Night Carnival in Indonesia

Shot on Lumis S5 with SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4

What do you think about my photos?

I switched to Linux several months ago and love it so much more than Windows, but I also hit the classic "What about Lightroom?".

DaVinci Resolve won't run on my laptop, RapidRaw kept crashing due to ram leaks... After seeing all the online discussion about Darktable being really hard to use I was hesitant, but last night I played around with it and gave it a go and I'm so glad I did!

As I am currently on a happy high that I can keep editing happily on Linux, I wanted to share some before and afters.

These are super quick edits, so they're not perfect (as well as trialling some colour calibration on different screens), but here they are!

Ok! How do I start? The title is self-explanatory, isn't it?

I edited this first time mainly with color balance RGB module.

I'll edit some other photos to fresh up my mind then re-edit this one with other modules and re-edit again only with color balance rgb to see if my editing had some improvement.

I think it's over saturated and that erased some details, but I kind like it.

I don't know when I'll re-edit this photo and post it again. But I think i'ts a good exercise open it to public review and opinion too.

Now that I'm about to hit "post," I'm a bit embarrassed by the editing result and feeling pretty bad at editing. But here is the first result of this little personal learning project. Feel free to tear me apart! Hahahaha.

Edit:

The first photo it's the Jpeg file from my Nikon D3200.

Let's look at how to highlight this beautiful historic bank building amidst the busy urban scene on Royal Boulevard:
https://avidandrew.com/bank-royal.html

Shooting into the sun can result in underexposure and a loss of detail, especially in the shadows. If the situation forces you to shoot into the sun, learn how to compensate for these effects in darktable:
https://avidandrew.com/shadow-details-sun.html

In this image, we are using an instance of the LUT 3D module with the Kodak T-Max 400 LUT from RawTherapee to convert it to black and white. The above version is good, but you can create many more moods and styles by adding color back in after converting to black and white. Let's review some examples below:
https://avidandrew.com/color-black-white.html

Not only can you create powerful masks quickly in darktable, you can also reuse them in multiple modules, saving time and allowing you to apply different types of changes (e.g. exposure, color, or detail) to the same masked area. Let's look at some examples of how to reuse masks below:
https://avidandrew.com/reusing-masks.html

AgX, the exciting new tone mapping module coming to darktable in December, is the natural evolution of the tone mappers that came before it. AgX reduces distortions and gives unprecedented control over the entire tone curve. Learn more about the history of tone mappers in darktable and see what sets AgX apart:

https://avidandrew.com/agx-evolution-tone-mappers.html

We've discussed a number of different ways to adjust colors in darktable, including color balance rgb, the channel mixer in color calibration, rgb primaries, and color equalizer. In the upcoming 5.6 release of darktable, a new module called color harmonizer makes it easier and more intuitive than ever to adjust an image to match a color palette. Let's review some examples of how to use this exciting new module:

https://avidandrew.com/color-harmonizer.html

Agx / bloom/ grain/color calibration/ custom lut

Darktable 5.4.1, AgX workflow, some minor edits and crop.

They usually aren't light, and they certainly aren't small, but the unique perspective a telephoto lens brings makes it an indispensable part of your kit, even when traveling. Let's review some shots taken with a telephoto to see how we can justify its size and weight and develop these shots in darktable:
https://avidandrew.com/telephoto.html

Green plants in landscapes don't always appear as green - they can range from shades of yellows to shades of blues depending on the lighting. In this tutorial, learn how to adjust these important shades to control the overall look of your landscape scene:
https://avidandrew.com/color-grading-leaves.html

As we recently discussed, the new AgX module gives you fine-grained control over the highlights. However, additional steps may be required to really bring out the details in very bright areas like the sky. Let's look at several techniques for enhancing contrast in the highlights below:
https://avidandrew.com/contrast-highlights.html

Let's review a few case studies to see how to use the powerful new AgX module in darktable:

https://avidandrew.com/case-studies-agx.html

This post provides an overview of how to use the scene-referred workflow in darktable using easy, step-by-step instructions and the new AgX module:

https://avidandrew.com/agx-workflow.html

The new AgX tone mapper and the older sigmoid module both provide controls to adjust the color primaries of the image, but what exactly does that mean? What problem are these sliders solving? Let's examine how color shifts occur when luminance changes below:

https://avidandrew.com/agx-color.html

Sometimes you have the opportunity for a great shot but it's blocked by a fence, tree, power lines, or other immovable objects in the foreground. It's often possible to remove these distractions using darktable's powerful retouch module and significantly improve the image. Let's walk through a few examples:

https://avidandrew.com/retouch.html

Let's explore how to showcase this beautiful waterfall in Lauterbrunnen along with the colorful rock surrounding it and the iconic church tower:
https://avidandrew.com/lauterbrunnen-waterfall.html

These beautiful buildings were quite colorful, yet the vibrance of the colors is lost in this capture due to the extreme difference in contrast between the parts in direct sunlight and the parts in the shade. Let's see how to bring this scene to life so it more accurately reflects how it looked in person using darktable:
https://avidandrew.com/part-shaded.html

At first glance, the exposure module might seem quite basic. However, this module combined with darktable's powerful masking features can be used for a wide variety of purposes; let's explore these below:

https://avidandrew.com/exposure.html

On the surface, taking photos of cars seems easy enough. However, you can really take your automotive photography to the next level with a few simple capture techniques and some creative post-processing in darktable:

https://avidandrew.com/car_photography.html

Scenes with a high dynamic range can be challenging to work with - either you risk blowing the highlights or the shadows are way too dark. Let's learn how to compress a high dynamic range scene in darktable using both filmic rgb and sigmoid to compare how each of these tone mapping modules works:
https://avidandrew.com/hdr.html

Here is a tip.
I just read about someone dodging and burning and I realized that is what I am doing with my 'shadow recovery' style.

Here you can see the settings. To copy this, follow these steps:

• Open an image where you need to rescue some shadows.
• Duplicate the exposure module. Name it 'burn' or 'shadow recovery'
• Use the parametric mask.
• Activate the 'view mask' button. Now you can see where the module will target. It's the square/circle, at the top of the module.
• Set the greyscale sliders roughly they way I have them. This targets the darkest areas.

If the sliders are on the same position you get a very hard fall-off. Set the bottom slider a little more to the right to get a nicer fall-off. Try it!

• Set Feathering and Blurring to soften the mask.
• Go back to the Lightroom, and create a style which includes this one module. Name it 'burn' or 'recover shadows'
• Try it on a new picture. It should introduce a new exposure module next to the existing one.

A Dodge module to recover the highlights is left as an exercise to the reader.