If using colorbalance take the time to go to the mask tab and hit the autopickers and if you are spending time on the edit you can manually adjust them further to precisely define highlights shadows and midtones and the rolloff in those areas… for sure in general hitting the autopickers is usually enough…
Thanks for the clue, I’ll try again using it, I previously perceived it as a complicated tonecurve but obviously there is more to it 
I tend to use multiple instances of “exposure” with masks to lift uniformly whole areas (masking tools with feather, blur and slope are really convenient for me) but from what I get from your explanation tone equalizer seems much more powerfull/convinient I’ll have to study that.
Thanks !
That’s more or less the same thing Tone Equalizer is doing, but TE does it in the one module, while with exposure you need multiple masked instances.
The guided filter of TE works really nicely. The time spent learning it will subsequently make your edits much faster.
Yes, it’s basically a masked exposure correction.
The in-depth video from its author:
It’s not similar to Lr, but you can personalize your modules list to look more like Lighroom. Of course, darktable have a lot more tools than Lr. 
Maybe you could export that module preset to a dtpreset file, and share it here?
@difrkaguilar I don’t have any experience with LR. I have never used it. But I want to improve my editing skills, and most general editing videos use LR. My idea is to have some sort of short reference to translate a LR slider into a Darktable slider. Just to help me follow a LR editing video with Darktable.
However, I just learned about some great modules I did not use much. Also about modules I did only use in a simplistic way, but was forgoing most of their power.
In general, I have the impression that DT is way more powerful than LR. But to exploit that power there is a lot to learn !
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If you are serious about DT I think the library of DT specific video’s might be large enough and likely better suited… This attempt at translation is a bit like mimicry. And you are much better off learning with the actual tools and workflow because DT does not approach an image the same way although it can… which is something to be learned… There is a list of video content in the manual… the videos by @Bruce_Williams Aurelien Pierre @Frank_Walsh @nwinspeare https://www.youtube.com/@StudioPetrikas/videos @s7habo @rawfiner recently Mark Adams at onecameraone lens has some tutorials and is making some videos…so my advice is spend more time on some of these than LR video’s.
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One of the tenets of FOSS philosophy is that, while you might find some basic functions similar to commercial software, in no way are they attempting to replicate them. Although I have never personally done a side-by-side example, once you get past a short list of initial, basic edits, you’re going to have widely differing results the further you get into your editing session.
I think what confuses many people is the juxtaposition of the ‘Lightroom’ and Darktable’ names. In turn, both are mashups of ‘Light table’ and ‘Dark room’. It’s not at all incomprehensible to get the two confused as similar programs.
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Interesting video. It basically came down to module translation to DT and understanding masks and settings. Here’s what I did in roughly the order of the video:
- Exposure => Exposure
- Crop Module => Crop
- Conversion to Adobe Landscape - didn’t apply
- White Balance adjustment => Color Calibration/CAT tab
- Highlights and Shadows => Tone Equalizer
- Whites/Blacks => Tone Equalizer with Preserve Details set to “no” this equates to the classic Tone Curve
- Brighten Mountain reflections => Used ellipse mask and applied exposure, tone curve, and Diffuse &Sharpen (local contrast preset)
- Darken right part of sky => Exposure with gradient and hue parametric mask
- Texture and Clarity to Lake => Dehaze
- Color grading => color balance RGB (Color Zones or Color Look Up Table would be easier for the targeted colors)
- General Sharpening => Diffuse and Sharpen
For the filter effects, Color Balance RGB might work for the color adjustments (although Color Zones or Color Lookup Table might be easier to target different colors). For the soft glow effect @s7habo demonstrated a use of the Low Pass module in the multiply blend mode in one of his videos (I can’t find which one)
Here’s the XMP from my attempt:
DSC00774.ARW.xmp (15.3 KB)
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Closest thing here would be basecurve or a style created using darktable chart matched to a jpg saved using the landscape profile setting in camera…
I often “cheat” as well using dehaze as a quick clarity/generic fine local contrast enhancement but to a newcomer I’d recommand playing with “Contrast equalizer” wich is to a me a magic tool, present since the early age of Darktable, one of the first thing that kept me on this software
I’ll try to have a go as well at the example you used
PS : having a youtube video as a reference target image may prove challenging
I kind of do not like, to put it mildly, the magic filters/presets, with all their commercial names that he applies at the end, feels like forfeiting your ability to process your image “on your own” to higher power … not the typical Darktable/FOSS user set of mind I’d risk to say.
I like the Contrast Equalizer as well, but I think it’s one of the more difficult DT modules to master. I’ve thought it might be a good alternative to Lightroom’s texture tool, which is described as a medium detail local contrast control, but I’ve found it’s easy to push the coarse details too heavily and ending up with an unnatural look. I toyed with using it as an alternative to DT’s own Local Contrast module, but again I can’t replicate the look. It’s probably more me than the module itself.
Personally I like the challenge, and I use these dreary mid-winter days to brush up on my editing skills. But yes, I think one of the risks of the commercial software is an over reliance on presets. Some people like the ability to easily apply a style, but I like to have the control over my edits editing style, as primitive as that may be…
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Yes, but I didn’t even see a need for that because Sigmoid did a pretty good job replicating the look out of the box. In fact, I’d say the overall tone and color looked pretty close the end product with the DT default modules applied than with his LR starting point, so I my edits were fairly modest.
No argument just mentioning what the equivalency to Appling one of those LR profiles would be.
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I wish TE could be used for dodging and burning. I use TE for global contrast but still use multiple instances of exposure for D&B.
If you are interested in any edits made with Lightroom, let me know and I will make a video about how to do it with darktable. I just need the corresponding raw file.
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The most specific instance I know of is the video I linked to in my initial post. It shows edits from multiple authors and a tutorial/edit instructions for LR (or Photoshop?).
The edits seem to be made all in one panel with a series of sliders. For some of the sliders, I found the DT equivalent; for others, I did not. I think for the most part, I got good feedback in the discussion above.
A video recreating the edits made in there with DT would be interesting.
Hmm.
He does offer raw files via Google drive there, however the license is not clear.
Interestingly, in Google drive are also the results and his looks different from his edit in the video.
For the processing he used Lightrom, Photoshop and at the end even plugin from Google NIK collection.
Apart from the collages, the edits presented in the video can be reproduced with darktable.
The only question is the license. I don’t know if I can use his raw file in the video.
Best, you offer one of your own raw files and I will replicate the styles shown in the video.
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@s7habo and @paperdigits - well, he did offer up the file for public edits on his YouTube channel. What if we ask him? I can email him to see if he’d be ok with our use.
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