Darktable

[Miker]

Hi all,

 

Darktable is a - free - Raw developer which I feel is underappreciated.

They added Fuji support about a year ago and I've never looked back since. 

I was using Corel Aftershot (previously Bibble Pro) and darktable is a full-fledged replacement at an unbeatable price.

 

The learning curve might look steep but just watch a few youtube videos and it will all make sense very quickly.

 

Site: http://www.darktable.org/

 

[erikk]

Yeah, I try learning darktable as well, as I'm a linux fan boy. But I ended up getting AfterShotPro upgrade with SAVE15 promocode. 2.2 renders fine details in X-Trans RAWs correctly.

 

Question: where did the developers of darktable get color profiles for fuji cameras from? AfterShotPro colors are off, Darktable has a chance here to be much better.

[Miker]

Aftershot Pro is indeed not bad and easier to learn, when I switched they didn't have Fuji support but came out soon after.

 

Comparing the two, darktable has more power but the UI is a bit hard to understand at first, watching youtube clips can get you up to speed really quickly though.

 

A good one is the following intro video, the author has many others on darktable, worth checking out!

[swallero]

Hi guys.

I'm  a Linux user, too. I have used Darktable for 2 years now as my main (and almost only) raw developer for Canon, and now for Fuji.

Yes, the learning curve is steep, but I love this software. It's rich of functions and complete, richer than Lightroom.

I still don't like some modules, such as highlights and shadows (not working well in my opinion, halos are so heavy!), and I think that noise removal is worse compared to competitors. Sometimes it hangs while using masks.

 

Indeed, I love the equalizer, curves, colors, defringe, and the use of parametric masks.

It's a pity we don't have chromatic aberration correction for Xtrans, yet (would be useful with my samyang 12mm f2)...

 

What kind of demosaicing method do you use? Markesteijn 3 for me, seems to be better than others.

I have not tried Lightroom (neither 5 nor 6) with FUJI RAFs, since my lightroom trial has expired. 

How does it compare to Darktable, based on your experience?

 

Stefano 

[HowiePepper]

I'm a Linux and Darktable user as well.  I've been using Darktable for my Canon RAW files for about a year now, and have learned quite a bit about the package.  I started using Darktable for Fuji, when I got my X100T in February.  The only real issue I see is not having a white balance dropdown for Fuji RAW, like there is for Canon RAW.  I am using pmjdebruijn's launchpad PPA, but am getting only the stable releases of Darktable.  If any of you are using the unstable PPA, has the white balance dropdown been addressed?

 

It's not a show stopper for me, I am careful about my white balance settings before a shoot, I was just wondering.

[Vladimir]

Hi guys.

I'm  a Linux user, too. I have used Darktable for 2 years now as my main (and almost only) raw developer for Canon, and now for Fuji.

Yes, the learning curve is steep, but I love this software. It's rich of functions and complete, richer than Lightroom.

I still don't like some modules, such as highlights and shadows (not working well in my opinion, halos are so heavy!), and I think that noise removal is worse compared to competitors. Sometimes it hangs while using masks.

 

Indeed, I love the equalizer, curves, colors, defringe, and the use of parametric masks.

It's a pity we don't have chromatic aberration correction for Xtrans, yet (would be useful with my samyang 12mm f2)...

 

What kind of demosaicing method do you use? Markesteijn 3 for me, seems to be better than others.

I have not tried Lightroom (neither 5 nor 6) with FUJI RAFs, since my lightroom trial has expired. 

How does it compare to Darktable, based on your experience?

 

Stefano 

Hi Stefano,

 

I've been using Darktable for about 3 years now and highlights was really what didn't work for me initially. Then I started using bilateral filter in the module it removed completely halos.

