DT is more powerful than LR that is why the learning curve of this tool is so steep! You need to invest time to learn all the technicalities of this open-source software! One thing to note, you do not need to touch the White Balance module to adjust the white balance of your photo. Adjustment for the color temperature can be done in the Color Calibration module under Chromatic Adaptation Transform tab. It provides more flexibility of controlling white balance.
DT... besides other very good or great tools has superb parametric mask! When you learn to fully use it, you will love it and almost forget about other photo-editing software in most of the cases.
I like to say that darktable is like someone gave you a Ferrari for free, but you have to put it together and maintain it yourself.....it is a VERY powerful program, but there is definitely a steep learning curve. One of the developers for DT said that part of the craft of photography is learning how and why each module does what it does, and learning when and why to use said modules. Me personally, when I have 2,000 photographs to edit, I don't care why a module does what it does.....I just want it to work! However, if you don't mind spending a little time editing an individual photograph, the masking in this program is unparalleled, and It seems that colors and lightness values can be pushed a LOT farther in DT than other programs, which may be why it is running slow?? Thanks for posting this review. It's a difficult program to learn, and your edit in this video turned out great! I've been playing with DT on the side for years, and I highly recommend taking the time to at least learn the basics.
It's definitely a difficult program to learn with a steep learning curve. It's also really slow, and as someone who uses the 14" M2 MacBook Pro which can handle every program and project thrown at it. It's slow. So I definitely wouldn't want to edit thousands of wedding photos with this. But for beginners who have the time to learn it, who don't want to pay for a program and only editing a couple photos at a time, it's a great software!
@@StefanoLombardoYT I have a stone old PC with Ubuntu running on it - and Darktable works just fine. Maybe not as fast as others, but I don't see big issues with the performance. The progam was initially developed for Linux and I believe that only very few people would consider using an open-source program like Darktable on a Mac. To me, your performance problems indeed seem to be related to that.
Very great video ! As a portrait photographer I heard of Darktable but I didn't really use it because the interface is quite new and I couldn't set up a workflow for editing my photo. With this video I have learned a lot. Thank you
You need to read the workflow section of the manual...DT is very different...uses a scene-referred approach...most images you will add 2-3 EV to properly expose the mid tones then you use either filmic or sigmoid tonemapping and adjust that... there are several other nuances but most edits can be completed wiht 10 or so module...there is a legacy display workflow using some of the module you demonstrated but they are meant to be used with the base curve and you handle exposure more traditonallly there..
Seems very different from other editing software. but thank you for the information. I meant to say in the video, if anyone had a proper way or a better way of doing it let me know. So I appreciate it!
@@StefanoLombardoYT You correctly mention it a steep learning curve and it approaches thing in a different way than what many people are used to. If you go in to preferences you can select what workflow gets applied by default. The legacy one will use a base curve and so look more like LR and or your JPG out of the gate. Scene referred is more about preserving the lighting of the original scene and so you are doing thing as much as possible with linear data until it gets mapped back to display. DT is unique in that you can see both the history steps ie the order you do things but also it exposes the pipeline ie the order the software processes the data. You can also actually alter this if and when you know the impact of doing so. DT processes the modules from the bottom of the active tab up towards the top...Knowing these things can provide tremendous control. The thing about scene ref editing is the image is pretty neutral and so you will find yourself adding lots of exp contrast and saturation back which is handled by color balance and in certain cases color calibration.... To really get a sense of editing this way I would recommend Boris Hajdukovic YT channel Editing moments with DT. The latest 20 or so are best as the others use old versions of DT and in some there is no commentary but these videos will give you a sense of perspective on how to edit with DT...
Something that still amazes me from UA-cam is the amount of people doing tutorials about software they don't know how to use at all and that they haven't even read the manual. You're trying to use Darktable in the same way you use Lightroom, and they're completely different. It's as if I tried to do a tutorial about Lightroom having used it for 30 minutes and based on my workflow with Windows Photos.
Whether or not I've only used it a couple times or I come at it the same way I use Lightroom, I don't understand how that is an issue with the video. The point of the video is to show my audience that there are free alternatives to Lightroom for those thinking Lightroom is the only solution. I don't claim to be a Darktable wizard or know everything about the program nor do I claim I use Darktable all the time. The video was simply to show my viewers my experience with the program and how I was able to achieve a decent result. The nice thing about UA-cam is that you can find a variety of videos from people who do everything differently. If everybody created the same technical video it would be a pretty boring platform. If you want the technicals, there are plenty other amazing channels that show an in depth tutorial who dive into the specifics.
@usa Well, he isn't wrong. Darktable has a very steep learning curve. It is a lot harder to master, but ultimately gives you an insane amount of control over your adjustments, and in some departments it actually outperforms Lightroom (i.e. recovering highlights/tonality control). It is extremely powerful if you manage to master it. If you don't believe me, watch some videos by www.youtube.com/@s7habo . Darktable takes a different approach than lightroom, in the sense that it's a program to develop your photos from the raw sensor data rather than taking the creative style that was chosen by camera manufacturers as a reference point.
