Darktable 4.4 Filmic RGB Module BASICS, more Highlight Reconstruction and Exposure Correction.

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Darktable Filmic RGB Module Basics, Highlight Reconstruction and Exposure Correction.
This is something of an "intro" to the Filmic RGB module of Darktable 4.4 with the v7 filmic colour science.
The filmic concept mimics human vision in the proportional desaturation of colours outside a defined range of mid-tones, giving your images the more natural look commonly associated with film.
But the filmic rgb module itself goes way further than just that, allowing for independent control of many aspects of your image properties.
This video will cover the very basics of what you need to know in order to benefit from it.
Time Stamps:
00:00 Intro
01:34 Filmic RGB in Action - Brighten Shot & Recover Sky
05:07 How Filmic RGB "corrects" an image, and what it prevents.
08:04 "On The Beach" - Filmic RGB on a reasonable exposure with no clipping
15:01 Difficult Skies No:1
17:58 Difficult Skies No:2 - it's BAD! But Filmic RGB does the heavy lifting for Guided Laplacians reconstruction.
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[@peterbutler5597]

All the other Darktable guys excel at mumbling and bumbling around with no explanation. Thanks for your clarity and focus! You're THE guy.

[@AndyAstbury]

Cheers Peter!

[@ryanstark2350]

Yeah, The thing is, to understand why you would need to use something like Filmic and how to use it better you need to understand the problem that you are trying to solve which was simply explained here. I subscribed to this channel for this reason.

[@andrejgrgic5978]

I am... amazed. The learning curve on Darktable is VERY steep but you have actually managed to explain something AND you also backed it up with examples and that is just - great. I almost gave up on Darktable, but now... let's just say you restored some faith that maybe, just maybe, I have a half decent chance of actually learning something about this darn piece of software. Cheers mate 👍🏻

[@dbandy18]

Fantastic content. Thanks for the demonstration!

[@Sonya_Makepeace]

I've only just started with Darktable today. As I use Linux Mint and thought I'd give it a go as it's free. I'm very impressed.

[@photomoods-mariobolz8801]

Ja danke Dominik, dir auch ein gesundes neues Jahr und gerne warte ich mal auf dein Paint Video, lg Marioooooo

[@adventure-tense6842]

I have not come across a better explanation of Filmic module anywhere. Thank you.

[@AndyAstbury]

Double Thank You! Cheers, much appreciated.

[@jockstewart8793]

Thank you so much, you have sorted out a series of problems for me in one go!

[@maboleth]

Thanks for the tutorial. Very useful and straightforward. Slight remark - I have watched this video at 1.25 and 1.5 speed. I think it would benefit from slightly faster pace. Cheers.

[@dasfotobernd]

Thank you, excellent explanation of filmic. I watched many other videos, but this one really helped me understand. In particular why with filmic my photos are more desaturated.

[@user-ht2hv7bb3r]

It’s quite nice Andy, thank you! Spend your time here guys! :)

[@AndyAstbury]

Cheers!

[@carlosrossi4336]

Very nice!

[@jremi]

What an excellent demonstration of the filmic RGB module! Subscribing now!

[@AndyAstbury]

Cheers, means a lot!

[@jhmnieuwenhuis]

It is magic ! You got me looking at Darktable again. Thanks

[@AndyAstbury]

Thank you Hans! Cheers!

[@tgsnider]

Very, very, very helpful! Well done. Thanks!

[@AndyAstbury]

Glad it was helpful!

[@musiimemuramura7516]

Nice one Thank You

[@GaryParris]

well done!

[@gerhardbotha7336]

Nice to see you covering DT. I appreciate your work. I changed to DT from RT because the folks at DT seem to not only develop the software itself more regularly, but the tiny details like proper support for cameras, exif info etc is just way better. I loved what RT could do, but DT does all of that and a lot more. Look forward to more.

[@AndyAstbury]

I totally agree

[@cosmo0080]

thank you very much great job

[@AndyAstbury]

Glad it helped

[@davidhicks5221]

Alan, I only came across your channel over the weekend and found it very refreshing. I agree with other subscribers that your approach is somewhat differentiating insomuch as you explain “why” you are pushing a slider - break through! 😀. In watching the Filmic RGB video I noticed you were encouraging viewers to ‘turn on’ Filmic - whereas in my 4.4.2 version it is included in the ‘On’ by default list. Does this make any difference to the work flow (and thus result) as I was impressed by the impact when you switched it on after making few changes first? Many thanks!

[@terrybrooks395]

Thanks, yes very useful

[@AndyAstbury]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Eigil_Skovgaard]

Thank you for the discussion. Sigmoid is not bad either, but almost entirely automated as we know, which feels like being restricted - relatively speaking.