Then highlights slider doesn't work that great as in LightRoom, however I discovered another way to get it all back. If you look at the "base curve" it should be in "fujifilm like" mode by default which brings up highlights up too much for my test. You can drastically bring back any overexposed area (withing RAW range of course) playing with the curve. Double clicking on the graph will make the curve flat maximizing the dinamic range of your picture it can be a very good starting point. It's not that difficult as may look at first glance

 

Regards,

Vladimir

[Miker]

I'm a Linux and Darktable user as well.  I've been using Darktable for my Canon RAW files for about a year now, and have learned quite a bit about the package.  I started using Darktable for Fuji, when I got my X100T in February.  The only real issue I see is not having a white balance dropdown for Fuji RAW, like there is for Canon RAW.  I am using pmjdebruijn's launchpad PPA, but am getting only the stable releases of Darktable.  If any of you are using the unstable PPA, has the white balance dropdown been addressed?

 

It's not a show stopper for me, I am careful about my white balance settings before a shoot, I was just wondering.

 

I'm using the stable ubuntu version (currently 1.6.6) and I'm not sure what you mean with the white balance dropdown, but I do have the possibility to change white balance (camera, warm, etc) or choose a custom white balance by selecting a rectangle in the image. This is all using Fuji RAW files.

[swallero]

Hi Stefano,

 

I've been using Darktable for about 3 years now and highlights was really what didn't work for me initially. Then I started using bilateral filter in the module it removed completely halos.

Then highlights slider doesn't work that great as in LightRoom, however I discovered another way to get it all back. If you look at the "base curve" it should be in "fujifilm like" mode by default which brings up highlights up too much for my test. You can drastically bring back any overexposed area (withing RAW range of course) playing with the curve. Double clicking on the graph will make the curve flat maximizing the dinamic range of your picture it can be a very good starting point. It's not that difficult as may look at first glance

 

Regards,

Vladimir

 Thanks Vladimir,

I'll try some tweaking with the base curve, then.

I've also been trying to cope with parametric masks in order to recover highlight only in some parts of the image. That does avoid halos!

 

What setting are you using as far as SHARPNESS is concerned with fuji Raw files?

I'm currently using radium 0.8, quantity 1.5, threshold 0.250.... looks quite good at 200 to 800 ISO

[Vladimir]

 Thanks Vladimir,

I'll try some tweaking with the base curve, then.

I've also been trying to cope with parametric masks in order to recover highlight only in some parts of the image. That does avoid halos!

 

What setting are you using as far as SHARPNESS is concerned with fuji Raw files?

I'm currently using radium 0.8, quantity 1.5, threshold 0.250.... looks quite good at 200 to 800 ISO

Hi,

 

Yeap, for me is something there as well. I was looking for the closest to SHARPRNESS +2 in Fuji's in camera conversion as liked a lot the fine details produced (small radius), so for me the equivalent in my presets is 1.5 1.5 0.500, no blending. It works well only at lowest ISO's as increases grains afterwards.

In general I often use highpass filter: 5% (sharpness), 5% (contrast boost), overlay (blend mode) at 100%.

Unfortunately never managed to get something I liked with EQUALIZER

 

Cheers,

Vladimir

[swallero]

Hi,

 

Yeap, for me is something there as well. I was looking for the closest to SHARPRNESS +2 in Fuji's in camera conversion as liked a lot the fine details produced (small radius), so for me the equivalent in my presets is 1.5 1.5 0.500, no blending. It works well only at lowest ISO's as increases grains afterwards.

In general I often use highpass filter: 5% (sharpness), 5% (contrast boost), overlay (blend mode) at 100%.

Unfortunately never managed to get something I liked with EQUALIZER

 

Cheers,

Vladimir

 

Hi Vladimir,

sharpness 1.5 1.5 0.500, no blending is a bit too much for my taste, but I appreciated very much your advice about highpass filter 5%-5%-overlay: it is fine and works great! thanks.

 

IMHO, equalizer is quite a useful tool... I often use it to enhance fine details, soften raw details, and to tweak chroma or luma noise reduction for selected detail ranges... Bye

[photonoxx]

As Linux User, I test sometime Darktable, but I didn't yet adopt it.

 

It is really powerful, but not really intuitive, and one thing I don't like, is that it is based on a database (like LR and other software) and can't simply open an image from a directory.

