I noticed the following while working with masks in darktable (screenshots show ellipse masks, but the same happens with drawn masks). Suppose I create a mask for vignetting:
that I invert:
Why does the area inside have a positive mask (note yellow cast)? I found I can make it empty with decreasing mask opacity, it is unclear to me how to make a mask negative without affecting every part of the image.
One thing I canât see on the screenshots is the feathering radius. Just tried to reproduce and when I push this feathering radius cursor I see the same kind of âpositive maskâ in the center part.
It is 0.
I am curious if others get the same thing if they try it in Darktable.
Check the mask opacity.
For me, on 4.8 itâs working as expected I thinkâŚ
but by hovering over the mask and using ctrl+scroll I can make it look like yoursâŚ
I vaguely remember a similar discussion some time ago, but canât remember the conclusion.
I would say because your mask was not 100% opacity, so when inverted itâs not 100% âclearâ to put it clumsily.
ctrl+scroll = change mask opacity
Perfect! Thatâs the solution. Can I make 100% opacity default? (for components)
I have had this issue - default masks being less tahan 100 % - some time ago, perhaps I solved it by editing darktablerc. Perhaps this line:
plugins/darkroom/masks/opacity=1,000000
Thanks, this solves my problem (I had to use a decimal . instead of a , but maybe this is just my locale setting).
The original value was around 0.55, I am not sure if this is the default, but if it is, I donât understand why.
The default changes every time if you set mask opacity before creating mask or if you use the âmask opacityâ slider in retouch module after the mask is done.
Yes, this is an often overlooked feature.
Note: When used in shape creation mode, the preceding scroll operations will also cause the default feathering or opacity to be changed. The new default values will be used the next time you create a new shape.
darktable 4.6 user manual - drawn masks
The use case for altering the default opacity is described by @elstoc here: Remove plugins/darkroom/masks/opacity from darktablerc ¡ Issue #13037 ¡ darktable-org/darktable ¡ GitHub
I think even though itâs been a recurring issue, we have to respect that different people have different needs. There is a solution, and it is documented. Unless someone can come up with something much better, we just have to remember that is how opacity works in darktable.
I just wasnât aware of the feature but now that I know I understand the reasons. Thanks for everyone who patiently explained to me.
Not that opacity but the drawn shape opacityâŚsometimes it gets stuck at less than 100 and it looks like that on your screen shot⌠upper status bar will tell youâŚ
Ignore I missed a post or two scrollingâŚ
