Hello, this is my picture from my previous thread (Monitor differences). 2 versions, the JPG version which took 5 minutes to adjust in Darktable, then I tried to copy the feeling of the JPG version using the RAW, it took 1.5 hours, I prefer my JPG version.
I was not able to match the blue sky from the JPG in the RAW, could not find the right module or sequence of things to do.
Sunset in fields.CR2.xmp (22.8 KB)
Used sigmoid with reduced ‘preserve hue’ to make sun more yellow rather than pink.
One instance of colour balance rgb to boost overall colours slightly without turning sun day glow orange
Another instance targeted at blue colours to just boost colours in sky.
Tweaked local contrast to bring out clouds.
Took a couple of minutes.
It’s true that time management in photo processing is a primordial subject,
Here’s a quick edition, starting with basic processing and the use of presets. It’s important to invest time in setting up Darktable according to the results and the desired style.
Here’s my basic style, which I use with the “Processing - auto-apply pixel workflow defaults - none” option. basic processing.dtstyle (11.2 KB)
and a quick video of processing
I think you could search the forum and you will find several threads about people chasing the jpg look and sharing their frustration and tales of long amounts of time being spent… If you look later in time many of those people will have embraced taking the raw file and just editing it with the goal of adding or improving some element of the photo you will discover that your versions in many cases become more interesting or better than what the camera came up with …and if not then its as simple as using the image the camera created…
As for exposure for these sorts of images my approach is the exposure autopicker with the target of 50%… I use the whole image. If I like it then I just leave it for a final tweak at some point and edit. Often though for this type of image I will select more of the sky or more of the foreground if my intent is to prioritize the overall exposure for the sky or the foreground… I just keep dragging the selection range up or down until I get that look…
In the case of the images below I just did 30 second edits… I did the autoexposure to 50% on the whole image …got something just a litttle lower than the DT default and the I litterally just tweaked the sigmoid settings and added default local contrast. I did not do any color grading or local tone edits with the tone eq which could surely improve things.
The first pair are relative and then perceptual renders of that … and the second pair have one additional tweak. I added the color reconstruction module to blend the blown sun just for a different look…
Great picture!
JPGs are usually not the best ‘target’, since they often suffer from hue-shifts (as seen in your example - flat yellow ring around the sun)
