The SECRETS to Dramatic BLACK and WHITE in Darktable

In this Darktable Tutorial, I’ll show you how to create beautiful and dramatic black and white photographs, like Ansel Adams, making use of unique features of Darktable vs Lightroom.
My photography website:
nicklongphotography.com/
My workflow for Darktable:
• Is DARKTABLE Secretly ...
Ways to add contrast in Darktable:
• How to EFFECTIVELY Add...
Excellent book on black & white photography - inspiration for the way I described things in this video:
www.amazon.com/Michael-Freema...
00:00 - Intro
01:37 - Black & White Conversion - Deadwood Fog
07:00 - Contrast with the Tone Equalizer - Mountainside Fog
08:58 - Local Dodging & Burning - Iceland Craypuscular Rays
11:47 - The RGB Sliders - Dramatic Self Portrait
12:58 - Outro

[@stephanieroche4973]

Keep up the excellent work! This one was a game-changer for me . Simple, short and very, very easy to follow. Great job!

[@deepskypics]

Hey thank you for the kind words! I do my best to make this as easy to understand and straightforward as possible ✌️

[@lefixkoch6272]

I am impressed how good your tutorials are. Keep it coming. I personally also like the look of the monochrome module. I would like to see a video on how to do dark backgrounds in portraits. greetings

[@lxhk3595]

Thank you Nick. That kindv of content how to use DT in the artistic process is so important.

[@deepskypics]

Your very welcome! The artistic thought process is an incredibly important element that a lot of videos don’t talk about. It’s what inspires the technical aspects. Hence I make that an important factor in my videos.

[@MikaelWiman]

I am very impressed by your videos. Short, to the point and inspirational. Keep them coming!

[@deepskypics]

Thank you so much for leaving your kind words! And thank you for watching! Will do

[@ytanneanne4851]

Thanks Great video !

[@deepskypics]

Hey thanks mate!

[@danielspenner3683]

Oh, speaking of Ansel Adams: He, too used to work with color filters quite a bit. With a redfilter he got that dark sky, almost black. In color calibration we can emulate the effect using the blue slider in brightness tab. Dragging it down will darken the sky to our liking.

[@deepskypics]

Darktables color calibration for s amazing! That’s what I hoped to get across with the lady photo, how you can use change the color response of RGB - akin to color filters

[@JasonGillmanJr]

Still relatively new to darktable, and up to this point, had been flubbing around with the monochrome module like a poor. Thanks for the tip on using the color calibration module for B&W photos!

[@deepskypics]

Of course mate! Enjoy! Glad you found value in the video.

[@DylanPStephens]

Thanks Nick, more great DT content 👍🏼

[@deepskypics]

You are very welcome sir! And thank you for watching!

[@noogie13]

Oh, and I forgot to mention: great photos!! Love these landscapes!! That first shot of the tree was gorgeous

[@deepskypics]

Thank you so very much for the kind words! That day, I really lucked out with the fog. I came there with a sunset picture in mind and day took a different turn hahaha. I love photographing “bad” weather.

[@sonjamedic634]

Intriguing and valuable indeed, thank you very much!

[@deepskypics]

You are so very welcome! Thank you for always watching and commenting on my videos.

[@noogie13]

Appreciate the video Nick! Love learning from other darktable users :-). Keep it up!

[@deepskypics]

Hey thanks mate! Will do! And thanks for watching.

[@Slave-Of-Christ]

Very nice!

[@deepskypics]

Thank you! Thanks for watching & commenting

[@sanjeevvenkatesan3522]

great teachings

[@deepskypics]

Thank you mate! Thanks for dropping by and watching

[@The_Monkey_King]

8:04 Thanks for the content! Hey Nick, I think you need to adjust the Tone Equaliser mask sir…? You can adjust the mask range so that the TE points span across shadows to highlights (the dynamic range). That gives you finer control over the adjustments possible. With your current mask, the dynamic range is only adjusted by about 3-4 points on the TE line, about -4 to -2 EV.