Stefano an easy and effective way to edit portrait photos. Also many other good tips regarding use!! Which version of Darktable are you using? Have a nice day. Stefano I have received a lot of praise for my photos of my family. They are just amazing.
I'm on Linux so I have to stick to open source like darktable. It's an excellent piece of software but I use rawtherapee instead. The reason is the UI. Rawtherapee is much easier. However from time to time I leap off to darktable due to some features like filmic etc. I guess if you get used to it, it's a brilliant piece of software.
Does it also have the cool feature where you can erase something like crumbs on a plate and it keeps the plate fine aka doesnt erase a chunk of the plate
Your speed issues are strange, and obviously the result of Darktable running in some kind of emulation for your CPU. I'm running it on Mint on a low end Pentium N6000 (with 32 GB) which is supposed to be about as fast as an i5 system. And nothing about Darktable is slow here. Just for fun, I tried Darktable Portable from Portable Apps which I have running in a WINE environment, and it works just as fast and smoothly as the native Linux version. So, maybe, you should try in in a native environment.
If you are used to other programs then this is literally the worst beginning experience I ever had. Scrolling changes things wherever your mouse cursor is, if you are on the left side it secretly switched saving location from PC to "Piwigo" and then always displayed an error when I wanted to export a picture, which took a while to figure out what went wrong. Now imagine this with every. single. setting. possible. In the middle section it sometimes zooms into the picture, but if you are in certain menus like color grading then scrolling sometimes changes the parameters instead, even if you are pointing at the picture. Scrolling is your biggest enemy in this program. Also saved a style as preset, then when selecting the style it only applied some of the changes, not all of them. Turns out when creating a style then you have to manually select the rest of the parameters as for some reason it only selected ~4 out of the 8. Powerful program if you dive deep into it, but in terms of user-friendliness a pain to get into it, having to discover each of its peculiarities through trial and error and unpleasant surprises.
There’s a huge learning curve for sure and it’s way different than Lightroom and other programs were used to. For people who don’t want to pay for a program, this can do everything. But my advice, save yourself the headache and just use Lightroom!
Import compared to Lightroom is very slow; and it crashed when I tried importing 4000+ photos from a trip. That said; I'm DONE with Adobe. I only edit my family vacation photos and so I just want fairly fast and simple; unfortunately; DT is not fast nor simple. hahaha. But it's powerful, and everything I did in lightroom I can do in DT. The learning curve is a bit steep though.
A suitable Lightroom alternative is the only thing truly missing from the Linux eco-system. Unfortunately, I don't find Darktables is even remotely on the same field on Lightroom. I find its Ui is not intuitive and the photo management is poor. That's just my opinion.
![I Replaced ALL my ADOBE APPS with these [free or cheaper] Alternatives!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5EfqHg49kMk/mqdefault.jpg)
What are your thoughts on Darktable?
Unfortunately, it's not flexible and slow.. not a match for lightroom
@@ashrafalameldin7173 For private use it is absolutely good enough.
DT is more powerful than LR that is why the learning curve of this tool is so steep! You need to invest time to learn all the technicalities of this open-source software! One thing to note, you do not need to touch the White Balance module to adjust the white balance of your photo. Adjustment for the color temperature can be done in the Color Calibration module under Chromatic Adaptation Transform tab. It provides more flexibility of controlling white balance.
I really like it, it is powerful.
Well, if I find that settings somewhere, I'll get started...and tell you what I think.
DT... besides other very good or great tools has superb parametric mask! When you learn to fully use it, you will love it and almost forget about other photo-editing software in most of the cases.
It's a great program! I have been editing with it more and more lately and it has been good!
I like to say that darktable is like someone gave you a Ferrari for free, but you have to put it together and maintain it yourself.....it is a VERY powerful program, but there is definitely a steep learning curve. One of the developers for DT said that part of the craft of photography is learning how and why each module does what it does, and learning when and why to use said modules. Me personally, when I have 2,000 photographs to edit, I don't care why a module does what it does.....I just want it to work! However, if you don't mind spending a little time editing an individual photograph, the masking in this program is unparalleled, and It seems that colors and lightness values can be pushed a LOT farther in DT than other programs, which may be why it is running slow??
Thanks for posting this review. It's a difficult program to learn, and your edit in this video turned out great! I've been playing with DT on the side for years, and I highly recommend taking the time to at least learn the basics.
It's definitely a difficult program to learn with a steep learning curve. It's also really slow, and as someone who uses the 14" M2 MacBook Pro which can handle every program and project thrown at it. It's slow. So I definitely wouldn't want to edit thousands of wedding photos with this. But for beginners who have the time to learn it, who don't want to pay for a program and only editing a couple photos at a time, it's a great software!
@@StefanoLombardoYT I have a stone old PC with Ubuntu running on it - and Darktable works just fine. Maybe not as fast as others, but I don't see big issues with the performance. The progam was initially developed for Linux and I believe that only very few people would consider using an open-source program like Darktable on a Mac. To me, your performance problems indeed seem to be related to that.
