My name is Gus and I make videos about Open Source stuff, mostly. Darktable, Blender, FreeCAD, etc. Photography and Digital Imagery is my main focus. I'm a lapsed Product Designer, who was pretty into rendering and 3D Visualisations, mainly using Blender (and modelling, mainly using FreeCAD) Hope you enjoy my trip through the jungle of Digital Colour, where I try to find the tools that help me push my pixels to the next level!
THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH. Having calibrated my monitor and messed with ICC profiles it was maddening to find how nothing matched, I tried to find solutions and came up with nothing, this video has been a huge help, but even with all the info dealing with several pieces of software that refuses to use said color profiles has been a headache beyond measure, after getting my photo editing software to match, the colors look horrid outside of said software, and whats even more confusing is with windows img viewer "supposedly" using profiles it still comes out duller, and that's WITH the profile embedded into the image, so it's a mental trap of what image really is the TRUE color, since not even browsers show it properly.. it's honestly maddening
@@StudioPetrikas I truly wish it wasn't this way, at least with apple it's somewhat more cohesive, but on the windows side, it's an absolute mess.. I picked up a pretty expensive colorimeter to start things out I was massive disappointed to find out about all of this.. I couldn't imagine the frustration if this was someone's full time job trying to find the balance amongst this chaos
Love your Darktable video. I would also like a full tutorial for beginners that goes from actually taking the photo (setting up the camera, the settings, how to shoot in raw, how to set up the scene etc.) to the final image.
Darktable is a very powerful program. But I have not found any videos on how to use darktable for focus stacking image. If you can do it, it would be very interesting to watch such a video.
This is an incredibly concise tutorial! Thank you. Definitely keen on seeing some more sigmoid tutorials with different (especially challenging) scenes and extra edits/fine tuning.
I would like you to merge a focus stack of images resulting in a sharp woman in front of a sharp landscape using the Composite module (if possible). But before that, please kill the small rythm group in the background.
Thanks for the idea and the feedback, but the music stays. I appreciate you bringing that up a couple of times, but it is important to me that it's there.
@@StudioPetrikas You'r welcome. If the music means a lot, then maybe consider play it at another time. It is conflicting with your rather low no nonsens way of presenting the stuff. Nothing beat silence in general, and good speaking with no jungle wall paper is the next best.
Trying to follow your nice tutorial, got stuck on moving the modules up and down. At any time i left click on any module, it opens and doesn't allow me to move it. I'm using Darktable 4.8.1 Thanks in advance.
@@StudioPetrikasOn minute 5:28 the video tells the Color Balance RGB module should be processed after the Sigmoid module, and it's shown how it is picked and moved after Sigmoid. I'm unable to reproduce that. At any time I try to click on the module header to select it to move, it opens down and show all the adjustments. Thanks for your quick answer.
@@StudioPetrikas I play with tons of things (incl. filmic) in 32 bit in vray's frame buffer with zero lag. Is it also due to being more primitive? Anyway, hope the DT devs will optimize the code even further. I have a problem exporting an edited *32 bit exr* from DT to PS - it doesn't look the same at all. is it possible to get 100% matching? Thank you!
Lightroom $20/m or $50-70 for full adobe suite. Or Darktable... Free. 😅 Like if your going back to the car analogy. Do you want a Rally car for free, Or do you want to pay a premium for that leased honda civic? ~~ Also Eagle Photo Manager is actually a great light room alternative for only $20 if you want a simpler tool.
The biggest disadvantage to Lightroom for me, is there is no way for me to use it. I've never used it, I'd like to give it a try. They do offer a trial, but it requires a creditcard and automatically starts a paid subscription after the trial period, which defeats the purpose of a trial. Photography is a hobby for me, I do it for people for free. I can justify a one time payment to buy equipment and software, but I can't justify paying for a subscription for a hobby. If Adobe offered a real trial then gave me the option to just let if end or outright buy the software, they might have some of my money. Darktable is fine. The results are exquisite. I don't mind putting in a little more work editing each individual photo. I find it kind of therapeutic.
Very comprehensive presentation. Thanks. I was looking for an alternative to Adobe, especially Lightroom. Adobe has become a highway robber. Beyond the reach of many serious but poor enthusiasts. Could you also shed some lights, how DR can do something usually done by Photoshop?
