I have just found something which works quite fine for me, even if the sky is fully blown out during processing:
- Process for the dark regions of your image - Activate the module "tonemapping" - Set contrast compression to 1,0 and use blendif to limit the effect of the module to the bright parts of the image (for example 140-255) - Use mask blur (for example 2.5) to prevent halos and other ugly effects. Regards, Markus Am 28.05.2013 23:42, schrieb Chris Siebenmann: > 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 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Introducing AppDynamics Lite, a free troubleshooting tool for Java/.NET > Get 100% visibility into your production application - at no cost. > Code-level diagnostics for performance bottlenecks with <2% overhead > Download for free and get started troubleshooting in minutes. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_ap1 > _______________________________________________ > Darktable-users mailing list > Darktable-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/darktable-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How ServiceNow helps IT people transform IT departments: 1. A cloud service to automate IT design, transition and operations 2. Dashboards that offer high-level views of enterprise services 3. A single system of record for all IT processes http://p.sf.net/sfu/servicenow-d2d-j _______________________________________________ Darktable-users mailing list Darktable-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/darktable-users
