I have been struggling lately with making the switch. I am 100% committed to getting away form Lightroom. I currently have 1 Windows machine running in my house and I would like it to be zero but software like Lightroom is holding me back from getting away from Windows and fully transitioning everything to Linux.
I understand that the software are COMPLETELY different. Lightroom is much more user friendly however I would like to retrain myself and change my editing workflow so I can be fluent with Darktable.
Does anyone have any advice, tips, links, resources or anything that might help in this journey.
I’ve done this some years ago. What I did is during around 1 year when I edited a batch for pictures with Lr I also did the same with 2, 3 or 5 pictures with dt trying to get the same results (or at least something I liked). Back on this time I watched all the videos from Carafife, but this won’t help very much with the new scene referred workflow.
Try using/familiarizing with the following modules:
exposure
color calibration
tone equalizer
color balance rgb
denoise profile
local contrast
crop
perspective correction
You should be able to do whatever you like.
Of course you’ll need to learn the masking which is in dt quite powerful (drawn & parametric masks).
Take it slow. There’s no need to use or understand all the modules available. Stick to a small subset you learn well, and grow from there. Ask questions, read the manual, watch the YouTubes.
Not to dissuade you from darktable (which is also what I use), but check out the other FLOSS projects as well. ART is praised for its usability; RawTherapee (which ART forked a few years ago) also offers many powerful tools. And Filmulator is simply unique.
I think that is ome of the biggest hurdles to overcome. When I learned Lightroom, I was really into using layers, and the brush tool was very powerful at making fine adjustments but in Darktable it seems to be less forgiving and more complicated of a concept. I liked being able to create a single layer or mask with a brush and manipulate multiple different attributes like highlights, shadows, hue, saturation, etc… In Darktable (from what I see) the masking is a lot more complicated and is pegged to individual modules versus just creating a single layer to work with. Super helpful when wanting to just focus on a subject. Also I miss the intelligent identification between subjects and backgrounds from Lightroom.
I found a video that talked about transitioning from LR to DT and it described the very thing you mentioned about focusing on those few modules and even adding them to favorites to make the workflow simpler.
Think of the masking in DT as a layer…each module has one… if you want to use the same one in another module then use the raster mask options… that lets you use a copy of the mask from any module that is earlier in the pixel processing pipeline that the one in which you wish to apply it… creating the masks if pretty easy and strait forward …
PS welcome and don’t be afraid to share a few raw files and edits and express your concerns and questions… you will learn a lot from the exchange…
I guess I am just struggling with developing a new workflow. Ive spent years learning LR and now that I have made the decision to get rid of all Windows machines in my environment, the thought of relearning something is debilitating. So much that I have stared at the same photo for 2 days with no creative ambition. I would compare it with trying to express yourself in a second language that you can barely speak.
PS, this is a hobby of mine, I am not a professional, so this is supposed to be enjoyable to me. I already have disliked editing photos but Lightroom made it fun mostly because of its simplicity but DT just seems way too overwhelming. I know I posted this question today on here, but this is a process I have been struggling with for months now.
I relate to that - I’m currently very comfortable with darktable, to the point where I’m feeling a little bored yet unwilling to try anything else. I want to give RawTherapee a proper go so I intend to process my next batch of photos with that… as a change!
But when I got into darktable a year or two back I found it a steep learning curve initially. But rewarding when I got it working for me, and I guess I enjoyed the challenge. (Mostly…) I used Photoshop Elements occasionally before that, but mostly just on jpegs.
This is me when it comes to learning CPU languages. So many ideas, so little energy for coding. Its like banging my head against a brick wall. All my background is in the arts.
If you want a simple raw photo tool on Linux, filmulator is your best bet. Good results fast, albeit not as flexible. Darktable is brilliant, but the learning curve is steep if you want all its bells and whistles.
The simplest workflow for a beginner would be this:
In settings set your workflow to scene referred sigmoid. Then, in order, adjust:
Exposure (in exposure)
White balance (in color calibration)
Contrast (in sigmoid)
Saturation/highlights/shadows (in color balance rgb)
Sharpen (in diffuse or sharpen if you have good gpu, or contrast equaliser if you don’t - use the given presets)
Local contrast (in diffuse or sharpen, or in local contrast. This to me is a bit like lightrooms clarity. Increase iterations if you want more)
Denoise (in denoise profiled)
Plus tools for image alignment:
Lens correction
Crop
Rotate
The above will give you decent results, fast.
If you want to do something that resembles dodging and burning, tone equaliser is the one to learn.
May I ask other than maybe financial why would you do this??? You have invested years and it was fun. change for the sake of change is not always a good thing…
You may find that drawn + parametric masks can get you there relatively quickly (not with a single click, though), and then mask refinement (feathering and adjustment based on detail level) can help you fine-tune masks. As others mentioned, you can reuse:
complete masks via raster masks and
individual shapes.
You cannot reuse parametric masks directly (only by using raster masks), since modules may change pixel values, which means two identical sets of parameters may cover different pixels in one module than in the other.
^ absolutely. Ultimately I think Darktable’s approach leads to more accurate edits, because Lightroom encourages you to tweak too many sliders on a single mask.
There’s an option to re-use drawn masks from other modules which basically does the same thing. Once you get the hang of using the parametric mask as a macro filter to isolate a range of pixels, then using 1 or more drawn masks to refine it, that combination becomes very intuitive to use and I can’t imagine not having it now. Having a unique mask for each module makes it a very precise workflow.
Im just a Linux user. I always have been. Ive tolerated Windows but after Windows 10 hits EOL I have no desire to continue using it so I am trying to look at the long term solution of moving to a different solution. Which is where I am today
