Raw files editing, tips and tricks?

[Donatzsky]

I use darktable as well. My workflow has gone through a number of revisions over the years, currently it generally goes like this:

1. Auto-applied Sigmoid, scene-referred workflow
2. One of several tone-curve/color lookup table presets, as a starting point
3. Exposure adjustment for overall brightness
4. Tonal shadows/highlights adjustments in color balancing RGB, also color grading and saturation adjustments
5. In HDR scenes, tone equalizer to balance highlights and shadows
6. Automatic sharpening in an export preset

Hi bastibe, and thanks for your post, I have a feeling my workflow will change as I go forward as well. At the moment it is fairly basic - the first ways I have managed to make an acceptable output - I am sure I will find better ways of doing things.

I do this in a customized darktable, with several tweaks to the way I like to work: https://discuss.pixls.us/t/my-darktable-customization/45664/1

I will go take a look ..

Over time, I've spent several years with Lightroom and Capture One, each. They're good programs, too. But I've always come back to darktable. The flexibility and raw power of darktable is simply unmatched. From that experience with other programs, I have learned that you can rest assured that the quality of the end result is always predicated on user skill, not the tools they use.

darktable is the first raw editor I have used, hopefully I can do what I need in it. But I started the thread on the basis that raw editing should be able to be discussed as a topic on its own and I think you would broadly agree with that.

I’m afraid I wouldn’t. This thread has become productive now that it’s focused exclusively on DT. It wouldn’t be if it had stayed as a general discussion of raw editing.

The tips and tricks you’re learning are of zero relevance to me as a DxO PhotoLab user. And if we have a thread about tips and tricks with PhotoLab, it would have zero relevance to a DT user.

It seems that DT is a very complicated, difficult but powerful tool. The reasons for using it seem to be to master its intellectual challenges, or to prove that free, open source software can compete with commercial products. But if you just want to develop and edit raw images easily and quickly, to the highest quality, the commercial products are far stronger. I’m happy to pay for those advantages.

But, again, each is different. As a PhotoLab user, I wouldn’t get much from a thread about making the most of Lightroom or C1, or vice versa.

I don't use darktable, but a compelling reason to use it is that it can guarantee a scene-referred workflow; you can actually inspect the order of operations to confirm that. I don't think you can confirm that with any of the commercial softwares.

I have no idea if any commercial software can do this, nor why it would be useful?

I just skimmed the thread, may already have been defined, but 'scene-referred' means the all the operations to color are done before the tone curve lifts the image data from the original linear magnitudes of the capture.

Why is this needed?

This article explains the reasons for darktable moving to scene-referred, specifically, and many of the issues with display-referred, more generally: https://pixls.us/articles/darktable-3-rgb-or-lab-which-modules-help/

While some of the commercial raw editors might have some scene-referred parts (well hidden), they are all essentially display-referred.

 

[Donatzsky]

I don't use darktable, but a compelling reason to use it is that it can guarantee a scene-referred workflow; you can actually inspect the order of operations to confirm that. I don't think you can confirm that with any of the commercial softwares.

I just skimmed the thread, may already have been defined, but 'scene-referred' means the all the operations to color are done before the tone curve lifts the image data from the original linear magnitudes of the capture.

Actually, scene-referred is only about tone, not colors.

Here's a good explanation: https://openexr.com/en/latest/SceneLinear.html

 

[Digital Nigel]

I don't use darktable, but a compelling reason to use it is that it can guarantee a scene-referred workflow; you can actually inspect the order of operations to confirm that. I don't think you can confirm that with any of the commercial softwares.

I just skimmed the thread, may already have been defined, but 'scene-referred' means the all the operations to color are done before the tone curve lifts the image data from the original linear magnitudes of the capture.

Actually, scene-referred is only about tone, not colors.

Here's a good explanation: https://openexr.com/en/latest/SceneLinear.html

That's way too complicated for me. It's exactly why I avoid complicated tools like DT!

If I want to use a tone curve that doesn't change saturation, the tools is built into PhotoLab 8 already. No complicated papers to read, no theories to learn.

I just want a product that's very quick and simple to use, easy to learn, and produces great results. And I don't mind paying for it.

 

[ggbutcher]

I don't use darktable, but a compelling reason to use it is that it can guarantee a scene-referred workflow; you can actually inspect the order of operations to confirm that. I don't think you can confirm that with any of the commercial softwares.

I just skimmed the thread, may already have been defined, but 'scene-referred' means the all the operations to color are done before the tone curve lifts the image data from the original linear magnitudes of the capture.

Actually, scene-referred is only about tone, not colors.

Here's a good explanation: https://openexr.com/en/latest/SceneLinear.html

Well, kinda.

Any kind of color saturation applied after a tone curve lifts the data from scene-linear will do more damage to the colors than if applied before.