[@AndyAstbury]

Cheers Eigil

[@Eigil_Skovgaard]

Just want to add to my 'restricted' comment above, that per version 4.6 the Sigmoid module has been extended with a number of sliders. Still Filmic RGB remains my favorite.

[@Mike-br4tw]

Thanks Andy for this nicely presented video. How difficult would it be to get the same result on that last photo in RawTherapee?

[@AndyAstbury]

Good question! As a long term RT user, I'd say pretty much impossible, though I suspect perhaps either Retinex or CA&L might be able to do something like this. But if they can, it'll be a lot more laborious - unless of course, I'm missing something.

[@JulesMoyaert_photo]

👍

[@tomdowad5494]

Looks like its using HSV colour space ie hue saturation value.

[@autarker]

Highlight recovery is the thing I struggle with the most in RawTherapee. This filmic module looks like magic. In your opinion, when is Darktable the right tool, when is it RT? Or has RT been supplanted completely as a raw developer?

[@AndyAstbury]

The two processors are totally different from the ground up. Raw Therapee has good and easy colour management that suits me; I find CM more obtuse in DT. I like the awesome capture sharpening in RT, and DT has NONE! But RT is very limited in terms of masking, and does not allow for multiple module iterations, so DT beats RT there - and it's a very severe beating! RT has great export interfaces with most rips such as Photoshop, DT has none - which is a major flaw. RT can work with .dcp camera profiles, DT cannot - another major flaw. But DT has Filmic, Sigmoid and the Tone Mapper and Colour Balance modules - RT has nothing close. RT is very good at highlight RECOVERY - way better than Lightroom for instance - but for highlight RECONSTRUCTION DT wins hands down. (there is a difference, as I explained in another video). Both of them kick seven bells out of Lightroom as a raw processor in general, but Lightroom kills both of them in terms of speed, ease of use, digital asset management AND NOISE REDUCTION. So, which one is best? Don't ask me...............I can't answer. I use all three, and just regard them as different tools for different jobs

[@autarker]

@@AndyAstbury that's very informative, thank you. Also a little frustrating, so many software tools to squeeze the best out of a digital image!

[@gimp079]

I am just starting out and so i am doing my own research into lenses, software etc. I was using On1 editing (and its brilliant) but after watching your Darktable videos i am set on Darktabe as it seems to keep me involved in the editing process. My only one gripe is that i have not got software to focus stack....could you recommend something please especially if its an add on to Darktable ?

[@AndyAstbury]

I think Hugin does a focus stack plugin that will work in DT for windows and linux - it slso does exposure blending and panoramas too, but doesn't play nice on Mac (at least on mine!).

[@ryanstark2350]

@@AndyAstbury Hugin supposedly does this. I haven't tried it but Hugin is a bit messy UI wise to say the least. For panoramas I always use Hugin. If you want the ultimate in focus stacking there is Zerene Stacker. It's not free but not that expensive and has a good limited time demo mode to try it out. I use Linux and Zerene works on Linux. In Zerene you can stack hundreds of images. Macro photographers use it. It might be total overkill for say a landscape shot but it's better than anything included in other programs. It's actually pretty incredible. Darktable has a composite module now. If you are just doing limited focus stacking with two shots you may be able to use use that combined with masks although I haven't played with it much yet. I find doing focus stacking by hand is fine if it's just a few images. How easily this works by hand or not will depend on how how many sudden changes of focus you have between foreground objects and background. I rarely do focus though except sometimes for macro.

[@arnonart]

Fantastic! now the big question: is there any parallel process in rawtherapee?

[@AndyAstbury]

Not that I know of, but I'll try digikam as Pieter suggested!

[@munzutai]

I'm still a little confused about the highlight reconstruction module and filmic RGB's reconstruct tab. Both the highlight reconstruction module and filmic RGB are enabled by default and I don't know when I should choose which for reconstructing highlights. Can anyone explain the difference to me?

[@AndyAstbury]

I've shown in previous videos, how to make default presets to turn OFF or ON various modules by default. I don't have filmic on by default. but that's a matter of preference. For more help with hightlights, have you watched kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWOocoCchpJ7g9Esi=fDeGdY3LBjo0Ba7U ?

[@munzutai]

@@AndyAstbury Thanks, I'll have a look!

[@alexgoriatchenkov]

Could't found how to update to 4.4 for 4.2 version. Reinstall all and load 4.4? Thank you for nice talking/pointing.

[@AndyAstbury]

Go here github.com/darktable-org/darktable/releases/tag/release-4.4.0 and scroll to the very bottom of the page for links to Mac, PC and Linux releases

[@alexgoriatchenkov]

@@AndyAstbury Thank you for respond . will definitely do. Best wishes.

[@hirsebrei1944]

Magenta Sunset, that is broken by years. Sunsets are orange, not magenta. Sigmoid is no better, exept "per channel" points in the right direction - not perfect, but the only right direction. The new color equalizer module might do the rest.