The biggest advantage to make the switch to Darktable: as you mentioned you don't own Lightroom, you are just renting it. So if you ever stop paying, you don't have access any-longer to your edits!! The current pricing for Adobe Photography (Lightroom and photoshop) in Europe is around EUR 12 per month, totaling to a small EUR 150 a year. Imagine you start using LR and or PS on the age of 30 and you retire around 60 (lucky you!) you spend around EUR 4500 (excluded inflation) for the rent of a piece of software. That's a lot for something you don't own. A now, are you continuing paying while being retired? Adding an other EUR 4500 if you might reach 90 years of age? When do you stop paying? Because as a photographer, you probably still want to take some pictures in you private life, while travelling around after a busy work-life. Or an old client contacts you for some small adjustments on a project you did years ago. If you don't continue paying them, all you have is your RAW's and (hopefully) high res exports but your edits and catalogs are gone. Therefor, and that on it's own, is more then sufficient reason to make to switch to Darktable (or Rawtherapee) or any other piece of software that let you buy a perpetual license, which will remain valid until the end of days. And as far as I see it now (thanks @Studio Petrikas) Darktable is an excellent replacement, which will take a bit of time to get adjusted to, but it will pay off in the end.
@@MaybeTiberius That’s also another option, but being a business user I can’t really afford to download cracked software, so I prefer to make the switch now and start learning how to overcome any discrepancies in the alternative software.
@@dillardblom3312 if you run a business it might be a different story. however the ''cracked software'' argument kind of reminds me of windows xp era. you dont download ''cracked software'' . you download the original software through adobes original adobe cloud app. you just block the software from calling back home afterwards, wich isnt much different to just cutting your internet connection for the most part
And how does it compare with C1? I found C1 be vastly superior over Lightroom. In C1 most of the time even the default automatic processing is often sufficient and the colors are always correct, whereas in Lightroom I had to use dedicated self made color profiles for some of my lenses, there were just no way to get the colors right... It is the last piece of software keeping me from completely switching to Linux...
Darktable should be superior to C1. Last time I tried C1 the results were barely better than Lightroom. Darktable just have tools that almost no other photography software does. It's completely up-to-date with the latest goodies, while industry dinosaurs like C1 or LR are scared to move forward because changes upset the user bases.
Great video and I love that you went straight to the point. Q: So what would be a good alternative to Lightroom, if darktable ain't it? What's a comparable minivan? 🙃
I've heard good things about Capture One. But I think it uses a similar colour process to Lightroom. Filmulator ir another Open Source project that seems to take care of colours and has a simpler interface than Darktable, but I'm not sure if it's still maintained. I'd strongly recommend getting familiar with Darktable. It's worth it!
@@StudioPetrikas oh don't get me wrong! I am much more in the camp of darktable, if only because... Linux. But I kind of overlooked their own description and since you highlighted it, I'm curious what would also be "easier" and "straight to the point" as Lightroom is. I've used Capture One a fair bit since switching to Fuji, but they've moved away from Express being free, sooo... Back to Darktable I've been. Ive never heard of Fimulator. I'll have a look! Thanks.
Hi Gus. Thank you for the great tutorials! I have some questions if you can help: 1) On Resolve, using the DCTL workflow, what would you say is the best option for the Timeline Color Space in Project Settings? I noticed that you have it set to Rec 709, but wouldn't make sense to use ARRI LogC3 or even Davinci WG/Intermediate? 2) To make sure: Pre-Formation happens after the first CST (Linear to ARRI LogC3) and Post-Formation after the 2nd CST (ARRI LogC3 to Agx), right? 2.1) Which grading processes do you tend to do more in Pre-Formation vs Post-Formation? 3) To add Dehancer to the mix (using the DCTL workflow) I just need to add the Dehancer node after Agx, set it's source mode to Rec 709, and that's it? Or should I change anything on the Agx workflow considering Dehancer will be added in the end?
Hello! Not sure if youtube comments is the best place for such in-depth discussions, but I can try to summarise as best as I can: 1. Timeline colour space, to my understanding, is a convenience option. It can be set to anything as long as you do colour transforms correctly. Most of my footage is rec709, that's what I set the timeline to. But I think it works like a 'working space'? So DaVinci Intermediate might be best. Not sure here. 2. It's easier to think about 'the point of formation', where your linear/log/whatever footage becomes a picture (that you can show to others). With your given examples, pre-formation would be linear and log, intermediate would be log and then formation happens at AgX. Post-formation - everything post AgX. 2.1 you will find that you will need to use both. Some processes *must* happen pre-formation, some post. 3. Uff, I would personally go the way you said, but I think it's 'better' to make AgX output log CST to change that to whatever log Dehancer takes as input, and do the dehancing on that.
@@StudioPetrikas Yeah 😅 sorry. I've been trying to get my head around all this stuff for a while and I really liked your videos. Thanks for the feedback!
Thank you for showing the process. I guess the grossly overexposed sun is on purpose, but there's no wow effect to the picture here. Perhaps show salvaging / enhancing details from clouds, getting from a blah grey sky to approaching dramatic effect, or getting details out of the darks, without noise.
