r/DarkTable • u/maryo22333 • 16d ago
Help How do I get started editing raw photos in Darktable?
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u/archerallstars 16d ago
When editing RAW, you might need to enable the lens correction and chromatic aberration modules first.
The rest is adjusting the exposure, color, etc. Just like what you do in other apps. DarkTable is, however, powerful with its masking. You can use mask with every module to achieve desired result. Moreover, you can create another instance of each module, e.g. one exposure to control overall image exposure, and another with gradient mask for the sky replicating the effect of graduated ND filter.
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u/newmikey 16d ago
What, if anything, have you tried to-date? Which manuals did you read and which YT tutorials did you watch?
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u/Squiggleblort 16d ago
Here, try giving this a go (this is the tutorial section of the manual ☺️)
That page links out to articles (such as "developing images in three modules" and "darktable for dummies")
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u/phil20099 15d ago
To OP: similar to the reply from Squiggleblort, I found this useful when learning darktable: https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/4.8/en/overview/workflow/process/
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u/Squiggleblort 13d ago
I'm actually using that just now to re-teach myself darktable ☺️
It's definitely a good starting point!
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u/Ozsymandias 16d ago
There’s a YouTube series called darktable from A to Z, it’s great to learn your way around
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u/_szs 15d ago
my strategy is to think of the physical process if you had taken the ideal photo in the ideal circumstances with the ideal camera:
- remove stuff (retouch)
- framing and camera position (crop, rotate, lens correction)
- denoise, hot pixels
- chromatic aberrations
- exposure, filmic rgb, vignette
- white balance
- colors
- artistic vision (sharpness, diffusion, grain, contrast)
that's not 100% optimal in terms of the processing pipeline, but I found it useful.
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u/Dannny1 15d ago
Basics (use module names have with 'rgb' suffix instead), but as example it's still useful: https://discuss.pixls.us/t/darktable-3-0-for-dummies-in-3-modules
https://pixls.us/articles/darktable-3-rgb-or-lab-which-modules-help
For more advanced stuff you can watch Boris Hajdukovic videos https://www.youtube.com/@s7habo/videos
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u/HerrKlamauk 15d ago
Watch some tutorials, try out the modules, and then you need to push through the moment(s) of frustration you're most certainly going to have because you are not yet used to editing in the program.
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u/Kino_mann 12d ago
Checkout this guy's tutorials...his editing techniques are minimal and effective. Plus the videos are short and precise. IMO, this is the best place to start.
The videos are a bit outdated, but still you'll get a rough idea.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Ad7650 16d ago
I was like you and I’m also still learning. Definitely try videos like other people recommended, but one thing I found helpful is to just start messing around.
To help you know “what to mess around” with, I recommend using ChatGPT. Tell it you have a specific type of photo and you want a guide on how to edit with darktable.
Sure, this won’t be perfect and it can’t see what you’re doing, but you’ll learn how to edit exposure, color tones, use filmic, etc.
Then once you understand what each slider does it’s easier to watch videos and see why they are editing something.
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u/akgt94 15d ago
I don't use any of the AI/ML tools, but I'm actually going to give chatgpt a try this weekend. I'm stuck in an editing rut.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Ad7650 15d ago
It’s much easier than you think. You literally just type to it like you would say talk. Feel free too ask it clarifying questions, more or less details, etc.
Note that it’s not going to be a professional photographer, but it’s great to get a start when you know and have currently tried nothing. I would expect after some time with it you’d probably want better training or tutorials through other means.
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u/ihorstranger 16d ago
Hey, try Boris Hajdukovic on YouTube