 

Other thing is there not enough simplicity in the module organisation and can give the impression to be lost... But that indeed a matter of learning.

 

Actually, under Linux or Windows (at work) I use Lightzone, a formerly commercial software, now developed as a free software which is one of the first to support Fuji X RAF on Linux and give very nice results.

 

If someone here are interested :   http://lightzoneproject.org

[Vladimir]

As Linux User, I test sometime Darktable, but I didn't yet adopt it.

 

It is really powerful, but not really intuitive, and one thing I don't like, is that it is based on a database (like LR and other software) and can't simply open an image from a directory.

 

Other thing is there not enough simplicity in the module organisation and can give the impression to be lost... But that indeed a matter of learning.

 

Actually, under Linux or Windows (at work) I use Lightzone, a formerly commercial software, now developed as a free software which is one of the first to support Fuji X RAF on Linux and give very nice results.

 

If someone here are interested :   http://lightzoneproject.org

 

I do not like database type of software either (to be platform/software dependent) and not really sure Darktable is one of them (all your changes are saved in xmp files along with *.RAF files and only the thumbnails cached in $HOME/.cache/darktable). Around 60% of my images I develop in RAM copying everything in tmpfs, usually /run/shm/. And then copy them somewhere else on a hard disk. Wherever images are located, all the time I "open images just from a directory only" old fashion way

 

I used Lightzone before Darktable and Rawtherapee adapted dcraw (for Xtrance), and find two last one more easy to use in my work-flow, but may be I hadn't used it enough

 

I do agreed, there are plenty of different modules and not sure if practically anyone uses all of them, or like me, just playing around sometimes. However, there's option to have your favourite modules (star-like tab), where you can put only what you need, for example: exposure, denoise, white balance, shadows and highlights. Simple for starting and then you can add/remove according your needs

 

Cheers,

Vladimir

[Max_Elmar]

I was just testing Darktable. I had tried it about a year ago, but the Mac version was too unstable for my taste at the time. Newest version vastly better, happy to say. A candidate to replace Lightroom in some ways. No automatic CA corrections (for non-Bayer sensors) in the "Darkroom" module, unfortunately. Very fiddly to do it manually with the sliders - no eyedropper tool to help. I could not achieve an acceptable result. Otherwise, not a bad RAF developer. Amazing what Fuji is doing in camera - obvious when you look at a jpeg and an RAF next to each other at 100%.

[Englischdude]

Another vote for darktable here. Im not a cheapscate by any means, but if i can do what i need with open source id rather save my hard earnt cash for gear. Been using DT for several years now. V2 has recently been released which offers great improvements.

 

An enthusiastic 2 thumbs up!

[gdugic]

Since I'm a linux user for the past 9-10 years, I tried every software for raw developing in linux that exist. I also used darktable for a while, but eventually settled on RawTherapee, which I found to be most complete in every term. Corel AfterShor pro was also very good, but I miss some of the things that RT has. Only advantage that ASPro has over RT is that i can sometimes give cleaner output, in terms of noise.

[Vladimir]

Since I'm a linux user for the past 9-10 years, I tried every software for raw developing in linux that exist. I also used darktable for a while, but eventually settled on RawTherapee, which I found to be most complete in every term. Corel AfterShor pro was also very good, but I miss some of the things that RT has. Only advantage that ASPro has over RT is that i can sometimes give cleaner output, in terms of noise.

How did you manage to get proper demosaic in AfterShot? I was getting something ridiculous ))

RT is very good, agreed, however in terms of workflow, DT is way ahead. For example, the noise you mentioned. Bilateral filter (denoise) takes a lot of power processing and I don't need it during editing, however, I switch it on during exporting, is there way to do it in RT? May be I just not aware of.

The same for demoisaic. Markesteijn 3-pass with color smoothing = 5 times - is quite processing power consuming and I don't want to use it during editing...however - all the time during export. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything like that in RT which allows me to have very smooth reviewing-editing process with the best export I can make.