Improvement Suggestions

[herbert-50]

@Dave22152

One thing that might help new users is a video that lays out from import to export, a basic Darktable workflow.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the neighboring threads:

darktable simple workflow series

Hello all! I have released a video series on using darktable. The simple workflow includes: Importing and culling photos, and basic darktable settings including optimization of system resources. Module setup for the simple workflow The full editing workflow, including details about each module mentioned. I really hope this is helpful!! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdlLh3mYxf6a_BX9BBDfUNEO2toBaL6t7&si=sDagVEezB64aSyYv

simplified darktable workflow, v2

Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback, I spent a lot of time today creating a new version of my darktable workflow. I am really happy with it. Of course, I am still open to any feedback and love to learn and improve. Here is the new tutorial for anyone who is interested! [FREE photo editor tutorial - SIMPLIFIED darktable workflow!]

Videos like these are good and help you get started.

More videos are also good, but they ultimately lead to the same problem that exists in darktable: confusion caused by too many modules.

A beginner then no longer knows where the beginning and end are.

Perhaps it would be helpful to categorize such videos into groups on the darktable.org website, so that beginners have a guideline.

Suggestions for this could come from the users.

I already mentioned it in my post above. I see the complexity of some modules related to the scene-based workflow as the main obstacle to getting started.

This isn’t a criticism, and I don’t think much can be done about it. Very good results require such modules.

But as a beginner, do you need excellent results right away, or are good ones sufficient for now? Or to put it another way: Does it have to be a scene-specific workflow right away?

In photo forums, people often ask for a photo editing program. If Darktable is mentioned, others immediately point out that it’s difficult to get started.

These are often simple requirements that Darktable can easily meet. Therefore, I would see a step-by-step approach:

1. Photo management with darktable
2. JPG editing with darktable
3. RAW in a display-related workflow
4. RAW in a scene-related workflow
5. Advanced configuration and Lua scripting

You can do a lot at Level 1, and even if you don’t know all the intricacies, you can start at Level 2 after just a few minutes.

This gives you a good foundation with which you can achieve a lot from a beginner’s perspective.

There are many people - especially the Fuji Users - who are satisfied with the JPGs from the camera, but a tool to manage the images or make one or two simple changes would be great.

If you try it yourself, it’s amazing how much you can achieve with darktable and JPG files.

Even at Level 3, you can get good results and solve one of the main problems with JPGs - correcting exposure - without having to acquire too much knowledge.

This creates an incentive for some to invest more effort and tackle Level 4 to gain even more editing options.

I think Darktable already has this potential. It’s just somewhat hidden and not appreciated properly.

When you look at posts and some videos, as a beginner you get the impression that without the scene-based workflow everything is pointless and it is very difficult with it.

For me, the question is, where does Darktable actually want to go?

• Should it be the software for power users who start directly with the scene-based workflow?
• Or should it also be a software for beginners or people with less demands.

If it only applies to the first group, I think that’s a shame, because as of today, darktable is also suitable for the second group.

But then it’s clear, and darktable should only be recommended to people who have the appropriate requirements and are willing to invest a lot of learning effort.