Pipeline Architectures & Color Science: White Balance vs. Demosaicing in darktable and ART

[kofa (István Kovács)]

Found it:

color calibration, white balance

How does white balancing work in darktable, and why are there two modules involved? What is the difference between the ‘legacy’ (white balance only) and ‘modern’ (white balance + color calibration) methods? white balance performs a simple per-channel adjustment on raw sensor data. When it sits before demosaic, colour does not exist yet, all you have is per-channel sensor readings. It could have been placed after demosaic, but that (and I think also highlight reconstruction) actually work better…