I Got Called Out - White Balance VS Color Calibration in darktable (4.2)

[@bernym4047]

Kudos to you for admitting your mistake. the cc module is both very complex and very powerful. It's well worth the time spent getting familiar with it. It also replaces the old channel mixer and the grey tab does a fabulous monochrome conversion. However, I agree that new, inexperienced users may well be more comfortable with the wb module. Thanks for taking time to make the video.

[@BasedMando]

I agree with these guys in 8:24 There was definitely something weird going on with the sound, some sort of crackling. Happy to see you fixed it in this video. Anyway both this and that video are awesome, thank you for sharing this knowledge with us. Much better that swimming through white paper manuals written by tech nerds!

[@antonvoloshin9833]

Honestly, after fiddling with DT for couple of year I came to a conclusion - the simpler the better. Al this very finicky tools like Color calibration or filmic rgb are very fascinating from pure technical standpoint, in the end of the day what matters is what gives you good and predictable result, so I ended up with White balance for white balancing and Base curve as a tone mapping tool.

thank you, Dylan! I'm glad to see you addressing the needs of new users because indeed, darktable has a steep learning curve. for inspiration on the use of colour calibration module, you could have a look at the video's of Boris Hajdukovic. kind regards, björn

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

Thanks for recommendation. I want to do another darktable 101 video that's more up to date, so hopefully Boris's video will help me understand even more!

[@franklinaguilarmatos7197]

Hi Dylan, as I told you in the previous message, your videos are excellent for users who are just starting to learn about darktable. Thanks for taking note and for the idea of making a more complete video about the differences between the white balance module and the color calibration module, I'm sure many of us will like it as much as the enjoyable videos you have made. On Pixls there is a large community of darktable users, both beginners and professionals, as well as many of the developers of this fantastic application. Keep on! Thumbs up. Greetings from Habana, Cuba.

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

Thanks for your positive comment! I'm glad you enjoyed this video as well. By chance, are you involved with the development of darktable at all?

[@rafaelcastroribeiroluz3077]

Thank you for sharing, you have helped me a lot with your videos, they are simple and explanatory. I hope you can give more tips with practical examples that you can do in your photos. I am from Brazil. Following your channel, thanks!!

[@cayetancheshlar6890]

I'm just gettin started with darkroom and you helpin a lot, thanks

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

That's awesome! I hope you keep with it

[@t1ntakulus]

I love your videos, but could you tell your cat to play his one-cat-band set outside? 😂

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

I'd love to, but unfortunately he doesn't take requests 😅

[@PutriAyusha]

Thank you, Dylan! I love your videos! It's been a help for a new user like me. I'm looking forward to your next video tutorial on Color Calibration. 🙂🙃

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

Awesome, thank you! Hopefully I can learn the color calibration module well enough myself to be able to talk about it intelligently! :)

[@triplewinlin5576]

You and your videos have been so helpful to me, so thank you!

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

That's great to hear! I'm glad to be helpful, I really enjoy teaching and sharing knowledge

[@cayetancheshlar6890]

you could do a videos where you just editing a pic, no talking with some music in background and maybe even a speed up like 2 min videos with just the process of editing. i'd like to watch a series like this

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

That's an excellent idea!

[@ASHISH_KR_DUTTA]

If they start making Darktable a bit more stupid people friendly software for people like myself, no one will be going for any subscription.

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

You may be right, but I believe the developers of darktable are aiming for an audience of photographers who are willing to get more technical and detailed with their edits, and who are willing to take a few extra steps to understand what they're doing. I agree that this approach limits how many people are willing to do the work

[@The_Monkey_King]

I agree: DT seems daunting and unapproachable...but it is not that bad in truth. I only started my learning journey a couple of months ago. I binged YT videos from Boris Hajdukovic and Bruce Williams. I am starting to move from learning how the modules work, to playing and experimenting with them. If you are open to learning, its not that hard. I am already producing beautiful results.

[@MiguelRamos-up5tf]

I noticed and didn't say anything. I just kept looking at which darktable version you were using and how come your defaults were strange. You can use the color calibration module just as easily, just ignore the other options. Actually, if you keep using whitebalance you will confuse beginners who don't know they need to bypass color calibration and will see the error "why do i get this message and he doesn't". Bypass is not the default

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

Yeah, I've mostly moved on to using just color calibration at this point. If I do videos dealing with white balance in the future, I'll say something along the lines of ignoring the WB module and use color calibration. Not the most intuitive naming scheme for someone new to darktable or who has just a little experience with photo editing.

[@Slave-Of-Christ]

Good stuff! Hope you're doing well man.

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

Thanks! You too!

[@thefirstalan]

This video has an excellent thumbnail!

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

This comment has an excellent commenter! (commentor? commenpotater?)

[@dannygaming3930]

There are few other facts worth to mention, like CC can be applied multiple times (instances) and with masking, is later in the pipeline ...

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

For sure. I didn't mean for this video to be an exhaustive comparison between the two, or a full breakdown of the functions of the CC module, just talking about the basic color correction functions of the WB and CC modules

[@jfonsecaesilva]

DT isn't a free alternative to LR. it's a different beast... it's much more in depth and with much more options for developing your photo... and also, DT isnt for beginners. beginners are better off with LR or other Free alternatives more driven towards beginners that don't want to dive deep into all the tools DT offers you

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

I agree with a lot of that. But from the perspective of a beginner, they may only be looking for a free program to edit their photos on desktop, and don't have enough experience yet to differentiate between higher- and lower-complexity options. I believe that the dt devs don't want to compromise the power of dt in order to make it easier for beginners, but have done a good job on making it approachable for a new user within the constraint of no-compromise on editing potential. In the end, there will be people who are new to photo editing and begin to use darktable, and people who are not new to photo editing but are new to darktable specifically, and I hope my videos help those people

[@petevonschondorf4609]

if some slider is obsolete then get rid of it?

[@dannygaming3930]

There are more differences with the CC and WB modules... e.g.the WB is in different spot in the pipeline (before demosaic) and some demosaic algorithms can depend on the WB.

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

The WB module isn't completely obsolete in the functioning of dt yet; there are a few steps that happen mostly in the background that still need the WB module. But for users the dt devs are pushing people to use CC instead

[@DylanLiveLifeCreative]

@maxm2000 I'm sorry to hear that. But yeah, dt isn't the perfect solution for everyone, and LR has some great features and functionality as well. You made the right decision if you're able to enjoy photography again!

[@dannygaming3930]

@MaxM2000 It's great that you are happy with LR. For me the CC module was real game changer for color work, and i enjoy to use it to the max. Very powerful module. Also filmic is nice, however i use it very differently compared how it was intended to be used, it's fun for me to misuse this module. :) Other thing i enjoy is how easy it's to make mask to follow edges and using a slider to make it as precise as i want. Cool feature is also that these masks can be exported together with image and reusable in bitmap editor. Cool feature which saves time and effort.