darktable ep 027 - The Retouch module

[@MasoudM]

Thanks for your detailed explanation of the retouch iop. Here is a couple of more tips for it: 1. You can use similar source for all shapes by Ctrl+Shift+clicking (just like the Shift+click you already mentioned) 2. Pressing and holding "A" key when you draw shapes will temporarily disable the drawing. I find it very handy when I want to zoom in/out or scroll the picture in the middle of drawing shapes. This also works the same when drawing shapes for drawn masks 3. The fill and blur tools are more useful when you work on wavelet scales

[@AlfaLyr]

What a great video! This is really an amazing module. The blurry layer contains all the low frequencies remaining from extracting the other layers. It can be very useful, for example to correct discoloration of the skin, red patches on the cheeks, dark patches under the eyes and stuff like that. You just need to copy in those problematic areas from other areas with the right colour using that layer, and the results are absolutely seamless! All the texture, in all levels of detail, is preserved and only the colour is changed. Thank you for all these great videos explaining this fantastic software :)

[@audio2u]

Thanks Erica!

[@steveh8658]

Note to anyone coming here for more ideas: I've just been removing a stray piece of dark clothing from a grey fleck carpet while practising for a real estate shoot. I found that I got the best result from going 5 scales deep, doing Heal on the last scale (just to left of white), then merging all to the top scale, then going to white (blur/colour level) box and using Clone on a part of empty carpet. PS Cheers Bruce for your work on Darktable.

[@audio2u]

Great tip Steve, and thanks for the kind words!

[@geekinthegarden3927]

Ah, so its like using high pass/low pass filters to separate out the layer texture details from the layer colours. I've used these in Gimp to remove wrinkles, spots etc in photos. I was wondering if Darktable had a way of doing this. The strength is that you don't have to completely remove the texture but can focus on one level - for example the crows feet at the corner of the eyes - if you left the finer detail levels and just worked on the top course detail level you could retain them, but reduce their thickness and depth so that it still looked natural. For the red splotch I wouldn't have worked on the whole image layer. I would have went to the "blur" low pass layer which holds the colour information for the image and used retouch on that level cloning or healing from another part of the forehead. That way the texture of the skin is preserved in the various detail layers but you can remove the colour of the blemish and have normal looking skin. If you went to the colour layer in the second photo you could have edited out that little colouration of the mole from there. I think that the fill tool is most useful on the blurred lowpass colour layer rather than the detail layers - you could have painted camo stripes over your face but still retain the pores, lines and texture of your skin

[@audio2u]

Great tips! To be honest, this is not a feature I often use. I should get more familiar with it.

[@phenanrithe]

In the "scales" (the decomposition levels), the "blurred image" you mention is the low-frequency level. It's what's left once you've removed all the details, so the base colour of that spot, which now covers several pixels since there's no details left. If you added up all those layers together, you'd get the original image. The process of decomposition levels is iterative: you start with your original image, and apply a low-pass (spatial) filter that separates the image (low frequency) from the very fine details (high frequency). You store the details on the left, and iterate by applying a new low-pass filter (the cut frequency is now slightly lower since you're working on coarser details). Again, you store the details on the right of the previous one, and iterate on the remainder. Once you've removed the last coarser details, you've left with that blurred image on the far right.

[@audio2u]

Hey, that's a great explanation! Thanks for that. That totally makes sense (to me, at least!).

[@luisarevalo6112]

About 2 yrs/ago I tried using this module (watched a posting by someone else) and because I did not understand it as well , I completely stayed away from retouching in Darktable and instead used Gimp. But I noticed Gimp add/subtracts a bit of discoloration. I am so glad I found your video today! The more I can do in Darktable the better. Thank You and glad you explained it so well 2.5 yrs ago!

[@audio2u]

Thanks! Glad you found it eventually!

[@eugenegericke3390]

Just installed Darktable and are gratefull fot tutorials like this!!

[@audio2u]

Thanks! 😃

[@Eigil_Skovgaard]

Best demonstration of all the functions in this module I have watched so far.

[@audio2u]

Cheers.

