I'm responding partially to the original post in this thread, and
additionally, to newcomers in general to darktable.
Darktable has a seductive, dangerous complexity. At least dangerous to
newcomers. Lots of newbies feel they have to immediately use every module
in the book. They are captured by the large number of different effects
that are possible.
What fun, there you are, brandishing a Swiss Army knife festooned with
hundreds of blades, gizmos, and doodads.
When I was starting out with darktable, I had the good fortune to come
across a video that suggested that newcomers start by using very very few
modules and effects. That was the best advice I've gotten regarding the use
of darktable. Keep it simple. Especially at the start.
I'm going to make a couple of unpopular suggestions aimed at newcomers,
especially people who are struggling with darktable.
Before I give my suggestions, let me put things in context. The first few
times that I tried editing raw files with darktable, I was shocked at how
unpleasant things look in darktable, and was, for a while, put off of using
the program.
A raw file generally has so much work to be done on it, that for a beginner
it can be a very steep climb to get to a merely acceptable result. This is
because most photographs start with two kinds of flaws.
The first kind of "flaw" has to do with the nature of a raw file itself and
the sensors that produce it. You can see that kind of flaw if you look at a
raw file and its jpg from the same shot, unedited, side-by-side. The raw
file will look flat and uninteresting when compared with the jpg.
Of course it's not really a flaw so much as a better look at what the
camera sensors saw originally. But it is in the nature of a raw file to
need a lot of doctoring up just to rise to what we would normally call mere
snapshot quality. I will call, for the sake of simplicity, all of these
conundrums, "raw file corrections".
The second kind of flaw has to do with everything except the nature of a
raw file. If I take a picture - lets say a jpg - and it needs to be
cropped on one side because of the aspect ratio of the frame does not suit
the subject, and maybe the exposure could have been slightly better, and
the contrast can be adjusted a little, and it would be nice to darken the
edges of the frame... There are dozens or hundreds of different ways in
which a snapshot quality jpeg differs from a beautifully conceived final
image. The cameras, nowadays, produce technically acceptable jpgs the vast
majority of the time. But those jpgs are usually quite a distance from the
image we hope to have. All of these second kind of flaws, I'll call, just
for the sake of simplicity, "aesthetic flaws".
Both sets of flaws have a learning curve, and I think that the raw file
corrections may be more challenging and unintuitive. Raw files often look
so wrong as to feel beyond repair. Hence my suggestions.
1. Start by editing a bunch of jpgs. Better, just one.
(To the experienced users here - I know, darktable is a raw editor, but
bear with me. There is a place in the universe for jpgs and the like.
Please don't get up in arms and attack me for my heretical suggestion. I am
talking exclusively for the benefit of new people who are flummoxed by
darktable, and who would benefit by a more structured way of learning.)
2. Newcomers - Use only a very few modules.
a. Crop and Rotate
b. Contrast/Brightness/Saturation
c. Color Correction
d. Sharpness
3. That's it. Four modules. Eschew all others (for a while).
4. Get to know the interface. Click around it. Videos help enormously here.
The interface is brilliant, complex, and needs learning. Approach it as one
of your goals.
5. Look at a lot of videos on darktable and take note that most highly
proficient users have a small set of modules that they get great mileage
out of. There is - in a very good way - a lot of redundancy in the modules.
I have a lot of kitchen knives but I reach for a very few almost all the
time.
6. Get handy with drawn masks and parametric masks. These are the keys to
the kingdom. I cannot emphasize that enough.
You can apply the vast majority of effects locally. The speed and finesse
with which one can operate via localized effects turns the blunt hammer
effect into surgical precision. Videos are super helpful here.
7. Stay away from ALL automating of things for a while - no stored
preferences, no fiddling metadata, no batch handling of many files. No
stars, ratings... Just work on a single image using darktable as an editor.
Just because darktable can do something does not mean you need to use that
capability, especially now. Open one image, edit, close it by "remove" (NOT
Trash!) Remove means that you are not asking darktable to add it to the
internal database of images. Keep file management for a later date.
8. Once you're quick and sure with the interface, then, open one raw file
and have at it. Once you are getting handy with dealing with aesthetic
flaws - only then - go for raw files... Start, again with just one.
9. Then, in future, when you're ready, take on a single new feature, just
one at a time. Don't get swamped by jumping in the deep end of the pool.
Take your time, step by step, at your pace into gradually deeper water.
You'll learn more, enjoy it more, and be better sooner.
Good luck!
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