I often try to edit with only tone eq and not filmic lately when I. want more detail in the highlights…I’ll use at least 2 and often 3 or 4 to manage compression and contrast…I couple this with the dehaze preset in Diffuse and sharpen which I love and some color balance work on color saturation and grading
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For some reason the first day of working with DT I used only this tool (tone eq).
Why, I don’t know))
Boris has a nice video on using it and maintaining details…His editing moments thread that is tied to his channel with the same name is a long thread but worth scanning and his videos are some of the best DT content you can invest your time in…esp the ones from the last 18months or so
Boris, good day.
Can you tell me a video, in which you talk about the different nuances of working with tone eq? 
Thank you.
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This is a good thread for filmic
And this is an amazing archive…
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Indeed if one sets the preserve details to no in tone equalizer it becomes just another type of tone curve. Interesting approach.
If the effect is applied to the hald table, the same is true.
The hald is needed if we want to apply the darktable processing in another program. And this is all on the condition that we do not process raw material.
Boris, thank you for creating such material.
I wanted to ask one thing for the future. Can I translate your videos into another language? - I mean, how can I put them in another language? Do I need to link to your yt channel, or just give them to you and you will upload them?
)) Right now I will not translate them, but if I want, if ))))
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Sure, do that. Link to the original is fine.
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So, yes, but the rgb color balance tool is the same for “everyting”. You don’t just work with lights when correcting a photo. It’s good when the processing is parallelized, and then somehow mixed into one process again. If I work with shadows in tone equalizer (by creating another version (instance) of that tool) and enable detail recovery in such a module, then I need to change something in the color balance tool again, and “already everything” - the tool worked under tonal eq, where detail recovery was disabled.
Well well - I can work with shadows in the color balance tool. What about saturation? - It has already been optimized for the first tonal eq tool, and improvisation is no longer logical)) well, if only partly logical.
No, the idea is good, but we need practice, if we do not have an end in itself to work only with lights. Practice will lead away from theories and accepted rules. It is certainly useful to know this approach.
Man, paralleling the processes (pipes) in the program would not hurt.
But even without this feature, the program is just fire.
Check out Picture Window pro 8…it’s maybe not super polished but it has masking and many many transforms and has branching and passthrough processing ability…It’s the work of one of the original authors of Lotus 123 I have been told…
No. I must to know how to use wide movements, too, as I understand it. All the way up to working with only one exposure. It’s not so much a matter of managing to work with only one tool, as of being able to see the actual result.
In general, it’s very important to somehow learn not to get used to the image you’re looking at.
One minute and your brain drowns in what you see, if longer. it’s not even about getting used to the hue, or the exposure. It’s a very difficult point.
I make one or two movements and step aside. But the dream is to somehow learn to look at a photo longer and at the same time, that the brain would not adapt to the picture.
And the tools are 1% of 99%. Any ones.
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The program just needs practice, that’s all.
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Yes, exactly. Darktable gives many ways to skin a cat, so there is always some going back and forth between modules as you say. But this is because we seek perfection. It’s possible to get very good and fast results without that, just not perfect. As you get used to the modules you will develop a workflow that suits. Mine typically starts by setting an accurate platform, Exposure > color calibration > filmic, then moves to creative enhancements, color balance > diffuse and sharpen > tone eq.
As tone eq is to be thought of like a dodging and burning tool, I use it last. After all this I revisit my filmic White and Black points.
Also, there is nothing stopping you from using multiple instances of exposure. A second instance can be particularly good with a drawn mask, to create a gradient, or vignetting effect, or other. I would do this in the creative enhancements part of my workflow.
I think and I many be loosing something in translation…that @EsTaF was also making reference to parallel processing…DT has a linear pipeline…one module feeds the next even if you have multiple instances…there can be an advantage to being able to use the same input for more than one module as you can with something like nodes in Davinci and then blending the actions at some point later in the pipeline…
EDIT: In something like Picture Window Pro (Free not open source) You can make these sorts of adjustments, see the results of each step, disable any selected step and choose what part of the workflow serves as input for any subsequent transform… likely not blazing fast in its current rendition but shows one version of what could be possible…
So far, for me, the tone eq looks like if I had a good party - I like the result of the tool, but in the “morning” I realize that something is wrong))
And you’re talking about Picture Window Pro))
Yes. It takes one to know how to stop.
Sometimes watching some yt video, a lot of people want to crank up the contrast. They work according to a pattern:
The first tool…
the second tool.
etc
Look at the image first, tell the person about yourself.
Well, they want to show an example of working with tools, of course. But people, with their mouths open, learn everything, not just how to work with the program.
For me the first thing I would do is edit out the cable in the trees. It’s very distracting. It turns a nice nature shot into an industrial one.