[@ldj00]

As usual, very nice explanation, Bruce! One additional note: Applying corrections in the residual scale (right-most) is great for handling things like overall skin color smoothing. This is where the blur tool, and possibly the fill tool, come in handy, used in conjunction with path shapes to cover larger regions.

[@audio2u]

Thanks Lowell!

I love the somewhat technical explanations. It really shows to me how Lightroom is making me stupid.

This is very very very good content! There is no way I'd be able figure out how that tool works without this video. It really shows how easy and superior the tool actually is when you know how it works.

[@audio2u]

Thanks! :)

[@musaire]

As others have said - that last white box is not a blur layer - that is what is left over when details removed - we call it residual layer - that is where most of the colors are left too. So there you can remove just the red color of acne for example, while not messing up the structure at all. You should definitely clone on that layer as well when the color is not right - e.g. dark moles, red acne. And that is why sometimes you'd wanna see through all the layers - to see where the colors are.

[@audio2u]

Right! Great tip! Thanks!

[@RonLoxton]

This is awesome. Been struggling with dust removal and using scales is the way to go. Well explained. Will need to watch again to take down some notes.

[@JarrettMcAlicher]

Try the color and blur tools on the right most blured layer. Texture fixes should be done on the scale layers but color variations and color retouching should happen on that blured layer so textures are not affected.

[@opalrosey]

Thanks for the extra tips!

[@rafilewin4644]

As always, a very succinct and user-friendly explanation. Great work, Bruce!

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@mktouthang]

Thank you Bruce for a detailed demonstration of the module... Just wanted to tell you an interesting anecdote with the FILL TOOL for which you can't think of a situation.... I took my son's photo with a bright RED wall background, but with a bright sky on the right side.... I wanted to fill the entire sky portion with the colour of the wall.... I spent hours trying to get around to it until I came on to the FILL tool of the RETOUCH module... and voila, entire sky got changed to bright RED wall colour :-)

[@audio2u]

Nice!

[@hurshasnarayan]

Bruce, that ugly guy you introduced at 16:54 did a phenomenal job of introducing the Retouch module. Say hi and thanks from me the next time you see him. :-)

[@audio2u]

Haha! Will do.

[@bernym4047]

Excellent tutorial on an exciting module. I'm currently restoring a very damaged old black & white photo so I'm itching to try it out on this. Many thanks, I very much appreciate how much work you put into these tutorials.

[@audio2u]

Thanks Berny!

[@juhalintula1164]

One way I have been using the blur tool with wavelets has been to smooth wrinkles on a face. Doing it on the coarse layer, but leaving them untouched on the fine layer, you leave the touch of the years on the face, but make the model happy.

[@audio2u]

Nice!

[@naoconsigoachar]

Hi Bruce! I just want to say thank you... I am sure going to watch all your videos!

[@audio2u]

Cheers!

[@ricardoandre414]

The auto levels are slightly different for each scale. So it may be good to set them at some halfway scale, so that they have a bigger chance of working for all of them; and if you don't see anything, as in some of your finer scale images, it may be useful to reset it for that scale specifically. I know... 4 years have gone, maybe it is only a feature in some newer version, and anyway most likely you already noticed it, but it may still be useful for someone. Great videos! I've been watching them on and off, sometimes I don't watch any for months, sometimes I see one every other day... You made Darktable to be much easier and to make sense! Thank you!

[@audio2u]

Thanks for the input! I must confess I rarely use the scales.

[@barracuda976]

The best explanation of this module i've found. Thanks for your time

[@audio2u]

No problem! 😃

[@barrykirsten7517]

Thanks again Bruce for another excellent video. I had tried the Spot Remove module and thought, "Ho hum..." I then looked at your video of the Retouch module in combination with an image I'm currently working on (without much success with Spot Removal), and boy, what a difference! I keep being amazed at what Darktable can do. It's so much better than Lightroom.

[@audio2u]

Yep, it leaves LR for dust, in my opinion! :)

[@richardbarge8077]

Excellent explanation of an amazing module. Thank you so much for the work you put into these vlogs, they are so useful!

[@audio2u]

Thanks Richard!

[@TristanColgate]

Great tutorial (as always). One thing that tripped me up, and worth mentioning maybe, is the Mas Opacity setting, not sure how mine ended up quite low down (I'm working on converted negatives), but none of this seemed to be working then I shifted that up, and et voila!

