Warm colorful day in fall

Hello everyone,

here is my challenge:

ND800_0005626.NEF (42.4 MB)
licensed Creative Commons, By-Attribution, Share-Alike.

I have been playing around with darktable for a while, but I never got to a point where I liked the output. This is what I intend to achieve:

Here are some 100% extracts to highlight what I have been unable to do in darktable:

  • Getting this level of clarity in the details:
    ND800_0005626_detail1 ND800_0005626_detail4

  • Getting the yellows in the signs to be accurate:
    ND800_0005626_detail2 ND800_0005626_detail3

I am very curious to see what you can do with it and how you do it!

3 Likes

My simple edit in dt 3.6. However, did not ty to imitate the red tint of your edit.


ND800_0005626_anonymized.NEF.xmp (9.2 KB)


warm.colourful.fall.day.pp3 (15.8 KB) RawTherapee 5.8 Development

Quick RawTherapee edit, with the red(-ish) tint :sweat_smile:


EDIT: Uploaded an full size version, requested by @baloe.

1 Like

The original image is quite soft when no sharpening is applied, so it can take quite a lot of sharpening.

The sharpening in the version you posted is quite coarse, though.

Screenshot_20211030_081925

This is my rendition with Filmulator (which doesn’t have sharpening) and then RL deconvolution sharpening in RawTherapee:

Filmulator settings:

  • Auto CA correct on
  • Temperature 5401
  • Tint 0.9198 (I assume you used uniWB on the original?)
  • Drama 85.1
  • White Clipping Point 0.422

RawTherapee sharpening settings changed from default:

  • Method RL Deconvolution
  • Amount 62

As for colors, FIlmulator just… does its own thing, it tends to prevent hues from shifting towards yellow in the highlights.


ND800_0005626_anonymized.NEF.xmp (10.7 KB)

@baloe: Despite of oversaturation and red tint, which program did you use? Sharpness is very good.

Thank you all so far. The red tint is debatable, of course.

I have processed this raw file some time last year using a commercial raw converter that I do not have access to anymore. Unfortunately, I cannot easily look up the settings needed within that processor, but I am pretty sure it did not take much more than moving a few sliders around and maybe do some split-toning, all of which were simple tasks such that I was done with the image in a few minutes. The frustrating part for me is that I am unable to get a similar result in darktable.

So I must be doing something wrong.

Let’s see …

Concerning the clarity of the details we have:

  1. reference:
    ND800_0005626_detail1 ND800_0005626_detail4

  2. @Thomas_Do 's take (darktable):
    ND800_0005626_anonymized_01_detail1 ND800_0005626_anonymized_01_detail2

  3. @age 's take (darktable):
    ND800_0005626_anonymized_02_detail1 ND800_0005626_anonymized_02_detail2

  4. @CarVac 's take (FIlmulator and RT)
    ND800_0005626_anonymized_CarVac_detail1 ND800_0005626_anonymized_CarVac_detail2

  5. @Jade_NL 's take (RawTherapee)
    ND800_0005626_anonymized_Jade_NL_detail1 ND800_0005626_anonymized_Jade_NL_detail2

3 is pretty good, but it relies on the sharpen module which is discouraged in the scene-referred workflow which I think I would like to stick with.

The sharpness in 5 is remarkable! (Also considering the writing on the bus stop sign.)

As for the yellows we have:

  1. reference:
    ND800_0005626_detail2 ND800_0005626_detail3

  2. @Thomas_Do 's take (darktable, filmic rgb):
    ND800_0005626_anonymized_01_detail3 ND800_0005626_anonymized_01_detail4

  3. @age 's take (darktable, not scene referred):
    ND800_0005626_anonymized_02_detail3 ND800_0005626_anonymized_02_detail4

  4. @CarVac 's take (FIlmulator and RT)
    ND800_0005626_anonymized_CarVac_detail3 ND800_0005626_anonymized_CarVac_detail4

  5. @Jade_NL 's take (RawTherapee)
    ND800_0005626_anonymized_Jade_NL_detail3 ND800_0005626_anonymized_Jade_NL_detail4

I tend to think that the orangish yellows in the right-of-way sign and in the bus stop signs are best in 5, and ok still in 2 (Based on what their colors look like in my memory.)

The converter that I had used was Capture One 11. The sharpness was mainly controlled (and increased) via the “structure” slider in the “clarity” module.

Looks good! Do you mind providing a full size file? I would be interested in the details.

You can use the diffuse or sharpen module, which is part of the scene-referred workflow. Only downside, for now, is that it is part of 3.7, not the latest stable 3.6. You’ll have to wait until X-Mas id you want it and can’t build darktable yourself.

I find the difference in the H on the bus stop sign to be very intriguing.

I can see only traces of the white outlines in the other renderings; perhaps it’s visible because of Filmulator’s dynamic range compression plus the deconvolution sharpening?

I’m pretty sure there are not any more compression artifacts in my rendering, since I used TIFF as the intermediate between Filmulator and RT.

oh that’s a misunderstanding. I meant compression artefacts because I created the extracts from the jpg file you provided and didn’t check how much it was compressed. I’ll remove the remarks in my post.

I replaced my previous edit with a full size version.

1 Like

@baloe

Just to make sure there aren’t any misunderstandings:

  • My edit was done with RawTherapee.
  • My remark about using the diffuse or sharpen module, which is a darktable module, was in relation to your darktable remark.

I have played with that specific darktable module, though, and it is a rather powerful module which can do a lot more than just sharpening (dtdocs chapter).

My take with ART

I wonder, if theese bus stop signs have some physical properties (e.g. reflective coating) that gives rise to problems to keep the colors in gamut.

1 Like

My effort…compressed the highlight/shadows a bit tweaked the sign a bit and took a white balance from the smaller sign that was in the sun…the one with the white border…


Bit more punch with contrast eq

EDIT After looking at the areas the OP cited lack of detail it seemed that the examples were reflecting washed out hightlights…so I took another run at it this time using filmic with a preset using the linear curve slope of 1 and latitude of 99% as documented in the manual. I used this sometimes when I don’t need filmic to do too much…

I have again gone the route of keeping strong shadows and not done any elaborate masking and the like…focus was the yellow sign and the leaves…



ART, ND800_0005626_anonymized.tif.out.arp (10.8 KB)

Darktable 3.7, ND800_0005626_anonymized_01.NEF.xmp (11.6 KB)
with filmic trick (thanks to the forum). DT results often have a greenish tint, corrected here. I see oversaturation here, maybe colorprofile problem, I’ll leave it for now.
No chance for requested sharpness/clarity. Maybe CaptureOne “lies” a little bit?

Very interesting picture for studying “color correctness”.
Happy editing!

thanks for posting
darktable 3.6.1


ND800_0005626_anonymized_02.NEF.xmp (16.8 KB)

With darktable 3.6.1


ND800_0005626_anonymized.NEF.xmp (9.1 KB)