Actually, if it was up to me I would slightly change the behavior in the tone equalizer. I think this feature should be enabled by clicking an icon rather than be turned on automatically. Prior to 3.4 it was sort of broken because sometimes it would turn on and sometimes it wouldn’t. In 3.4 it was mostly fixed, but sometimes I find that it still won’t turn on.
Also, you can no longer just turn the mouse wheel to zoom in or zoom out. I think clicking an icon to turn on the feature and turn off the feature would be much better and more consistent with how things work throughout darktable (eyedroppers, etc.).
The problem I’ve had with color look up table is that selections are rather narrow in color range, when compared with color zones where I can adjust a wide or narrow range as needed. Color zones has always worked well for me as long as I don’t push it too hard
I feel like there is a key you can hold to allow you to zoom in the tone eq…if not clicking your scroll wheel is like a middle mouse button and will cycle between fit 100% and 200%…if that is of any use
There is nothing wrong with using the color zones module, I use it quite frequently to selectively desaturate colors.
The equivalent would probably be any module that manipulates color in the linear part of the pixelpipe, combined with some masking. Not nearly as convenient.
I would love a scene-referred version of color lookup table. It’s much quicker to use than color zones because all the HSL controls are on the same tab rather than three separate ones. But as @Dave22152 said, it seems to work in a much narrower range and quickly produces ugly effects if pushed too far.
You can control the range by selecting color patches from the image or removing them. E.g. i pick similar colors patches which i don’t want to change to anchor them and also color i want to change. It’s quick and easy.
Do you mind explaining this a bit more for how you can expand and limit the range? Say I want to work on similar shades of red but not oranges, does selecting an orange patch “anchor” it, i.e. it won’t be affected if you don’t touch the sliders? And how would I incorporate various shades of red? The color picker only takes a small area so would I select multiple red patches and adjust them individually?
Maybe I’m not using the module’s full capabilities. I’ve re-read the manual entry for it, but it doesn’t mention how to control the range.
And @s7habo, I thought it only worked in LAB space? Do you mean it can also work in RGB?
Thanks. Looks like I need to do more research because I have no idea what this means in real-world application. As far as I knew it was just a Lab module, and supposedly they don’t always play nice in a linear RGB workflow. The module is not mentioned in the “Darktable 3:RGB or Lab? Which Modules? Help!” article.
Hmm. I don’t know why you all have so much concern. if you put display reffered modules at the end of the pixel pipe there are no problems. I haven’t had any yet!
Besides, when the photo is done, it will be exposed in a perceptual color space anyway - in most cases.
Maybe it would be better to show which specific problems you have encountered and then we can look for a solution.
From the manual:
“It remains highly recommended that users not change the order within the pixelpipe”
“This should only be done by experienced users who understand the impact this will have on the image.”
I don’t like to mess with the pixelpipe because I’m not an expert. I have no problems doing it, but I want to be able to understand why I’m doing it and what impact it will have.
“Because I’m not expert, I would like to mess with the pixelpipe to be able to see what impact I will have.”
Possible consequences:
a) Play with the order of the modules - result is messed up = BAD
b) discard history
c) Play with the order of the modules - result is good = GOOD
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x) Know which modules work which not = Expert by experience
Not suggesting that you do it but this looks like a good topic for a tutorial or two, ie how and why you would want to move the modules in the pipeline and potential benefits and pitfalls if any…
It’s not that simple though is it. Reordering modules may produce a NOT BAD result at first, but then you continue with your processing and then something goes BAD, so you mess around some more and try to find out whether it’s because you messed with the pixelpipe, which you were told not to do by the manual. And then you seek help on here and someone tells you that if you were reading the manual, then you should know not to touch the order of modules unless you know what you’re doing!
I’m being facetious, but there does need to be consistency in advice. Should we be telling users to feel free to mess with module order or not? Besides, I don’t want to spend ages processing. If I get a bad result from a module, I don’t want to mess with module order to see if I can get a better result. I will just not use that module.
But this is getting off topic. I enjoy the color lookup table module, but find that I can only make very small adjustments before bad results creep in. I was wondering if this was because of its Lab nature. The color zones module has much smoother effects, but in my opinion is more cumbersome to use because you have to work on the HSL independently.
There’s nothing wrong with using lab in the linear part of the pipe, or even pure display referred modules - if you use them within their specifications.
And even using them outside their specification doesn’t kill anybody - so don’t worry
after a certain frequency of beers…