[@deepskypics]

Your very welcome! Great question! When adding contrast, I wanted to use the tone equalizer as a simple tone curve. When you select the simple tone curve or contrast presets it turns the preserve details to no and turns off contrast compensation options - meaning it applies no filter. You can adjust the exposure of the mask, but it just moves the location of where the data is. I typically apply the guided filter or EIGF when recovering shadows and highlights because it helps preserve local contrast. Hope this helps! Thanks for watching & commenting!

[@danielspenner3683]

Nice!!! I have created some really pleasing results using the technique in your video. However, if you are using tone equalizer, checking the masking tab is key to a full effect in all tonal ranges. In image 2 you can see, that they mask should be spread out much further to cover all tonal ranges in the image. The results will be better. It's like an audio equalizer with 8 knobs instead of only three or four. The first image I liked the most!

[@deepskypics]

In glad your getting pleasing results mate! ✊ With the Tone Equalizer, you can use it as a simple tone curve (see simple tone curve preset in DT) in which it functions like Color Balance RGB highlight/shadow brilliance, just giving you more control. It’s another way you can use the tone equalizer. That’s what I did here for creating simple contrast. When using the tone equalizer, normally I would use mask feature, but when it functions as a simple tone curve its not necessary ✌️

[@danielspenner3683]

@@deepskypics True! Didn't realize, that the preset acts as a simple tone curve.

[@fABIO-cs3un]

Hi Nick, I found your channel yesterday and I think your videos are really helpful for darktable users trying to improve their editing skills and darktable usage in general. You've mentioned that for this B&W effect it's crucial to nail the white balance, can you make a video on how to correctly adjust the white balance with the color calibration module? I find it really counterintuitive and the auto detect functions lead to underwhelming results, but maybe I'm just using it wrong

[@deepskypics]

I was thinking of doing that at some point soon and/or making a more comprehensive workflow video. Good feedback to know that some people are struggling to get good results with it as it’s a good im great video idea 👍. Thank you! For WB - with color calibration, first try “as shot in camera”. If your camera didn’t get you where you want it try 2 things. 1) use the eye dropper tool and select a neutral white/gray/black area and it will correct WB based on a tonal average of that area. 2) Go to custom and slowly adjust sliders to get it exactly where you want. Hope this helps!

[@selwynleacock6601]

How do you get that white border around the photo?

[@deepskypics]

Great question! There is a module called framing. I select white as color and 5% border size.

[@excaliburstify]

I love your darktable videos. They would be even better if you put your video of your face in the lower left. Often that image conceals what you are trying to show on screen. The left part of the develop screen is less important than the right side. 😊

[@signedelacroix7213]

How would you make that picture Albumer?

[@deepskypics]

I’m not sure what you mean by albumer can you elaborate?

[@signedelacroix7213]

@@deepskypics I mean Albumen. Typo. Sorry.

[@deepskypics]

@@signedelacroix7213 haha your good! Now that is an intriguing question! Looks like a very old B&W silver print style. Never thought about that before. Hmmm! Here’s 2 thoughts. I wonder if you make it go B&zeke then add a very slight yellow ish tint back with RGB primaries or 4-ways tab if color balance RGB. 2) Process it black & white, then stain some printing paper with coffee and print it in that. You can rescan the photo by taking a photo with a macro lens

[@alessandromatania9396]

I have an issue while exporting black and white photos. They look less contrast than the ones I see in Darktable. How can I fix that?

[@deepskypics]

Hmmm! Are you exporting to SRGB? The web genuinely only supports SRGB. I can’t be 100% sure without tinkering with your CPU and Darktable of course, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the output profile and export settings

[@deepskypics]

If this doesn’t resolve it, post on PIXLS.US or Darktable (unofficial) facebook page with pictures of your settings for help ✌️

[@alessandromatania9396]

I solved by removing the OpenCL support. I found this solution in an old GitHub post. I don’t know why but this works

[@alessandromatania9396]

@@deepskypics I solved by removing the OpenCL support. I found this solution in an old GitHub post. I don’t know why but this works