[@audio2u]

It's either ctrl+mousewheel or shift+mousewheel to alter the opacity. Yeah, I've been tripped up by that once or twice too!

[@PerJensen]

Excellent episode - thank you for spending time and effort on your Darktable series. Much appreciated.

[@audio2u]

No dramas!

[@bernym4047]

Just rewatched this with a specific image in mind. Brilliant explanation. I will now go and try it Thanks.

[@audio2u]

Excellent! Best of luck with it! :)

[@sparkysteele]

You are an exceptional teacher so easy to follow

[@audio2u]

Thanks Sparky!

[@joaovtaveira]

Hi Bruce Williams, you saved my day with this video. I have an image with a weird aberration and I didn't know (and remember - I don't use it that much) how to work properly with "retouch". Now, thanks to you, I can participate in a exposition and today is the last day to send the file.

[@audio2u]

Awesome! Well done!

[@geertkustersr.3493]

Another more than excellent tutorial. Thank you.

[@audio2u]

No worries. Thank you. 😊

[@huubdegroot]

Thank you for this episode. This is awesome and I didn't know this. Great!

[@audio2u]

Cheers!

[@joshuamontgomery0]

I'm also so in awe of this. Thank you so much for your videos!

[@audio2u]

No dramas, Josh! 😃

[@SreelakshmiPrabhakar]

This was one of your best videos and a good explanation of the retouch module. Liked your good sense of humour.

[@audio2u]

I'm Aussie. What can I say? :)

[@nigelwebb3197]

Brilliant - I have passed over the retouch module but think I will give it a go now. Thanks Bruce :)

[@audio2u]

Yeah, it's a massive improvement over the spot removal module!

[@bluenova1000]

Thanks for a really clear explanation. I was struggling to get my head around the ‘scales’.

[@rubenminsa]

A really powerful tool, I'm afraid I won't be using the stain removal module again. A great video and a great job, thanks for everything

[@audio2u]

No worries! 😃

[@screamphotographic]

this is a phenomenal Module! incredible! thanks for the tutorial Bruce!

[@audio2u]

No worries! Thanks! 😃

[@cigno5e5]

Great job, I think the retouch module is one of the most complicated/cryptic I've ever met in darktable. Learn how to use it just by trying it without knowing how it works doesn't exploit its real potential, which, I have to say, is amazing!

[@grahambeal6754]

Fantastic tutorial - don't know how I missed it earlier.

[@audio2u]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jackdeangelis6585]

Excellent run through, thanks. Your explanation of wavelets also helps with any of the other mods that use wavelets like Equalizer.

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@Lamvyghini]

Just wanted to leave a Thank you for this video.

[@audio2u]

No worries!

[@devfriction]

Great effort, loved the detailed explanation. Thank you so much.

[@audio2u]

No worries! Thanks.

[@georgesmelon2038]

Once again a very clear video thanks for that. And, indeed, this module is very powerful

[@audio2u]

Thanks Georges!

[@JillesvanGurp]

Thanks for a very detailed overview. Lots of detail that I completely missed when looking at this a few weeks ago. That scale visualization could also be useful for the equalizer. I'm loving the additions throughout the 2.x series. Super useful filters that go beyond what other tools can do by magnitudes. They'll have other ways of doing the same things but typically not with the same level of convenience.

[@audio2u]

Totally! That's what blew me away when I discovered darktable three years ago. Amazing toolset.

[@hamerovv]

Not only Lightroom has a tool like this but also in Photoshop you don't. In order to acheave it you need to create few layers and use what is called 'frequency separation' method. This wavelet domain is truly amazing.

[@audio2u]

Yeah, it really is. Although, to be honest,I don't think I've used that feature since I made this video! I can usually achieve what I need to with just healing on the full image. But I'm sure there will be times when it is useful.

