Panasonic DC-LX100M2 + darktable
Impressive!
Thanks.
BTW: Also another thank you for the frames/borders/mat link you gave me the other day. Gave me some ideas and insights.
I just had a listen to @patdavid’s Open Source Creative Podcast #49 - Community and Photography with Pat David interview (direct link) and one of the things he mentions, in general but specifically about pixls, is the sharing of knowledge so that others can possibly learn from it.
The Showcase section here at pixls most often lacks a description of the process that was followed, let alone the RAW(s), sidecar(s) and/or other tools used to come to the posted result. I’m also “guilty” of doing this even though I don’t have any reason not to include these.
So, for those that are interested:
RAW: morning.softness.rw2 (17.1 MB)
xmp: morning.softness.xmp (13.4 KB) (for dt 3.2.1)
But: This isn’t an invite to post your edits in this showcase, hence the lack of a license (not sure if this last bit is acceptable, I’m sure I will be put in my place if this isn’t the case).
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I think that the Showcase section is there to show whatever you want, from just a picture to an almost full-blown tutorial or article. It’s all about freedom. And of course if people want to play with a raw that is not provided, they can always ask.
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To me the showcase is about the end result. Any discussion about the end result is awesome (I’d generally not go into heavy critique in the showcase), but we have playraw for sharing those kinds of things. Your stuff is CC0 license by default unless you claim another license for your work.
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@sguyader: I’m somewhat poisoned by a (work) environment that has this mine! mine!, not gonna tell you how!! mentality, something that I can’t stand. Every so often this shows, even though this isn’t needed here at pixls at all. So maybe I was talking to myself more in my previous post than pointing a finger (which wasn’t my intention).
I do wonder if people are open (daring?) enough to ask for the RAW’s though…
@paperdigits: Good to know about the default CC0 license.
Yeah, if you want critique you really need to ask for it, bit of a shame but understandable.
Sometimes I guess it’s out of lazyness that we don’t share a whole process. Personally, I prefer to share either something with detailed explanations for the sake of reproducibility, or nothing, rather than just something partial.
For those who seek critique, there’s a Critique section on here already.
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We have a whole subforum for critique: Critique - discuss.pixls.us
It is under used, but I wish it wasn’t 
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Nice shot! A dreamy impressionistic feel.
Thanks for providing the xmp too, I was interested in your border ratios. Was there specific math to it in the end, or just playing with numbers until it looked best?
The showcase category is an odd one. Critiques seem out of bounds given its not the critique category. I like it when something specific is showcased, and stated, like a process or technique, something that we might learn from. But often times its just an unaccompanied image. Understandable - that is the end result for most of us - but there’s not a lot of room for discussion.
Looking at this for the third time, the stick that curves and its reflection is really awesome.
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When I opened in darktable to view the xmp I kept thinking it was my brush tool cursor, and tried to reduce it! Yes I use another imaging application which shan’t be named…
Luckily this won’t be an issue for normal people, and to them, it will be a pretty reflection.
Thomas_Do pointed out this to me and my initial ratios and border sizes are based on what they mention (the classic approach). I did change them to my liking though.
The 2 things that are my own are the colour of the mat and the thin black inner line. The mat colour was an interesting journey. After getting the average colour of the image I tried complementary, triad and analogous, among others, but in the end I decided for the classic ivory. Some of the results:
Complementary:
Triad based:
Analogous based:
How is this done?
I love coloured borders but they are harder to get right. The best method I’ve found is to dropper colours in the actual image, and alternate between black and white (or light grey) for the frame line colour. If in doubt a brown/gold/orange colour (found in the colour picker) goes with just about everything (its complementary to cyan - abundant in outdoor photos with sky and/or water, and analogous to common subjects of earth and skin). I had fun playing with the framing in your raw, but am loathe to say what appealed most to me, as this is a showcase, not a playraw. It is similar to your analgous based version, with a twist 
You might guess what the twist is based on what I’ve said already.
I’m sure there are other ways, but I use GIMP:
Depending on the image you might want to crop so that the subject is predominantly filling the frame (didn’t do this with the morning shot), then:
Filters → Blur → Pixalize
Make sure that block width and block height are linked and crank up either one to the point where you only have one evenly coloured “pixel”. The colour you are left with is the average image (cropped selection) colour.
This average colour can also be used for fixing a colour cast or setting the white balance in certain cases.
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@Jade_NL, I appreciate your providing the raw and sidecar. I’m trying to focus more on creative editing , particularly on how to use the color balance and channel mixer modules to create mood, and this is just what I’m looking for.
Dave G.