Sorry, this is long, but here are some thoughts that might help on just the workflow aspect (Iâll leave the more technical aspects of what you are trying to accomplish to others).
Keep in mind that one of the best things about DT is the thing that many newcomers find the most frustrating: there are many different modules and parameters that will accomplish the same editing taskâs visual appearance results on your image. Iâve been using DT for about 7 years and have printed many of my images on large art paper and it looks great, but someone who is more proficient at DT may look at my edits and wonder what the hell I was doingâif you are getting the results you want on screen/in print, youâre doing it âcorrectlyâ.
In the darkroom there are two main areas where you see modules: the left panelâs âhistoryâ and pretty much the entire right panel. The order in which modules appear in either of those two spots has almost nothing to do with the order in which you choose to work.
The âhistoryâ section in the left panel shows you the order in which you have worked with the most recent edit appearing at the top. In that section you may have many modules: automatically applied modules that DT applies, module presets you had DT apply on import, duplicates of modules, unused modules (they are grayed out), etc.
The right panel is where you open modules and do the editing work. The order in which the modules appear in that panel typically has nothing to do with the order in which you choose to open a module and do the work.
At the top of the panel, above the modules, are icons that have predefined sets of modules. On the far right of those icons is a pancake menu which allows you to change which presets of modules you are viewing and it gives you the option to define your own presets. (I have set up a preset for myself with the modules I most frequently use.)
It is possible to âchange the orderâ of the modules seen in the right panel by simply dragging them on the screen to the order you would like. This is very tempting to do because for many people seeing the linear order of the modules on the screen, in the same order (usually top to bottom) as they work,. is visually/intuitively appealing. However, that also changes the order of the processing pipeline and it strongly urged that until you figure out the basics, just leave the order of the modules alone for now, and live with the fact that the linear order you see the modules arranged in in the right panel is not necessarily the way you will work through them.
That being said, choose your own workflow. As an example, the following is typically my workflow.
[based on kofaâs excellent observation, I deleted the paragraph kofa quoted about white balance and âcolor calibrationâ module as itâs not really germane to the workflow anyhow]
My first step is to make sure the image is level, so I use the right mouse button and drag a horizontal across the image on an object I want level (or vertical line if there is a better vertical line on the image for plumbing). Sometimes I need to change the keystoning and use the rotate and perspective module for that.
Next, I crop (I set this to keyboard shortcut âcâ).
Then I retouch (which momentarily disables my cropping, but when the retouch module is closed, the cropping reapplies to what I had).
I make sure the clipping indicator in enabled (already mapped as shortcut key âoâ).
If the shot looks either over/under exposed based on the clipping indicator or visually, my next step is to have DT automatically adjust the âexposureâ (I usually do this step regardless of what my eyes tell me). In the âexposureâ module, the little eyedropper to the far right, when pressed, reads the bulk of the picture (you can see how much of the picture is used for the adjustment when you press the eyedropper as a box appears over the image with handles in each corner which can be used to adjust the area being read). I have created a keyboard shortcut for this: âeâ. I donât worry too much about the result I visually see but rather accept it for now as the next step usually compensates for any over/under exposed areas.
Next I open the âfilmicâ module and in the âsceneâ tab (the one that opens by default), on the far right are three eyedroppers: press on the bottom one which automatically adjusts the image like the âexposureâ moduleâs eyedropper. I also have a shortcut key for this: âfâ (âFilmicâ is a fiddly module and as opposed to âsigmoidâ and occasionally needs to be adjusted throughout my workflow, so I usually hit the âfâ key throughout to see if the results are better, or get into it and readjust manually.)
So to quickly apply those two modules I simply press âeâ then âfâ and my picture is usually ready for editing.
If I donât like the results after those two modules, Iâll tinker with the parameters in one/both of those modules.
I rarely use the âtone curveâ module and instead I most rely on the âcolor balance RGBâ to do almost all of my shadow/highlight work and basic color correction. The âmasterâ tab at the top of that module is a good starting point, but the â4 waysâ and âmaskâ tabs are very important in my workflow. I often dial down the contrast in this module to bring out more subtle details then fix the contrast with the â4 waysâ and âmaskâ tabs.
For additional contrast work I often use the âdiffuse or sharpenâ âdehazeâ preset and adjust. As well as the âcontrast equalizerâ âclarityâ preset, then dial the âmixâ parameter from +1 down to somewhere between +.3 - +.5. I typically only use the âtone equalizerâ for fine tuning. Occasionally Iâll use the âlocal contrastâ module.
Lastly, I denoise using whatever modules work best (sometimes its âastrophoto denoiseâ, sometimes âdiffuse or sharpenâ sometimes âdenoise (profiled)â, sometimes all of these, sometimes several instances of one or more of these).
Granted, thereâs plenty more to do on any given image, and, as I said at the start, there are many ways to accomplish what you need to accomplish. Luckily, there are a lot of tutorials on the modules (YouTube is your friend), so figuring out individual modules shouldnât be too hard once you get the hang of things and have developed a workflow.
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