How to create and use Styles?

Software darktable
1

I’m having problems creating and using Styles. The documentation doesn’t help me figure out what I’m doing wrong and so I’m here.

In darkroom I start with (my custom) list of modules (that I use often; they are in the list when you click on the icon next to the “show only active modules”. In this list I’ve created new instances of some modules, renamed the new instances, moved them to precede or follow other modules, etc. E.g., Tone Equalizer is near the end of the pipe.

I turn OFF all the modules in the custom list so none are active. The only active modules then are White Balance, Orientation, etc.

In lighttable I “create a style”. This brings up the “create new style”. I see the modules in the custom list (and see they are not active) and the active ones too (White Bal, etc.). I give the new style a name e.g., “New Style”.

So far so good.

Later, when I bring up an image and I apply the “New Style” I run into several problems:
a) the modules in “New Style” appear. Some (but not all) are turned ON automatically. E.g., Color Calibration is turned ON but not Color Balance RGB or Tone Eq or Local Contrast. In creating “New Style” all these modules were turned OFF by default. My intent was to turn on only those modules from “New Style” that I needed in processing an image, not have anything turned on by default (other than White Bal and Orientation). What am I doing wrong? what should I do instead?

b) What does the “include” column in “Create New Style” do? If I’m creating a style with select modules, why would I not include those modules I’ve already marked as relevant for the style? Turning off the check mark in the include column for a module seems to make no difference: the module appears in the style no matter what.

c) the second column in “Create New Style” has no heading. The stopwatch icon is always ON for all the modules, even those I turned OFF before trying to “create new style”. How does one turn on or off these modules in “create new style”?

d) Lastly, when I apply a style on an image in darkroom the image goes blank and dark. And that’s it. My only way to recover the original image is to delete the duplicate and go back to the original in darkroom and manually work my way through the pixel pipe and add/move new instances of modules around, etc. That defeats the whole purpose of creating a style and using it. What am I doing wrong?

2

Post your style…and what have you set the mode to append or replace??

3

Attached my Style.

I’m afraid I don’t know. In creating the Style I didn’t see an Append or Replace option.
Style

4

Its not style specific… its here…

Whatever this is set to will be the mode used when you apply the style…

You could also export it and share it here for people to see how it is behaving…

I think you can just add all the module you want for your style.

Then disable the ones you want to be disabled and then just create it from the history stack… edit to be sure it has all the modules you want…and you should be good…

You can also do this at the preset level it doesn’t have to be a style… if you want to start a module with a certain set of parameters but also inactive just do so and auto apply …you will get this for images matching your criteria…all raw or only NEF or whatever…so this is another way you can do this…

image

5

Todd, I’m missing something,

What is the “it” you refer to?
Where would I find ‘it’ that I can add “the modules I want, disable those I want so”
The Styles menu you attached seems exactly what I used to “create” my style…but, apparently, I’m doing something wrong…

6

For your case a)

7

Ok, thank you, I shall try it out to see if it fixes item (a) in my original posting.

I must admit, to the extent this helps, it is near impossible to grasp the nuances in “creating a style” between:
a) “Append” and “Overwrite”;
b) “Include” and “Update”;
c) what turns a module OFF when a style is defined to ON when it is applied.

The manual is of scarce help. If not for help in this forum I’d be having a lot less hair than I do!

8

Just showing you where the mode selection is…

9

I don’t really use them that much but a style is basically just a history stack. I would just go into darkroom pull up an image. Create the history stack with the modules you want and in the state you want. Then just click the button at the bottom of the stack to create your style. It sounds like you want it to set startup so maybe be sure you are in overwrite and then try it… it should work without much need to be tweaking thing??

10

What isn’t clear about:

mode
As with the history stack module, this combobox allows you to either “append” the style to the current history stack or to “overwrite” the history stack of the target image

11

I bring up an image and go into DT where I order a set of modules, turn off all presets, turn off the modules. See attached DT-modules image.
For same image I go into LT. I create a Style in “overwrite” mode. See attached LT-modules image. Note the exposure module present in the former is absent in the latter.

I bring up another image. I apply the newly created style.
In applying the style I just wanted the list of modules to show up (I had ordered in DT-modules image) with no module applied and no presets. I can then work my way through the module as needed.

Instead when I apply the style the image is affected. In ways I can’t comprehend. See Style-Applied.
DR-modules
LT-Modules

Style Applied
Style Applied1202×732 64.2 KB

Could someone clarify what is going on, what I’m not doing that I should be doing?

12

Please read the manual. The MODE is during PASTE not during creation. You likely want the Overwrite.

mode
This setting defines how the paste actions behave when applied to an image that already has a history stack. In simple terms the “overwrite” mode deletes the previous history stack before pasting, whereas “append” concatenates the two history stacks together.

https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/4.2/en/module-reference/utility-modules/lighttable/history-stack/#module-controls

13

If you create a style from an image using all the modules, you copy the modules as well as the settings. When you apply the style in overwrite mode, you overwrite all the automatically applied modules with the settings from the image you created the style from.

When I create a style like this, I go to lighttable and start to create a style. I select none, then go through and only select the modules I have added, and the module order so that they stay in the same order. When I apply the style I use append mode. This way the automatically applied modules do their calculations for the image and I add my style on top of that.

14

Can you export and upload the style…you may have to rename it txt or zip it as I don’t think dtstyle is a recognized extension…maybe I am wrong…Also note you can’t create a style in overwrite mode at least I don’t think so . Your style that you create uses the current setting in that dialogue to decide how it gets applied… I don’t think this is your issue but just to clarify…

15

Bill, please clarify that at the time you “go to lighttable and create a style, select none, select only those you added”, you have already processed an image with those modules that you later select. Correct?

If I were to do that I find the order of modules I used are different from those that show up with I “create style”. And in the create style dialog I can’t move the modules around to match what I used in darkroom.

Also, you suggest Append mode and clarify what Overwrite does.
g-man says I “likely want Overwrite mode”.
I tried both. Results equally bad.

16

Bill is suggesting a way so that for example filmic which sets some values based on the image the first time it runs will do this with your style otherwise your style applies a static set of values that originate from the image that it was created with…

17

Here is a style I have created for sharpening and denoising. Note that I deactivate as many options as I can. Because some options are very camera or image specific and can produce bizarre results when applied to a different image. This may contribute to your difficulties.

image

18

Have you tried doing it from darkroom?

image
image579×1053 98.9 KB

I don’t have the reset/update options on my current version either - I think that’s a new feature (in 4.2.1?) to allow styles to reset modules to allow the auto functionality where relevant.

And the order of modules shown in the ‘create style’ dialogue is not relevant AFIAK - the important bit if you’ve moved modules is the “module order” in the list of modules that you can save in the style.
Just in case this helps.

19

No, I didn’t know of that path.
Learning about it from Steven’s response I created a style after creating a “history stack”. The stack included new instances of modules that I had also moved. The new style, after creation, confirms the same problem I described earlier: some of the modules that I had in the history stack are missing, modules in the Style are different from those in the history stack, modules I had turned off in the history stack show up turned on upon application of the Style, and these difference hold not just in the “Style” I had created but also after I’ve applied that Style.

This seems a very simple thing conceptually but, for reasons beyond me, it’s not so simple for me. My brain is fried so I’m going to have to forget about convenience and efficiency–the reasons for creating a “Style” of modules I frequently use, in the order I want them to be–and accept my use of DT would neccesarily involve more time and effort than I anticipated.

20

I’m sorry it’s not working out for you! One more question - are you ticking the boxes to include the elements you want to include, including the “module order”?

(this is just a snapshot from a random image - not specific)
image