I’m a fairly new user to darkTable and I’ve seen what seems confusing information on workflow. The new version 5.4 has an AGX workflow that can be set as a default.
This gives a workflow with a number of pre-selected modules in an specific order when viewed in the manage presets section. From what I’ve read the pixel pipe executes the modules from the bottom to the top passing each change to the next higher module.
darkTable also allows you to create your own custom workflow by adding modules in the manage presets section with a number of columns or groups that you define.
In the documentation, it states modules are always executed in the proper
order. I assume this means the required modules to process the raw file as some modules are mandatory. Although I could be wrong in this interpretation.
The docs state somewhere that the order of the modules should not be changed, moved up or down in the modules list, as they are placed in a particular defined order.
So my question is –
should you wish to add a module not in the workflow, if the predefined workflow has module 1, module 2, module 3, etc. with module 1 starting at the bottom, can you insert your new module between module 2 and module 3 but should not change the sequence to something like modules 1, 3, your own, 2?
It seems you could add your own modules to the top of the list but then
some modifications depending on the module, would not get passed to the correct next module if there really is a correct ordering of the modules that should be executed in the pixel pipe.
If you wish to add a module to a workflow, what guidance is available to determine where it should be inserted?
No, that’s not a workflow, just a group of modules. It’s for your convenience (keeping your favourite modules easily available), not about execution order. That’s in the bottom right. A custom order is created automatically if you drag modules around, which I don’t recommend until you get familiar with the tools and understand why they are at the default position in the pipeline, and what exactly you’ll achieve by changing the execution order.
In other words: feel free to edit module group presets; don’t drag modules around in the right-hand column just yet.
Kofa gave you some good advice… once you feel comfortable in DT then as you experiment and or pick up tips in a video you might be able to make some targeted choices…really there is no need to move them very often…one example might be if you have one or more parametric masks then you simply want to tweak something for the final edit like exposure then you might choose to use a new instance and move that up the pipeline to ensure that all your masks are not altered… also there is the boundary created by the tonemapper between in general the scene-referred modules and the part of the pipeline after that which is converted to display referred… so that can influence where modules go and are moved…but for now I wouldn’t move anything until you get a good sense of how the adjustments that you are using are working on your images…
Can you link me to the page that says this? That’s probably slightly stale information from when the pixelpipe was a fixed order. Now it executes from bottom to top, in the order that you put them in, so its possible to move something to a “wrong” place (though if you’re getting the results you want, it isn’t really “wrong” per se).
Oh my…I’ve always worked them from top down.
I’ll have to try going in the other order now…I always did wonder why “Watermark” came after “Diffuse and Sharpen”.
The order that you use the modules (your workflow) should not be confused with the order that the modules are executed in the pixelpipe. They are two different things.
I’m a new user (6 months now) with a simple-minded understanding of dt. But let me try to help anyway.
When you setup darktable, you should have a default workflow that presents specific modules. The workflows are labeled as either display-referred or scene-referred (where you pick a tone mapper). Keep life easy and go with a modern scene-referred workflow. I suggest either Sigmoid (easy to use) or AgX (more powerful overall). But Filmic is great too, and sometimes is a good option. Anyway, pick one. You can always change the tone mapper when editing.
Let’s say you learn about a module that is not on your default workflow and want to try it. The easiest way to test is to just add it to your module list while editing a photo (type the name in the search window).
The module will be added in an appropriate place in the pixel pipeline. You may edit your modules in any order, and the image will be processed in the correct sequence according to the pixel pipeline. Make a change to one module, and the entire photo is reprocessed.
If you want to make a permanent change to your module list, see:
There are some comments above about changing module order. Darktable is powerful and flexible, and you have the option to move modules within the pixel pipeline. But this is an advanced topic, and I do not recommend this for beginners, as it is possible to introduce problems.
I hope you enjoy darktable as much as I do. The devs have done a great job making a system that gives a structured, correct workflow and yet offers great flexibility.
@garry611 welcome to the forum and welcome to DT. You have made a wise choice of software in my opinion.
To reiterate what has already been said, the modules are applied in a sensible order. With experience you may alter the order to your benefit, but as a beginner trust the developer’s decision until you know specific instances when modules may be better reordered.
However, there is no need to activate and adjust the modules in the order they are displayed. For instance I apply local contrast to most of my images. It is one of the later modules to be in the pipeline but I activate as one of my first modules so I can visualise its ultimate influence as I adjust modules earlier in the pipeline.
from a workflow prospective the pixel pipe processing order is quite meaningless. You use each module in an arbitrary order - the pixel pipe decides the processing order.
It’s more about the performance of you machine because changing stuff early in the pipe causes reprocessing of all even unchanged modules later in the pipe.
So it’s not a good idea is to do performance critical steps like diffuse and sharpen before having found a proper setting for e.g. the exposure.
Or if you’re using parametric masks, you need to be aware, that edits earlier in the pipe can change this masks since the input data might be affected.
There are two exceptions:
retouch and liquify: you should set them as early as possible, since they need to process the whole pipe to display even small changes. But once found a proper setting, just switch them off while doing more editing. Reenable them at the end (they keep their settings) so you’re quite fine even the whole pixelpipe is reprocessed during editing.
There is one thing that I think we forgot to explain. I’m going to call it the snowball effect.
The processing pipe is controlled in dt, so it doesn’t matter when you turn on or modify module, dt will process it correctly. But it makes sense to work on the modules at the bottom (first in the pipe) first and move up from there. Why? because the adjustment of one module impacts another one further from the pipe.
Two examples: exposure affects the tone equalizer and tone mappers. If you start at the mappers and then adjust the exposure, the mapper settings will then likely be wrong. The same happens with white balance and color equalizer.
Conclusion: try to work bottom to the top.
(side note: I wish we could flip this in preference to be top to bottom order for my OCD).
the best place in the pixel pipe is where they currently are. In an editing workflow it makes sense to do rotate&perspective quite early since a properly rotated image with an expected perspektive look feels better. crop can be done later if later cropped parts are needed for corrections. If there’s content that might disturb picker functions (e.g. burned out areas you don’t want to have in the final image) then it makes sense to get rid of them. Also crop has an impact on the histogram…
I learnt something new today. Thanks for this excellent titbit of information. BTW, I have not really explored the liquify module and I am wondering what useful purpose it can serve in photo editing. I am sure it is just my ignorance on display here, but I am interested.
