darktable ep 048 - The Color Zones module

[@joaovtaveira]

Hi Bruce, I'm glad you made a video about Colour Zones module, it is definitely, one of my favourites, and one of the ones I most use. There's two important things you didn't talk about. The mix slider, it makes the effect of what you've done above, stoonger or weaker. The use of the mouse wheel; for example, at 5:16, you can use it to increase or reduce the radius of the area of influence of the effect that you are causing moving the line up or down; try it, it is worth it. Congratulations for your channel one more time from Portugal. P. S.: The presets are worth to try also.

[@audio2u]

Thanks mate! All valid points.

[@bernym4047]

Another clear & concise demo. Thanks.

[@audio2u]

No worries!

[@josefweisleitner2559]

Thank you for another great tutorial! One nice ability of this module is to quickly desaturate all oversaturated parts of an image. just chose "select by saturation" and pull the very right node (using a quite large radius) all the way down. I've made a preset of this which can easily be adjusted by the mix slider.

[@audio2u]

I ended up doing a Patreon-only video where I covered the saturation and luminance input options, and I covered exactly this scenario. :)

[@sidrotten21]

you have made me enjoy taking raw photos knowing i can watch your videos. thanks

[@audio2u]

Thanks mate, glad to hear it! :)

[@davidknowles5519]

Cheers Bruce helpful as always

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@fotografie-joerglang]

Great video, great explained. Thank you very much. Greetings from Germany.

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@DalsPhotography-Daniela]

Simply excellent tutorial !!!! I enjoy so much your obsession with the program and editing lol cause I am also obsesive... then when someone sees our photos they will never notice the magenta cast on the arm hahahah! Thanks again :)

[@audio2u]

I've always been a little OCD, but only on some things! 😃

[@DalsPhotography-Daniela]

@@audio2u hahah then it's just DITTO !!!!! For me things that get me passionate about , just unleash that OCD of mine, the rest is just meh hahaha, funny talk right? I was on a radio too long time ago, of course in spanish, it was Radio Theater !

[@audio2u]

Excellent! Australian Radio doesn't really do any radio dramas anymore.😒

[@DalsPhotography-Daniela]

@@audio2u which is unfortunate, same happened down on this side... It was so fantastic to see all the way sound effects were made just with some rough handy tools !

[@grahamsopp]

This module has a most strange layout. Surely the first thing you do is 'select by' yet that's half way down the module, and the droppers you use to make that selection are up by the output tabs. Surely 'select by' should be at the top, and the selection droppers with it. Of course if it was logical and easy, we wouldn't need your great videos! The display area has been updated in the six months since you made this, but functionality appears the similar. The triangles have gone from the bottom, and appear to be included on the graph line, which seems fiddlier. This video certainly gives a good start to using themodule, even if there are subtle differences now. great work as always Bruce

[@audio2u]

Thanks Graham. I agree, it's an unusual design. 😃

[@peterpiper0815]

Thank you! Great tutorial (just like all of your tutorials). I used this modul before on a portrait photo. The person was under a tree in the midday sun and the skin had a very green colorcast. After using the modul the skin now looks much better. BTW Beautiful photo of a lovely model.

[@audio2u]

Thanks! She is great to work with. Easy on the eye, and always shows up when she says she will. A rare commodity amongst models, sadly.

[@timoteiafanasie4894]

Thanks a lot for your efforts. Great job.

[@audio2u]

Cheers!

[@cosmo0080]

good plan thank you

[@syteanric1868]

Colour zones is a great module. It's also a little tricky at first to get right. It does lack slightly in some ways but i think the upcoming December upgrade for DT will fix these

[@europlatus]

Another great vid Bruce. The new version of the module in 2.7.x is quite different and gives you finer control of curves. In fact, I usually don't bother with masks with this module because you can create a nice curve to either isolate or broaden your colour range depending on what you want to do. I like this module a lot for tweaking things like sky colour and distracting bold colours.

[@audio2u]

Haven't looked at the 2.7.x version... YET. :)

[@JulesMoyaert_photo]

THANK you! Subscribed!

