’m probably a bit behind the times, growing up in an era where books* were the standard method of learning something (or hands-on teaching…)
On the other hand, why do you use darktable if you only want to get the “camera look”? It may (or may not) be a good starting point, but using such styles all the time can also prevent you from learning what dt can do.
(*: books: stacks of sheets of printed paper, linked together for random access. That random access feature is still a large advantage over Youtube tutorials )
I’m not of the opinion that it’s complicated, just that it isn’t fairly straight forward for a beginner. It may take some time for a newbee to get to the point where one gets ready to note/understand/apply the concept, and at that stage one should hopefully already be beyond the point where getting the camera look is the single aim. But as many have pointed to before, it isn’t a quite unreasonable for a newcomer to dt to wish that one gets the ability to start personal and pictorial development from a point that is not too far away from what can be seen in the SOOC JPG, (even being aware of and understanding the full control policy of dt) – at least some early feeling of “mastering” may prevent demotivation from less successfull first attempts.
So I do applaud the work done to establish the default camera styles. Dt has lately been added several functions/aspects that aids the newcomer, and it seems then that we also can look forward to:
to improve this even more. Thanks!
I agree completely, and that also apply IMM to books that are not on printed paper, but in some kind of digital form. And it is not only the random access, but at least as much the mind operated pausing function when one need to think somewhat before continuing intake of info.
Another alternative to quickly apply a style is something like @bastibe’s Film Simulation Panel (also in this thread). The script just links different styles to buttons in the sidebar, so it would be very easy to update these to your most used styles, and add custom button images to match. I really like this approach, since it’s easier to swap between styles quickly to find what I want, and works both in lighttable and darkroom views.
Not really. It is not difficult to have a style that one always uses without attempting to automate it. I do. I have a style called “Start” It turns on a few modules, and applies presets to some others, but leaves them “off,” so they are ready in my favourites.
After importing a batch of photos, I Select-All and double click on the style name. Done. That could easily be the Camera Style, instead, or as well as.
Just Doing It is simple: thinking "Ooh… could I automate this? Save Clicks!" is something I put off for the more nerdish days!
Yes, you’re right – to the extent that the newbee knows what a “style” is at all, that is, (as e.g. compared to a “preset” – and remember that some of the new users are here in a foreign language terrain, not all of us users have the luxury to have dt translated to ones native langue), or what a “module” is for that sake.
In general there are a lot of things that are “not difficult” (in particular for those who already know them). But there is exactly that; “a lot”, and it takes some time to orient oneself and get acquainted with all that lot. (Remember how easily one gets off the track the first days in a new job when everything is new and one don’t know anybody and even don’t know where the WC is?) And it’s in this first, short consolidating period that we may have the most use/need for a very easy way of activating specific default camera styles. So I think it is a good thing for recruiting new users that the path to applying such styles becomes even clearer.
And if it should possibly delay further progress in dt abilities somewhat, does it really matter
if new users are happy (happier?) anyhow?
)