Noob question about image processing

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Noob question about image processing

hyvokar

Hi all!

I'm really new to darktable and looking for a bit of an advice.

I've been photographing random subjects for quite some time and saved images using jpg format.
My processing has been quite straight forward.
1) Import pictures 2) delete the ones I dont like 3) batch process in irfanview ; resize and sharpen. 4) publish

I've been quite happy with the results. Now I'm moving towards raw-pictures.
I've managed to import pictures to Darktable, delete the ones I dont need, but then I hit the wall.

Pictures shows pretty nicely in the preview windows (lighttable), I would say that I cannot distinguish them from JPG produced by the camera. But as soon as I export them, they lose quite a bit of saturation and atleast whites turn to bit blueish.

The same thing happens, when I open the previewed picture on darkroom. If I 'undo' all the changes by going to "0 original" from history pane the picture is quite flat and heavily gray.

So is there a way to export pictures, like they show in a preview of lighttable?

Running darktable 4.0.0 on win10, monitor has been calibrated using spyder x elite, camera is Canon 1D X , using neutral picture style and sRGB color space.

Thanks in advance, and let me know if I can give any more information that could help solve this.

MrSteveVee

Just a bit of info first in case you are unaware. Jpeg is an image format, it is a compressed image and by its very nature will have lost (maybe) some of the highlight or shadow details. However these days with current cameras the Jpegs are so good that you can pretty much use them for printing etc if you wished (I often shoot jpeg on my Fuji using the fuji film simulation to get that film look)
Raw is not an image format, it is just data that came from the sensor. Raw data cannot be displayed , it needs to be converted to a displayable image using algorithms to decipher the raw data. When your camera take a pic and you want it in raw format, it gives you the raw data, but it also imbeds a thumbnail pic so you can see what the camera would have done if you had let it.
When you look at the raw data in DT it is showing you the imbedded thumbnail, so that is why the lighttable image looks the same as you expect
When you develop or export the image, thats when things start to change.
Camera manufacturers store their image data (raw file) in the format they choose. It will not be the same as others (Unless they adopt DNG as that is a universal format). Additionally they do not publish how they store the data, why should they, others might copy it lol.
So DT has no idea whats in the raw file (same as any other software package) , they have to work it out. Fortunately most raw files use a common base so thats a good start, they then get lots of people to send them images so they can study the data and work out what the other data means and how to apply it to their own algorithms to build up an image from the raw data
If you edit a Raw image you will see (in your case) the image will look different to the thumbnail, this is how DT thinks it should look. Now look at the history stack and you can see the modules that DT has automatically applied to try and get the image to look the same as your thumb nail
Look at the base curve (may be different, not use DT for a while and PC in bits at mo so cant run it) that wass the main one to get the image to look how you want. Look at it, change it and see if you can get the image the way you want. Once you do this, you can save as an automatic applied preset
Look on youtube for Bruce Williams. he has a wealth of good tutorials for beginners and will cover this
Steve

hyvokar

Thanks Steve!
I had no idea about the thumbnail part, so now I know what I'm looking for :-)

One more question, does DT use same settings by default for all the RAWs I import taken with same camera?

MrSteveVee

hyvokar Yes you will see in the history tab the modules by default, look at the base curve and it will tell you the settings it used by default it might be camera specific or maybe manufacturer specific but you can change these and see what affect it has , if you like the changed look save as an auto applied preset for your camera

hyvokar

Thanks Steve, you are golden :-) I'll go start practicing