[@frankdusoswa9583]

Very good tutorial Bruce! Thank you very much :-)

[@pushinlinux]

Hi Bruce, I am just revisiting the retouch module, because I needed to brush up on the wavelets idea. I think it has been worthwhile because I do "get it" now. In your closing comments you talked about the bucket tool, I suspect that it may be useful in fixing signage blemishes, where solid colours and no textures are used. e.g. the model is hitchhiking past a billboard for a local knock shop and you like the idea but dont want the phone number in your image. And you also said that you felt that the spot removal tool had been overtaken by the retouch module. I prefer to use the spot removal tool when removing the legs of a light stand. I have no room on the right hand side of my studio and sometimes I need to position a kicker on that side. For me, it does a better job quicker, But for skin the retouch tool is amazing. Thanks for your fantastic work, Andrew

[@audio2u]

Thanks for the feedback. Interesting that you still find the spot removal tool useful. That's good.

[@b.jammin]

Thanks so much for the videos, Bruce. They are beyond awesome. Fill mode might be really useful with a parametric and/or drawn masks (and perhaps multiple instances of the retouch module). Similar thoughts about masks + instances with preserve chrominance in the filmic module. Powerful tools for fine grained expression, but easy to chop off a finger. Again thanks, it is incredibly helpful to have you share your thoughts on Darktable. It's saved me many months of trial and error.

[@audio2u]

Thanks Ben! Glad you're finding the videos helpful. The more time I spend with darktable, the more I feel it is one of the better FOSS offerings around.

[@franciscocribari]

Excellent!!!!! Bravo! Thank you.

[@audio2u]

No dramas! 😃

[@abruenin236]

Again an excellent tutorial, very helpfull. Thanks a lot.

[@audio2u]

No worries! 😃

[@tyik]

Excellent tutorial. Many many thanks.

[@audio2u]

No dramas! 😃

[@poulouseaweed]

great job, thanks for sharing, gtz from Belgium

[@audio2u]

Thanks Philippe!

[@jesse6327]

Perhaps with the fill tool, setting the opacity and the blend mode would be useful in some scenarios

[@audio2u]

Quite possible!

[@smbqil]

I'm just starting with photo editing and gosh it can be frustrating! plus, there are so many KZbinrs whose videos are not so encouraging and clear, so it makes me wanna quit. Luckily when I am about to give up I always find inspiration in your videos! Thank you! :)

[@audio2u]

No worries, Sonia! Glad you have found them helpful.

[@leona_devon]

wow mind blown! Thanks for these

[@audio2u]

Anytime, Leona! Glad you're finding them helpful.

[@justmythought7658]

Thanks again for the efford of making this video. This tool really is better than the old spot removal, but that scales stuff is quite complicated and time intensive and the results were much worse than simply using just one scale in my tests so far. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. But it slows down the computer massivly. Combine it with strong noise reduction and your computer has to do quite some work.

[@audio2u]

Yeah, I'll quite often just use a single scale. But there are times when multiple scales are exactly what you need. YMMV.

[@MasoudM]

Regarding the demosaic algorithm, AMZE, PPG, and VNG algorithms are developed exclusively for Bayer sensors (X-trans sensors have completely different structure). I also saw your question on the mailing list in this regard. Let me share my thought about it here: As far as I understand, the recommendation of using AMAZE demosaic for filmic is solely because the auto tune levels and auto black level features of filmic are very sensitive to noise. Therefore if you are not going to rely on these auto tune options (they are not so reliable anyway), you can use any demosaic algorithm as you wish. This also applies to the recommendation to correct white balance before filmic.

[@audio2u]

Ahh! Thanks Masoud!

[@bstrcl]

To add to your point, the author also recommends denoising before using the auto tune levels. I wonder if it is feasible to filter noise inside the module so you don't have to do that.

[@audio2u]

That would require a denoise algorithm be built inside the Filmic module, though, wouldn't it? Which it does not have. Personally, I'd rather modules did ONE job, than start trying to do multiple jobs. But maybe that's just me. :)

[@dasbobele6678]

Isn't it the same as frequency separation? Nice, that it is built into darktable and the concept of scales is fine to tune granularity.

[@audio2u]

When I first came over to Linux and found darktable, I was happy to be able continue working the way I had in Lightroom. Didn't take long to realise that darktable absolutely leaves Lightroom in its rearview mirror! 😃

The passion, man, you are the Steve Irwin of Linux photo editing :D

[@audio2u]

Bwahahaha! Crikey! Thanks, Cobber!