If you’re free to dive deep into image processing with Darktable, it’s probably fair to say that you’re free to be as shallow as you want as well. This is in stark contrast to the “we do the work for you” approaches implemented by companies like Adobe and Apple. Once you hit the limit of their UI, that’s as far as you can go. I can’t count how many times I’ve had to “Open in Photoshop” from Lightroom because of this limitation. Being a proponent of organization, especially when talking about hundreds of thousands of image files, the mess that can produce over time is a huge OCD trigger.
Actually, Darktable as of 4.6 is very fast on my M1 max 32gb MacBook Pro. Previous versions were slow and that's why a kept my lr subscription. I cancelled last week and now I use DT and Affinity 2.
I really don't understand why there has to be always super annoying background music with these kind of tutorials!? It;s distracting and make it harder to follow! Please ditch the background music!
It's really annoying when you don't edit any settings or hotkeys and both my UI and hotkeys are completely different. Makes following this guide, or pretty much any of the guides, really difficult.
I think if your UI is completely different, you've got the wrong software open. This is default Darktable with darker colours. If you have a custom UI setup, it's on you to know where you've put your stuff.
@@StudioPetrikas I have Darktable 4.8.0 open. I have not customed the UI. I have not altered the hotkeys from default. So yeah... I appreciate the prompt response but it's not really that helpful.
Teaching beginners use hotkeys is just bad practice. You have to understand what you're doing before optimising your workflow. What are you missing? Can you give me an example? Have you set auto-apply pixel workflow defaults to filmic? (in the settings, beginning of the video)
Darktable has a serious flaw in the D&S sharpening module. In LrC you only need one slider and the effects are much better than two instances of the D&S module in DT Besides, we have perhaps 13 sliders there and it's worth graduating to understand how they work 😂
I have been following Darktable since it began and i like the underky8ng tech but for gods sake they should work on their UI/UX. Typical open source mentality of not caring about appearance and easy workflow. Few UI/UX guys can be onboarded to the team to make it better.
Agreed. It's very powerful but in many cases too many options are presented. It presents as a technical signal processing tool more than an artistic one. Just some simple collapsing of more advanced and rarely used options would help reduce the visual cluttering.
amazing tutorial! I think its worth mentioning that if you dont see the AgX DCTL in the dropdown menu at 6:35, restarting resolve should make it appear.
Thanks. One suggestion, please please use the snapshot tool to show the difference between significant tuning, to show us what effect the tool has on the picture, I thought that would help more
Thanks for this. My other half uses Capture One but I have been persisting with DarkTable as I prefer the end result. I find some of my clumsy mis-clicks can create frustrating results with the interface, lol, I seem to need an even more basic tutorial than this, but this is a fantastic clip to get one started.
Well, technically, the Sigmoid workflow is supposed to be even easier and more intuitive. I've recently released a video with the full workflow: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OBmMoTZJu8M.html Hopefully that helps!
As the previous commentators have written, a very good and clear video on Darktable and the use of the Sigmoid module. Maybe you could make a few videos showing some development of different pictures.
One of the best, clearest and easiest to follow entry level darktable tutorials out there. I've been using the software for years and believe I've got a pretty good handle on it, but this tutorial taught me several new things. Thanks heaps!
Would've loved you to go a bit more into detail on the sigmoid module, instead of only adjusting the contrast slider, but other than that, great video!
I think that's too much for a person who opened Darktable for the first time. I touched on the RGB Primaries module, which is very similar to Sigmoid primaries. 99% of people will leave target luminance & target black as-is.
Maybe! If I notice enough people struggling on the forums, it might be a good topic to drill deeper on. What would you like to know about it? (minus what's written in the documentation)
Thank you so much! This video was incredibly informative and inspiring for a new photographer like me!!! It only took me a few hours of adjusting my google search terms to find it lol
Some years ago (+10) I was doing sports photography. I had two regular clients and one occasionally. I did use Lightroom, it was the best I could find at the time. I will say I have not tried Darktable, I only know what I have heard here. I am just an old amateur photographer now. For me, speed was number one. I was always at the event with a writing journalist. We both went home to finish our respective work. The articles were for online use. I had approx. an hour to get my pics ready. Usually 20-30 pictures. So it is around 2 min per picture. Selections out of about 200 pics, and touching up, and in the end export and upload. I would not have been satisfied with a slower program. Looking back, I wish I could have had the newest LR. Don't get me wrong, I am not an Adobe fan, but the speed LR works with now, was an unimaginable dream at the time. My point: Speed is also a quality. That's why I think that programs, like LR, still have a big future. News are faster and faster, and it is all a battle getting the news online as fast as possible.
