I’m really impressed by all the helpful information I’ve found here and on Youtube for not only learning how to use darktable, but also to understand light and color theory, the relationship between the scene and display, etc. I’ve also found great information on how to acheive very specific effects with DT like display mapping, color manipulation, split toning, sharpening, contrast, spot healing, highlight recovery, masking, etc. At this point, I feel comfortable editing an image to get it looking better than the JPEGs than my camera gives me, though there is much room for improvement.
It seem like photo editing is taken to the next level when the artist is not only able to capture the subject, but artistically represent it. One way to do that, I think, is taking my “naturally” edited photos and applying more “creative” or “stylized” effects to my images to match a tone or mood. To be more specific, I’m thinking of the kinds of effects like Instagram filters or Lightroom presets (Here are some example lightroom preset effects as an example). However, I don’t want presets or Instagram filters; I would like to be able to acheive those effects myself using DT and its powerful modules. I’m having trouble finding resources using DT that teach how to acheieve these “mood” or “filter” effects.
Maybe there are other users interested in this kind of thing? Perhaps there are some of us that are using DT in this way willing to show off some ways to use DT software to acheive creative, stylized effects?