Tentative RGB workflow for DT3

Software darktable
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Completely agree. I read manuals before buying something… then again while I’m waiting for delivery, then once more while I’m playing with it. Or is that just me?

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@anon41087856, thanks again for taking the time to type out this long explanation. I think I’ve really understood it this time. Maybe :).
New confusion - Exposure is to set the gray value as we want, accordingly to the photo conditions. Then filmic is to fit the entire histogram within the display range. What is tone equalizer used for?

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Very controlled shadows and highlights/ dodging and burning tool :slight_smile: Watch:

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After reading the above and much else, I’ve adjusted the workflow a bit. As a point of departure this works for me.

  1. Correct the overall exposure if necessary, focusing on the mid-tones. There is not need to correct black and white points at this stage.
  2. Correct the white balance if necessary
  3. Correct composition with crop and rotate or perspective correction if necessary.
  4. Use filmic rgb for RAW correction, dynamic range, and contrast
    • on the scene tab:
      • set grey middle point to 18.45 and leave it there (it is the same as exposure)
      • set white exposure or auto-set with the colour picker on the brightest area
      • set black exposure or auto-set with the colour picker on the darkest area
      • use dynamic range scaling to restrict the dynamic range if necessary
    • on the look tab:
      • adjust contrast to your liking
      • reduce the latitude and/or adjust shadow/highlights balance to avoid curve clipping
  5. Black & white conversion, if desired, use one of
    • channel mixer using film presets, or pick grey output and set RGB
    • color balance desaturating output (right click, enter “0” and return)
  6. Increase or reduce local contrast, use one of
    • local contrast, which has built-in masks for highlights and shadows, or
    • contrast equalizer, preset clarity which raises luma at all frequencies, eventually with a parametric mask eliminating highlights and shadows.
  7. Colour saturation, use one of
    • color balance, output saturation slider, or
    • contrast equalizer, raise chroma at all frequencies, eventually with a parametric mask eliminating skin tones.
  8. Shadows and highlights can be adjusted with the tone equalizer
    • on the masking tab, use the sliders below to adjust the histogram on the advanced tab, to make it as wide as possible without clipping, then
    • use the mouse wheel on the image to dodge and burn. Be careful of banding in areas with limited detail.
  9. Reduce image noise with denoise (profiled). In complicated cases it can be necessary to use two instances, for luma and chroma noise sepately.
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This is starting to look like the manual to write a fugue…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHW1I8T0caI

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A simple 10-step guide to writing an amazing fugue

Never be clever for the sake of being clever :slight_smile:

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@anon41087856
In Episode 25, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQuuPuoz6lU, @s7habo
Boris Hajdukovic uses color-look-up-table to lighten colors. I have read that color-look-up-table works in Lab. Color-look-up-table comes before filmic rgb in the pixel pipe. With the focus now on using linear rgb, should it not be used, used but moved after filmic, or used as is?

As a substitute, would color balance work to lighten a specific hue by selecting that hue in one of slope, offset, or power sections and increasing the factor?

BTW, this is an extremely informative post, and dt 3.0.1 is awesome. Thanks, Aurelien and the other developers!

1 Like