[@JoeReddington]

Am happily working my way thought these rather than Netflix :)

[@audio2u]

Haha.... Thanks!

[@fotografie-joerglang]

Thanks a lot for this great video. Great job.

[@audio2u]

No worries! 😃

[@rosencreuz]

This video is a little better then your other videos because, you're showing some scenarios on when and how to use the module, rather than what all the buttons and sliders are doing.

[@antipodesman]

It might be interesting to show how to neutralize a large area of forehead highlight with the retouch tool.

[@audio2u]

Good tip!

[@MrCezikos]

Retouch is so amazing tool! I do not have to use GIMP or PS :D We can even retouch shadows under eyes! You are doing great job with your videos

[@audio2u]

Thanks! Yeah, retouch is awesome. 😃

[@davidyanceyjr]

Wow. Great Video. Thanks Brother.

[@audio2u]

No wukkas! :)

[@petergulliver3225]

Very good Bruce. You should be called The Darktable Wizard of Oz.

[@audio2u]

Bwahahahaha! I love it. Maybe when I get around to creating some merch, I'll use that. :)

[@petergulliver3225]

Great! I'm glad you like it. I wasn't sure whether you would or not, cheers.

[@joaovtaveira]

"preview single scale" can also be set manually.

[@joaovtaveira]

35:00 the other two but buttons on the right, are also cool, you didn't talk about them.

[@audio2u]

No, I didn't! Sorry about that! :)

[@sbarronmd]

nice job

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@emrg777]

Hey Bruce Great video. I noticed that this module still has masking at the bottom. I was trying to wrap my head around using the scales with masking and so I actually tried it just see how it interacted and then it said masking was disabled when using this option or at least the ability to display any mask....It might be worth a look and also if someone can think of an example incorporating masking into the frequency edits I would interested in any comments

[@audio2u]

Good point, Todd. I didn't even look into that side of things, as I'd done 3 videos on masking already (I think I said as much in this video?).

[@emrg777]

Thanks Bruce..seemed like masking wasn't working..Ill play a bit more...see how it works..not sure zi would use it much with retouch??

[@oliver_schlienger]

I’ve achieved this in photoshop, but not without quite a bit ( a lot) of time. I wish photoshop had an easy way to use a gradual type of levels like darktable. However I currently use darktable, prior to being a avid photoshop editor for almost 20 years. Convinced that photoshop is in the past now

[@audio2u]

Interesting!

[@joaovtaveira]

37:32 fill mode erase also causes some pretty weird things in the image!

[@joaovtaveira]

You missed talking about some shapes features in some algorithms.

[@audio2u]

Like what?

[@joaovtaveira]

@@audio2u sorry, it was a long video, I don't remember any more but it was nothing important. Shame on me!

[@audio2u]

Mate, don't stress! :) If it was the ellipse and path tools, I think I said I wasn't going to cover those because anyone who's been following the series should already understand how to use those shapes. But maybe it was something else I missed? I'm not sure.

[@joaovtaveira]

@@audio2u yes, it was that. And yes, anyone that knows well darktable, shall understand that.

[@mickehog76]

Really great tutorial. A very confusing module but so powerful! That's the great thing with Darktable. You have so many powerful features. The more I use darktable it doesn't feel like a free version of lightroom. It's more something between photoshop and lightroom. You don't need to use all the features, but it's great to have them there if needed. Btw, who is that guy you are fixing? I know I have seen him, but not sure from where! 🤔

[@audio2u]

Yep, certainly packs way more tools than you're going to need 99% of the time! Don't know. Some random guy I found on the internet! 😃

[@shutterrecoil]

Is it possible to rotate sample while copying it would be handy for recovering left part of glasses with right one is ok?

[@audio2u]

Nup. You're going to need a destructive editing environment like PS, Gimp, Affinity Photo, etc for something like that. The Retouch module does allow cloning, but not for inversion of the cloned samples.

[@wido123123]

I should have seen this video earlier. I should DEFINETLY should have seen this video earlier. I've fixed a couple of photos using the "spot rmoval" for an "almost good enough" finish.....and that was NOT good enough.