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@musaire]

Thanks, was interesting to check it out! Gonna download the software soon. I am used to these curves in Davinci Resolve, happy to see these here! Definitely also try out the Lightness vs Saturation if it can be configured this way (background curve in filmic seems this way)! In Davinci Resolve when we go for really cinematic look we decrease the saturation in blacks - deepest shadows must mostly stay pure black (even when we have teal near shadows) - looks cleaner. Pros do it mostly with counterbalancing with lift wheel though (for more precision, log wheel actually to apply it for near black only). So definitely try Lum vs Sat curve. And Sat vs Sat is useful too (add colors where there is little and/or decrease where there is already too much).

[@musaire]

And ahh, I read in another comment you've prob tried those. good!!! :)

[@abhishes]

5:19 This module is totally broken on MacOS. clicking on arrows does nothing. its like its read only module. I cannot drag either the arrows or the curve. it does nothing.

[@audio2u]

That's bizarre. I'm not a Mac guy, but I've not heard anyone else experiencing the same behaviour. You should definitely log an issue on the darktable page at github.

[@abhishes]

@@audio2u never mind I restarted darktable and then it started to work just like you've shown in th e tutorial. so I guess it was something wrong with my computer.

[@janderboven4711]

Thanks for another great video, Bruce. I just tried to get rid of a green sunflare on a picture with the Color Zones Module (about the same kind of problem as your blue zone). No big succes either...

[@audio2u]

Hmm. I'm probably doing something wrong. 😃

[@_chickenhead]

Thank you so much! I used the hue tab to color-correct purple uniforms (that came across as blue sometimes) Thanks! Do you have any advice for using tone curves after turning off the base curve presets? I have been playing around and haven't been able to find a consistent base curve for my camera model, so I have taken your advice and turned off the module. Thanks in advance, and great video!

[@audio2u]

Mate, for me, I go on gut feel. And watch your histogram. Set your white point. Set your black point. And then use the middle of the curve to get the level of contrast you want. That's my approach anyway.

[@_chickenhead]

@@audio2u Thanks!

[@karstenleinekefotografie]

Thank you, again! :-)

[@audio2u]

No worries!

[@sindrejensen1411]

Does a function exist in dark table where you could select her wrist and then click on her face where its in shade and use that color automatically on her wrist?

[@audio2u]

This video is quite old now, and since then, we have had the spot colour mapping feature added to darktable. Check out episode #116. MIGHT work, might not. I haven't tried it. Thing is, do you REALLY want that anyway? Anything that is in shade SHOULD look different to the areas that are in direct sun. Just thinking aloud....

[@sindrejensen1411]

​​​@@audio2u Thinking more about it I agree with you it should look different in the sun and shade. Ennyway thank you for the tip on the new feature and the video reference, I will check it out later today.

[@AngeloMiguelEng]

Can you share the .XML for the Styles?

[@audio2u]

Not sure if I've still got them! 😃

[@oliversteiner0815]

I really appreciate the effort, man power and know-how that goes into darktable. And for the most part I love it. But will we ever see an ordinary HSL module? Something that actually just works? That works beyond miniscule skin-tone tweaks without ending up with artifacts that ruinn the image? Or a manual distortion correction? That'd fantastic for my old glass! Can't be hard to code, I think. Every release of darktable just throws more geekiness at us while neglecting actual needs of geeneric everday photo editing. It's a pity.

[@audio2u]

Best to talk to the developers on that front! I just cover what they do.. I'm not involved in the development of the app. :)

[@oliversteiner0815]

@@audio2u Yeah, sure, but whom and how to contact? And will they even listen..

[@audio2u]

They have in the past. Best approach is to either join the mailing list, or join the forum at pixls.us as most of the developers are active there.

[@oliversteiner0815]

@@audio2u Thank you, I'll see what I can do..! :)

[@ebutuoy3008]

I like this video very much, but in my dt screen the colorzone module is one big surface. It is not devided by squares? Is that normal?

[@audio2u]

Hmm, not sure what you mean. Post a screenshot in the darktable unofficial group on FB.

[@donr7492]

Same here .... don't have the squares too. Is there a solution?