TL/DR: start with color balance rgb using the basic colorfulness: vibrant colors preset. Also use diffuse or sharpen with the local contrast preset.
I almost bought the RX-10 IV. Glad to see it takes good photos.
I learned a lot of darktable by watching YouTube videos. Boris Hajdukovic is one of my favorites. I developed a style based on edits that he repeats on “every” photo.
- turn on denoise (profiled)
- turn on lens correction
- add color balance rgb with the basic colorfulness: vibrant colors preset
- add diffuse or sharpen with the local contrast preset
I also add another instance of diffuse or sharpen with the lens deblur: hard preset. Looks good to me from my camera. I think the recommendation is to use it after the local contrast. I made a style that does this and apply the style immediately after import and before I do any culling or editing.
When I did the basic adjustments above, the squirrel got “more red”. not sure if it’s “too red” for your liking… this preset boosts saturation to produce “rich depth of color”.
There’s a million different ways to make further adjustments.
Personally, another instance of color balance rgb is my weapon-of-choice. There are so many adjustments that this one module is capable of doing. Combine it with a drawn and parametric mask and you can target adjustments to just about anything. Bruce Williams does a good job explaining parametric masking.
Color equalizer is able to make very quick adjustments to hue, saturation and brightness without having to do any masking.
rgb primaries seems pretty advanced to me. I understand how it works when watching videos about it, but I’m stumped to find a use case for my own photos.
Another instance of color calibration to use as a channel mixer can be fun. Sometimes I’ve got decent results, other times total trash.