You assume the RAW image is neutral. This assumption is wrong. Camera sensors are far away from being linear, especially at the very bright tones. The base curve corrects this distorted response curve and makes the images look similar to the OOC JPEG results. If you do not like the style of your camera vendor you can modify the base curve to fit your own needs. I expect a more neutral (less contrasty) base curve to look similar like the original one.
The new alternate base curves provided by Pascal (many thanks!) have shown in an impressive way how important a good base curve is. I reworked a lot of images and the new base curve improved most of them by a large amount. The color rendering (especially for skin tones) improved a lot, too. And another observation: Base curve and tone curve behave different. I tried some adjustments with tone curve and failed, the same tweaks worked well with base curve. Regards, Markus Am 30.12.2012 22:11, schrieb Marie-Noëlle Augendre: > First thing I do when I begin to work on a picture is deactivate the base > curve. I'd rather start from something as neutral as possible, than to make > modifications/corrections over something that is made automatically and > whose effect I don't like. > Then I use the tone curve to make the modifications I want, and that are > different for each picture. > > Marie-Noëlle > > 2012/12/30 Markus Jung <[email protected]> > >> You must not disable basecurve, the images looks like if you did this. >> >> Sensors differ in the way how they respond to brightness, the basecurve >> expresses how the sensor values have to be interpreted. >> >> Regards, >> Markus >> >> Am 30.12.2012 22:08, schrieb Eckhart Pedersen: >>> Hi all, >>> >>> I have tried very hard to understand color management for years, and I >>> think I have finally understood the basics. I have now calibrated my >>> Dell U2410 with an i1 display pro colorimeter + DispcalGUI, installied >>> the profile system wide, and am now using this profile in darktable. I >>> have even verified the calibration and profile using the colorimeter and >>> everything seems to be ok. >>> >>> Calibration was done in standard mode of the display, 30 Brightness, 50 >>> contrast, and 6500K black body as whitepoint target. >>> >>> If I now load a raw image from my Canon EOS 5D II in darktable and >>> disable all processing (except sharpening), I would expect to get a >>> usable/neutral rendition of the photo on my display. However, the photos >>> look very dull/muted. Since darktable comes with an existing input >>> profile for the 5D II (it does, doesn't it?) I would expect the default >>> look to look more or less natural, without having to fiddle with curves, >>> saturation, or contrast in any way. But this does not seem to be true. >>> It looks completely wrong. >>> >>> You can find an example image here. >>> >>> *raw* *CR2*: http://cornergraf.net/darktable.org/raw.CR2 >>> *exported JPG* with everything off, except sharpening: >>> http://cornergraf.net/darktable.org/muted2.jpg >>> *exported JPG* with black level +0.10, and exposure +1.3: >>> http://cornergraf.net/darktable.org/proper2.jpg >>> >>> Please help me understand what is going on here. Is this the way the >>> files should look like straight out of the camera and with no >>> processing? Is my display calibrated or profiled incorrectly? What do >>> you get when you look at the exported JPG files, which one looks more >>> natural? >>> >>> I would greatly appreciate any help you can give me. >>> >>> Regards, >>> Eckhart >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, >>> MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current >>> with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft >>> MVPs and experts. ON SALE this month only -- learn more at: >>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_123012 >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Darktable-users mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/darktable-users >>> >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, >> MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current >> with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft >> MVPs and experts. ON SALE this month only -- learn more at: >> http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_123012 >> _______________________________________________ >> Darktable-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/darktable-users >> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. ON SALE this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_123012 _______________________________________________ Darktable-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/darktable-users
