darktable ep 011 - Using Presets and Styles

[@joannabower7753]

Thank you Bruce, as a complete beginner to photography and darktable you are the clearest, most easy to follow teacher anywhere on youtube. Your way of explaining things is just brilliant! Thank you so very much!

[@audio2u]

Thank you Joanna! I try! 😃

[@bernym4047]

Not just clearly explained but practical suggestions for applications. Thanks Bruce.

[@audio2u]

Cheers!

[@bernym4047]

Presets & styles are obviously a massive time saver for multiple images. Portrait shoots and weddings for example. As usual, very well presented and explained. Many thanks.

[@audio2u]

No worries! Thanks. :)

[@Parthamitra2264]

Thanks you Bruce, for helping me understand and comprehend this beautiful software. You have really explained it so well and yet in such a simple and precise way that Darktable should actually make you their honarary instructor. Thanks again.

[@audio2u]

Thanks Partha Mitra! Just doing my bit for the community! :)

[@philsmith774]

I've been using Darktable for a while and still find this series of videos very useful. Great job.

[@audio2u]

Phil Smith thanks Phil! Much appreciated.

[@foxus]

I confirm, this is really well done. Thanks a lot !

[@richgraves8667]

Great stuff Bruce, I'm really starting to understand just how powerful some of the options and tools are within Darktable. This has helped me to decide to continue learning and using this awesome tool.

[@audio2u]

Hey Rich, that's great to hear. It is an awesome piece of software.

[@ferrydrums99]

I wanted to create basic styles and some presets to accelerate my workflow but did not know how to actually do it in Darktable. Thank you so much for this helpful video!

[@audio2u]

Ferran Pérez Gamonal, thanks!

[@PontiacCZ]

Maybe Darktable is not as intuitive as commercial programs but you do a great job for us to understand its endless capabilities. Thank you! :-)

[@audio2u]

No worries! 😃

[@SchmidtDrums]

thanks man, super helpful, even 5 years later.

[@audio2u]

Hahaha! Glad it helped!

[@gooorylin]

In Darktable - it seems to be harder to manage presets,than in Raw Therapee 5.8.Thank you sir for the tutorial.

[@audio2u]

No problem!

[@grahamsopp]

Very informative Bruce - in the example you just showed us, how wide is the effect? has every single photo you have ever taken at 75mm been changed to green monochrome or just the active folder/film roll? I can understand why you may want to apply a correction to every photo taken with a certain lens at a certain aperture, but I can't see a situation where every single photo taken on a 50mm F1/8 would want to be brightened, cropped or modified in the same way.

[@audio2u]

Not sure what effect you're referring to re: width. As for when would every image need to be processed with the same settings... if you had left some particular camera setting in the wrong position, but otherwise shot everything consistently, as an example. I guess what I'd say here is don't take my "examples" too literally. What's more important is that you understand the underlying process. If you get THAT, then you can apply that knowledge in whatever situation YOU need! :)

[@grahamsopp]

@@audio2u by width I meant the scope . If in your collection of 300.000 photos 4000 had been shot at 75mm would all 4000 be changed?

[@audio2u]

If you are splitting a style based on the metadata of which lens was used, then yes, all images IN YOUR SELECTION which meet that criteria will be affected.

[@nosaj97]

Bruce I was trying to see if I could use a style to apply spot white balance to a group of images...don't think I can...seems like it applies the WB from the image that you set the WB module to spot with so they all get the same WB as that image...I guess this would be the same with trying to apply autoexposure to a group of images...Is this correct or I am missing something...any work around you can think of??

[@audio2u]

Nah, you pretty much nailed it unfortunately. :(

[@daviddavidd9883]

I just installed DT and there are ton(nes) of questions I have. But by the time I view your series of vids many of the questions will be answered. I have one question I must ask. Is there a global reset option? say I get myself into a mess and want to start over, what is the magic click? Lightroom has a global development module reset. Thank you for your Darktable tutorials. You have done an excellent presentation.

[@audio2u]

Thanks for the kind words. There is no global reset that I know of, but every module has its own reset button. And you can always revert the history stack for an image, which will turn off any modules which had been used to process that image. From there, you can start a new development process.

[@davidhicks7312]

Bruce, firstly many thanks for your priceless videos and after watching Ep 028 realised I hadn't subscribed, so thanks for the reminder. Simple question, if you apply a Preset from DTStyles.net is it possible to identify the actual style on the Darktable desktop from the Image Information? Thanks again.

[@audio2u]

No worries, David! Are you the David Hicks who went to Afghanistan? :) In answer to your question, no, I don't think so. You would simply have to load the image back into the darkroom view to see what processing you had applied, but that wouldn't necessarily tell you the name of the style you had applied. Does that make sense?

[@Tagutrec]

Very good lesson, but folks please can you describe for me how to input styles into the Darktable folder, I've downloaded some from net, and where I should put that to.

[@audio2u]

See the last 2 paragraphs here... www.darktable.org/usermanual/en/styles.html

[@relaxable7014]

Well explained, Thank you

[@audio2u]

Glad it was helpful!

[@feilong6223]

Great video very useful thanks so much. Is there anyway of backing up presets or is there a location where they can be found just in case you upgrade OS or change computers?

[@audio2u]

Yes, but obviously, that location differs from OS to OS. On Linux, I think it's under ~/config/darktable/styles.

[@feilong6223]

Thanks for a quick response. Sure i forgot to mention that im using Windows currently,.Any ideas about windows , is it the data.db file?@@audio2u

[@audio2u]

Look, I'm only taking an educated guesshere, so apologies if I've got it wrong. But I would EXPECT that on windows, you'd find it in c:\users\\appdata oaming\darktable\styles\ Best of luck!

[@feilong6223]

@@audio2u Thanks i think it is the data.db file in the folder you mentioned ,Cheers

[@tnargs57]

How do I apply a preset (say, a WB taken off a grey card and saved as Temp Copy in the WB Module) to a whole bunch of nearby images taken in the same lighting? Darkroom only seems to apply a preset to one image at a time (unless you do that Matching Images thing, but that does not relate to the situation I described). Lighttable can apply a Style to a selection of images, but no way to do the same with a Preset?

[@audio2u]

Apply the white balance to one image. Go to light table view. With that image selected, open the "history stack" module on the right hand side. Select copy. Deselect everything except white balance. Note shift+ select all images you wish to process. In the history stack module, select paste. You should be ok from here on. 😃

[@tnargs57]

Why thank you, works perfectly. I think the video didn't cover this action? It is something I do all the time: put a neutral card in the scene, take a test shot, then shoot the locality. Back home, I correct the test shot WB first, then batch copy that WB to all the others. cheers

[@signedelacroix7213]

Wow, thanks, better than the manual.

[@audio2u]

Glad it helped!

[@mass599]

Very smart note ... good tutorial

[@audio2u]

mass599 thanks for that!

[@albinblaschka7821]

Maybe still useful: under dtstyle.net there is a collection of some nice styles for darktable, with example and download... Bruce, Thanks for this series, really taking a lot out of it!

[@audio2u]

Glad it's been helpful! Cheers.

[@Keckegenkai]

"cheap russian lenses" My kit lens of my Sony a6000 does the vignetting on every picture

[@audio2u]

Haha! Fair enough!

[@october001]

Hey Bruce! Did you know this website exists (might want to put it in the ep notes?) I wish darktable had styles "preview" and presets import functions, but a valuable resource none the less! dtstyle.net/

[@audio2u]

No, I have not seen that site. I'll check it out.

[@srulycooper9883]

Download the user manual PDF. I think you will find your answer there.