darktable ep 046 - The Channel Mixer

[@mickehog76]

I've just compiled the latest developing version of Darktable. And this module channel mixer will be replaced with another module called color calibration. And in this new module the red channel is working like the other channels :). And in a future version of Darktable after 3.4, the channel mixer will be removed. But will be there for images who used this old module. I don't know exactly how, but I guess the module will just be visible when you open an image who used channel mixer. I can tell you right now that you gonna love 3.4 :). It will be an awesome version. 3.2.1 was great but 3.4 is wow!

[@audio2u]

Good stuff! 😃

[@rafilewin4644]

Welcome back Bruce and good luck with the new job! Apropos the ancient image that you tried to reconstruct- I have had excellent results with 'browned out' scanned photos using an Epson V550 scanner and adjusting color channels to taste (the color restoration module there works great with old slides/ negs but for some reason refused to work recently with the old photos....)

[@audio2u]

There's never just one tool to fix everything, is there? 😃

[@BillWohler]

Thanks so much for your help on the documentation!

[@audio2u]

I'm not sure how helpful I was, to be honest but thanks! 😃

[@rhonaldjohnrose5861]

Excellent video Bruce, I have learned so much about Darktable in the past weeks alone.

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@wido123123]

Hi Bruce! nice to have you back. I'm sure your new gig will come out just fine, but patience is hard to master (and we all know that bills will pile up). Keep it up man! Also, on the module, I've seen another Darktable video man (can we call this not "cheating" but "open relationship"?) where he uses the channel mixer as a color contrast tool, by selecting the 'grey' output and blend with "hsv lightness" and then he plays with the red for contrast and green or blue for brightness. I don't get great results with this, but he does (probaly because of different cameras and different raw input files), it's very usefull for too much bright skies

[@audio2u]

Interesting. I'll check it out.

[@blisz6781]

The channel mixer works really well if you use him in the RGB blending modes. Than the red sliders even works with negative values . . .

[@audio2u]

Good to know. Thanks!

[@wishingluck]

Thanks for the new episode, and good luck!

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@davidknowles5519]

Thanks Bruce I have been using the channel mixer for noise reduction as you showed us. Wondered if you could do something on geotagging photos for those of us who don’t have GPS built into the camera. Good luck with job hunt

[@audio2u]

Yeah, I will get to that eventually! 😃

[@playerztransform8313]

Thank You Bruce. Your class is awesome and giveme an alternative to chose the open source software.

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@gvalloggia]

Hi Bruce. I think the point is that the channel mixer will activate in the pipeline only when the result on at least one pixel is greater than 0. So, when the slider are all at 0, the channel mixer has no effect. When you put one channel at 0.1, then the channel mixer will "switch on" and you get an in image that is mostly black, or desaturated depending on the chosen output. It's the same for the negative values - if just set a channel to a negative value, no pixel value will be positive, so the mixer will not be activated: But if you set the red channel to 1 and then set the blue to -0.5 you will see a big difference.

[@audio2u]

Right! Thanks.

[@fotografie-joerglang]

Thanks a lot for this interesting video and i wish you good luck and success in your job search.

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@FrankWalsh]

I've only found the channel mixer useful for black and white

[@audio2u]

Yep, you can use it for that, too! Personally, I'm a big fan of the color zones module for black and white conversions.

[@syteanric1868]

I think the Channel Mixer is very much a work in progress in DT. I Wonder if the devs are aware of the faults with it?

[@audio2u]

Not sure! 😃

[@JohnnyBit]

@@audio2u Now they are: github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/2986 :)

[@cosmo0080]

i am running Ubuntu and my channel mixer behaves the same ?

[@audio2u]

I would expect so.

[@supermarkomarkomarko]

@@audio2u I'm running DT on Windows and channel mixer works fine. I'll try later in Linux

[@bubulubugoth]

yeey pictures from Sri Lanka!

[@audio2u]

Mate, we loved Sri Lanka! Great people, awesome food, fantastic scenery.