[@karimnasser9226]

I still don't see the application of wavelet layers/scales, I can achieve the same result by simply using the retouch tool without activating scales. What am I missing?

[@audio2u]

I'll be honest, since I recorded that video, I don't think I have ever used wavelets either. I'm sure there are times when it might be helpful, but I haven't discovered one yet.

[@karimnasser9226]

@@audio2u It would be great if the wavelets and scales could be used with tools, such as denoise and others.

[@marinaarzolla2992]

Nice video! Does anybody know how to copy shapes from one scale layer to another?

[@audio2u]

Not of the top of my head.

[@Ronbo765]

Great vid, Bruce! Is there a numerical limit on the number of paths one can apply in this module? The module won’t allow me to add any more paths over 300- I was removing small hairs on a persons face and it froze. Is there a more efficient way to do this in DT?

[@audio2u]

I wasn't aware of there being a limit, but if you got to 300 and it stopped adding more, maybe that's the limit! Not sure of a better method.... other than exporting a 16 bit tiff and doing the cloning/healing in Gimp or Photoshop.

[@Ronbo765]

Bruce Williams Photography I deleted a path or two and was able to add them back - up to 300, that is. So confirmed on some sort of limit. I was using 2.6. I’ll try DT 3.0...or find models that have less than 300 hairs on their face! (not brave enough to ask the GF to shave before a shoot!)

[@audio2u]

Haha!

[@juhalintula1164]

@@Ronbo765 You can create another instance of the Retouch module for the next 300 hairs.

[@juhalintula1164]

You can create an additional instance of your retouch module and remove the next 300 hairs.

[@andrewgreig1197]

Hey Bruce, I am loving this treatment of the retouch module, thank you. I have a major problem I need to fix - my gorgeous model has a face the skin of which is a war-zone, almost no source available to use. I put the soft-box as close to her as I could, but, although that has helped, it has only moved the problem from disastrous to extremely difficult. What would you recommend?

[@audio2u]

You up for sending me the raw file? I'm happy to have a look at it.

[@andrewgreig1197]

Hi Bruce, yes I am, but I am embarrassed by a mistake I made this arvo. Somehow I have copied my whole Google Drive into itself, and now I need to be careful how I unravel it. I have just set up RAID 1 on 2x Sata drives, and kept my SSD system and /home/andrew for more responsive processing. I tried to up load the RAW file but there were 33,769 ahead of it in the queue. Maybe tomorrow on a cooler day I will work this out. Thanks for your offer, I accept, the RAW file is over 20MB. Thanks Andrew

[@requemao]

Can someone confirm if this video is still current? I mean, has this module changed so much that it doesn't quite work the same way, or has some other better module replaced it?

[@audio2u]

Sadly, on a mobile device, KZbin doesn't tell me which video you're referring to, but I THINK (from the thumbnail) that this is the retouch module, yeah? If so, no, the retouch module is still the current module for doing blemish repair. And no, I'm not aware of it having changed since I recorded this video.

[@requemao]

@@audio2u Thanks a lot, Bruce! Indeed I commented on the retouch module. By the way, I really appreciate the effort you put in your videos.

[@audio2u]

Thanks!

[@RajKhandwala]

There is a major BUG in this module! I am using v2.6.2 on an iMac running Mohave 1. In both the brushes circle and oval when adjusting feather using shift and mouse scroll the feather always increases in both the directions. 2. There is no way to reset the brush so every time when you select either of this brush the last brush persists even after resetting the module, closing the program. Only way is to erase every file from .config directory. Even after this next time again the same behaviour! I am a new user can you please send this bug report? Also is there a setting in the .config file to reset it till this bug is rectified? As deleting all the files means you loose all your styles and settings. Thanks for all you videos it drastically reduces the learning curve.

[@audio2u]

Raj, sorry I can't help on this one. I'm not a Mac user, and don't really know anything about where files are stored on a Mac, or anything like that. You best bet would be to log the bug at redmine.darktable.org/

[@RajKhandwala]

Bruce Williams Photography This bug is not limited to this module but in any module where a mask is used. It’s a major bug and I have searched the internet but nowhere I have found a reference!

