@adrs Thanks for the detailed posts about RGB and RYB. I agree that you can (and should) use framing and composition to try and create the feel (and color contrasts) you’re looking for. However, some situations (e.g. fast moving subjects, an impromptu shoot where you can only shoot briefly, etc) don’t afford that amount of time beforehand. In those cases, it would be nice to be able to enhance the constrained scene you had to work with in post.
Yes thanks, I had watched this one a few days ago! This is definitely close to what I’m looking for, but I wasn’t sure how I would go about doing this without a reference image to work with (e.g. making up my own color harmony). I’m looking forward to @s7habo’s upcoming video!
You can create a lot of palettes and ideas here https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel
Also you may be able to use a trick I have seen where people have essentially used the watermark module to create an svg file of a swatch or gradient to overlay on the edit to use for matching…there was an example some time ago here using this technique to match a desired skin tone…but it could be used in grading as well…
And Here Paletton - The Color Scheme Designer
EDIT
Here was the thread I was trying to describe…just FYI Natural skintone with reference colors
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Thank you! I had to change the structure of the series about colors in darktable a little bit, because otherwise the episodes become much too long. Accordingly, I decided to introduce the color calibration module first in the first episode of the series. This episode will also be a little bit about color grading. So, it is worth to watch. 
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I will try do a video using this trick. I need to find a good picture
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Yes I do agree with this, that’s why I always think that taking and post-processing a photograph cannot be separated to create an image I’m looking for (i.e. limitation of camera + limitation of the scene + limitation of editing stage), and make the most of it.
One of the website i often use to search for composition and colour grading inspiration from a movie is this one https://film-grab.com/, and https://artsandculture.google.com/ if need inspiration from an art/painting, their colour explorer is really helpful.
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Thanks for the resources…
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Yes, thanks for the good resources! I’ve used Palleton before, but after creating the wheel I want to use, I’m not sure how best to transfer it to my image. For example, you cannot just copy/paste an RGB hex value into Color Balance RGB. The watermark trick sounds neat - I’ll give that a try. I
need to figure out how to transfer each of the colors I’ve selected into the image - e.g. a different instance of Color Balance RGB for each color, each with a mask to select a different set of pixels?
I don’t think using hex colour / exact value for colour styling or colour grading would work, because the colour in an image/scene is relative to each other, so there’s always be a little tweak on the hue to make it “fit” to the scene. Even in the case of dealing with brand colour (e.g. photo for ads), there’s won’t be an exact match between brand colour value and colour presented on an image.
If it’s possible, why don’t you try to post the image on Play Raw, along with the referenced colour harmony/image, so we all could try to edit/achieve it? Because sometimes not all colour combination works on every image, it always depends on the raw photo/scene itself (especially on “unplanned” shots).
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There is a color mapping module if you want to play with that. Also if you have the values you want in LAB then you could use the CLUT module…select the colors in your image that you want to change with the picker…it will select the closest patch and then you can change the drop down to absolute and enter the colors as lab values…you could then save this for later…I think some film simulations are saved in the module using a similar approach…
Good point. So you’re advising to pick a set of general colors (e.g. general shades of yellow and blue) and then set the specific colors in the image itself rather than trying to pick specific colors with the color wheel?
I was thinking the same thing - thread created here with one example image.
I remember reading this article about the color mapping module, however I don’t have a source image that I would like to clone. It would be interesting to try that with the image from the aforementioned kodachrome episode to see how well it can map those colors compared to doing it by hand.
I have played with color look up table before with mixed results. Often what happens is I can successfully adjust a specific color, but I really need to feather the change to apply to “surrounding” colors too or else I end up with a pixelated bad combination of colors. Maybe I just need to pick more custom swatches from the area and adjust all of them?
I think you would need to replace patches with several samples of your image and adjust those but this could be tedious…The fastest way is Davinci Resolves color match feature used to grab film looks…
Yes. You could also combine that with color zones module.
But the best results you get with several instances of color balance module.
You can take advantage of very advanced masking capabilities of the darktable (parametric and drawn).
Here is an example I made, with color combination made with Palleton
If i understand it correctly from your text (not a native English speaker here), then probably yes. When creating a colour plan from the wheel, you can pick the general colour or specific value (in case you’re sampling the colour from an image), but when applying it to the image, let’s say, I want this particular “blue” and “green”, rather than set it to the exact value, you set it at what will look like that particular “blue” and “green” in that image, a slight deviation in the degree of hue and saturation is common, after all, the same “green” under the shade or overcast is always slightly different (or maybe you want the image slightly warmer or cooler).
I think it’s mentioned as well in Joanna’s video when she explained the variation of the same skin under different lighting/grades, just like how we perceived the same “white” under different lighting conditions.
Will tried to play with it, thanks!
Edit: In case I’m not quite clear in my text above, here’s my screenshot when I’m editing your image, I’m just eyeballing the reference colour harmony and make an adjustment as needed
Thanks, that definitely clarifies how you’re just referencing the color but adapting it for the scene itself
This is a nice example of what I’m looking for - I really like the contrast between the deep blue of the sky and the orange of the roofs.
One idea to put color swatches on the screen, instead of using Paletton/Adobe Color + Inkscape + Watermark, could be to use the module colorize with a drawn mask and mix = 0%
I’ve also wondered about how to use colorize to add color to an image. For example, can you set a color with colorize and use a blend mode (which one?) and mask to add that color to the scene? I’ve played with this a little but want to try working with it more to see what is possible
I believe overlay would do, combined with masking if you want it local.
EDIT: however I found the color set to match the expectation only if I move the module after output color profile