A number of darktable processing steps can push unclipped RAW channels
into overexposure under some circumstances (for example, the standard
Nikon base curve not infrequently blows highlights out on me). As a
relative beginner at darktable, I'm interested in people's views on the
best and easiest way to recover the highlights in this case.
I think that what I want at a conceptual level is to pull the
highlights down (I assume inevitably reducing highlight contrast),
but there may be something that gives a better visual look. Things
I've tried, without universal success:
* the Shadows and Highlights module often doesn't really reduce the
blown highlights very much (or at all) and can give me an unnatural look
(this may mean that I need to change the 'soften with' setting).
* the Zone module also doesn't seem to be able to pull down the
brightness of the blown highlights, although it can be used on things
that aren't too bright.
* Tone curves have defeated my ability to make good fine adjustments at
the bright end of the curve without screwing up the rest of the image.
I assume it's possible but I'm clearly not doing something right.
(I've tried setting the linear preset to freeze most of the 'curve'
and then monkey around only with the top end.)
(I suspect that this is the right solution and what I want to do is
develop some sort of 'highlight recovery' preset, but it's beyond my
current darktable skill.)
* the Levels module won't let me move the white point out to the right
(which I think might have roughly the effect I want but I could be
wrong about).
Since I suspect that this sort of question always works better with an
example, here's a sample D7100 NEF that exhibits the sort of 'blown in
processing' effect that I'm talking about:
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~cks/tmp/darktable/DSC_1101.NEF
(This picture has some genuinely clipped areas, but only a small
number; many more blow out with the default Nikon tone curve.)
(Note that I'm presenting this for illustrative purposes; I'm less
interested in how to process this specific picture than in how to
recover highlights in the general case that this picture is an example
of.)
Thanks in advance to anyone who has suggestions, guidance, etc.
- cks
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