[@phenanrithe]

I used it today again, and it's seriously bugged. If you see something strange, just quit Darktable and come back. My guess is that some parameters are overwritten, so they're likely doing something wrong with their pointers. I lost one hour trying to understand why the heal tool would draw big patches of strange colour. Also, the left low-res residual image was exactly the same as the far right original one.

[@audio2u]

If you are in heal mode, and trying to patch an area close to an area of different hue, you will always get some bleed.

[@phenanrithe]

@@audio2u It was a bug. When I launched Darktable again, the unexpected patch was gone and the retouch module was working properly again. I found that I had to restart Darktable regularly when I had to work on photos (sometimes it crashes, too). Since I wasn't using it a lot before 5.0, perhaps it's just some instability due to the new major version.

[@audio2u]

Bizarre. I'm on version 5 and have not had any issues with the retouch module at all... And I've used it on maybe 100 photos so far. It might be worth dropping on to the forum (discuss.pixls.us), and let them know. Include what os you're running, and how you install darktable (.exe on windows, or if on Linux, what distro, and was it a flatpack, an appimage, from a repo, or did you compile from source, etc).

[@mak-j2o]

i cant seem to get the path you do on 5mins on my darktable, is it different settings for 4.8?

[@audio2u]

Nope, that function has not changed. Hold shift, left click to set a source point from which to clone, move the mouse to where you want to paint, and release the shift key.

[@mak-j2o]

@@audio2u cheers. i got a image of a lake but has lamp post and road sign. is retouch the best module to remove it? problem is the signs cut across pavement, grass and then the lake.

[@audio2u]

With a case like that, I'd be inclined to draw a straight line beside the sign but parallel to it, so you get the transition from lake to grass to road mirrored. Do the same with the lamp post.

[@mak-j2o]

@audio2u yh it's what's giving best results. You mentioned you may be doing a new introduction to editing on darktable with 4.8. Any idea if and when? Alot do the modules like basic adjustments etc u did video on are no longer available

[@fotografiehofman]

how did you delete the tree i was trying but i cant do it.

[@audio2u]

Which trees are we talking about?

[@fotografiehofman]

The threes far away in the photo

[@audio2u]

@@fotografiehofman sorry, can you give me a timecode? I don't know what you're referring to.

[@fotografiehofman]

7.50

[@audio2u]

@@fotografiehofman I'm not at my darktable pc right now, but I think the key is that the triangle ABOVE the Scales rectangles needs to be on the left most black rectangle.

[@joaovtaveira]

I'm sorry to tell you but Fujifilm has not any DSLR, it has only mirorless cameras.

[@audio2u]

Gah! My bad. Yes, you are correct. :) Slip of the tongue on my part.

[@Sevil2025]

Why so complicated? I've kept my original Google Picasa from 10 years ago, maybe longer, which I use on my local PC. It does an equally great job without the complication. I find that DarkTable needs to be more user friendly.

[@audio2u]

Yeah, that's a common accusation against dt. I think it's "built BY nerds, FOR nerds"! :)

[@Sevil2025]

@@audio2u I am still sticking to learning it as Picasa doesn't process RAW photos, only lets me view them. I liked it over Corel Draw. I couldn't download On1 because of their Vulkan driver requirement. So, I do the absolute minimum on Darktable and save as jpg in order to further refine in PS to which I am looking for an alternative. I'll go to GIMP if all else fails. BTW, good luck on the new job and house hunting.

Can you help me? I can't install Darktable 2.6. How to install .tar.gz file on SuSe-leap 15? And, how to freshen next version... ? Thank you!

[@audio2u]

I'll explain what I did. Whether this works for you, I will leave for you to try. Google "Pascal De Brujn ppa darktable". The top result (avoid any sponsored links, should there be any) week be what you're looking for. And either follow his guide on that page, or copy the address for his ppa and paste it into your list of software repo's (sorry, I can't advise on open suse, I haven't used it), and then download that way. Good luck!

[@EDDIEGARAGE]

nice talk

[@audio2u]

Thanks

[@preven2296]

This is way too difficult for me. I would like just a real basic tutorial.

[@rochr4]

Meh, gimp (resynthesizer, g'mic) and digikam for me, hate Darktable menu and controls, sliders, buttons are small difficult to work with and confusing for me.