I am experiencing the fact that the picture in edit more is very underexposed and dull, compared to the jpeg preview.
I know this is because darktable does not show you the default filters so it allows you to edit the RAW image fully.
However I am mostly very happy with the default filters applied in the JPEG preview.
Is there a quick way to turn these RAW Canon (CR3) images into the default JPEG?
Or, to apply all the default filters from within darktable, and be able to tweak as necessary?
Darktable cannot directly reproduce the Canon JPEGs - you might be better off with the proprietary Canon software for that purpose.
If you change the workflow setting in darktable preferences to “scene-referred - sigmoid” images will load with the sigmoid tonemapper instead of filmic.
Images already opened will need to have the history deleted to reflect the change.
Sigmoid presents an image somewhat closer to a usual JPEG, but you will still need to apply sharpening and whatever other enhancements you might want.
RawTherapee and ART can apply an auto-matched tone curve which gets you a lot closer to the OOC (out of camera) JPEG. But darktable is very much intended to allow full control over all parts of the process - so it doesn’t.
Also, you can post a RAW+JPEG pair if you like, with an appropriate Creative Commons licence, and we/I can try producing a style to match. It’s always going to be approximate though.
My answer would be that if you really like the JPEG then use it. Canon have invested a lot of effort in making their JPEGS look nice. Also the supplied Canon software is likely to produce the results you want.
I actually shoot in RAW + JPEG with my cameras including my Canon R7. I process the RAW files in DT and then nearly always delete the JPEGs because DT has done a better job. I don’t go chasing the JPEG look I want to exceed it.
However, to answer your question I feel you could create a style that will give you a better starting point. My styles include using Sigmoid instead of filmic as this gives nicer colors out of the box.
We may be able to help you achieve a decent starting point if you post an image in Play Raw. But try Sigmoid instead of filmic and see if that helps. Filmic gives dull colors because it is designed that way. Then after filmic you are meant to add color with the color balance RGB module. Sigmoid just saves this step for most images. However, I still use color RGB module to tweak contrast, saturation and brighten shadows etc.
The preview of an unedited image is the jpg…no filters… when you open it in DT the raw is now previewed with some basic default modules necessary to display it…from there you can customize and experiment and when you have a look or settings it is easy to set these up to be applied…
Use the much-maligned basecurve module (feel free to move it to the end of the pipeline to silence the primary criticism of it), turn “preserve colors” off, and choose the Canon-like curve
The primary thing that makes such a huge difference is the tone curve, and nearly all camera JPEG engines are NOT hue-preserving.