@@Casi5000 Phase 1 is also painfully slow
It's pretty fast on my M1 mac, I think you need to enable mac-specific GPU drivers in the processing settings.
Very great video ! As a portrait photographer I heard of Darktable but I didn't really use it because the interface is quite new and I couldn't set up a workflow for editing my photo. With this video I have learned a lot. Thank you
You need to read the workflow section of the manual...DT is very different...uses a scene-referred approach...most images you will add 2-3 EV to properly expose the mid tones then you use either filmic or sigmoid tonemapping and adjust that... there are several other nuances but most edits can be completed wiht 10 or so module...there is a legacy display workflow using some of the module you demonstrated but they are meant to be used with the base curve and you handle exposure more traditonallly there..
Seems very different from other editing software. but thank you for the information. I meant to say in the video, if anyone had a proper way or a better way of doing it let me know. So I appreciate it!
@@StefanoLombardoYT You correctly mention it a steep learning curve and it approaches thing in a different way than what many people are used to. If you go in to preferences you can select what workflow gets applied by default. The legacy one will use a base curve and so look more like LR and or your JPG out of the gate. Scene referred is more about preserving the lighting of the original scene and so you are doing thing as much as possible with linear data until it gets mapped back to display. DT is unique in that you can see both the history steps ie the order you do things but also it exposes the pipeline ie the order the software processes the data. You can also actually alter this if and when you know the impact of doing so. DT processes the modules from the bottom of the active tab up towards the top...Knowing these things can provide tremendous control. The thing about scene ref editing is the image is pretty neutral and so you will find yourself adding lots of exp contrast and saturation back which is handled by color balance and in certain cases color calibration.... To really get a sense of editing this way I would recommend Boris Hajdukovic YT channel Editing moments with DT. The latest 20 or so are best as the others use old versions of DT and in some there is no commentary but these videos will give you a sense of perspective on how to edit with DT...
Something that still amazes me from UA-cam is the amount of people doing tutorials about software they don't know how to use at all and that they haven't even read the manual. You're trying to use Darktable in the same way you use Lightroom, and they're completely different. It's as if I tried to do a tutorial about Lightroom having used it for 30 minutes and based on my workflow with Windows Photos.
Whether or not I've only used it a couple times or I come at it the same way I use Lightroom, I don't understand how that is an issue with the video. The point of the video is to show my audience that there are free alternatives to Lightroom for those thinking Lightroom is the only solution. I don't claim to be a Darktable wizard or know everything about the program nor do I claim I use Darktable all the time. The video was simply to show my viewers my experience with the program and how I was able to achieve a decent result. The nice thing about UA-cam is that you can find a variety of videos from people who do everything differently. If everybody created the same technical video it would be a pretty boring platform. If you want the technicals, there are plenty other amazing channels that show an in depth tutorial who dive into the specifics.
Let us see your work juan. Just a hater with nothing better to do
@usa Well, he isn't wrong. Darktable has a very steep learning curve. It is a lot harder to master, but ultimately gives you an insane amount of control over your adjustments, and in some departments it actually outperforms Lightroom (i.e. recovering highlights/tonality control). It is extremely powerful if you manage to master it. If you don't believe me, watch some videos by www.youtube.com/@s7habo .
Darktable takes a different approach than lightroom, in the sense that it's a program to develop your photos from the raw sensor data rather than taking the creative style that was chosen by camera manufacturers as a reference point.
I’m sorry Juan does not represent us :(
Stefano an easy and effective way to edit portrait photos. Also many other good tips regarding use!! Which version of Darktable are you using? Have a nice day. Stefano I have received a lot of praise for my photos of my family. They are just amazing.
I'm on Linux so I have to stick to open source like darktable. It's an excellent piece of software but I use rawtherapee instead. The reason is the UI. Rawtherapee is much easier. However from time to time I leap off to darktable due to some features like filmic etc. I guess if you get used to it, it's a brilliant piece of software.
Since adobe want to be greedy and not allow customers to pay for a month here and there, DT will be the editing software I use from now on
Excellent video! Very well explained!
Thank you so much! I appreciate the support!
This video was really helpful. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Does it also have the cool feature where you can erase something like crumbs on a plate and it keeps the plate fine aka doesnt erase a chunk of the plate
Do you have a link for Darktable....my computer security keeps blocking the sites I try to download it Windows 11?
Just search dark table
i like it and it works well with mint
Your speed issues are strange, and obviously the result of Darktable running in some kind of emulation for your CPU. I'm running it on Mint on a low end Pentium N6000 (with 32 GB) which is supposed to be about as fast as an i5 system. And nothing about Darktable is slow here. Just for fun, I tried Darktable Portable from Portable Apps which I have running in a WINE environment, and it works just as fast and smoothly as the native Linux version. So, maybe, you should try in in a native environment.
hey thanks for the video
Thanks for watching!
Can this programme remove sun/camera glare from a photo?
Useful and easy to learn tutorial. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Did any one had a warning from windows about the app?
If you are used to other programs then this is literally the worst beginning experience I ever had.
Scrolling changes things wherever your mouse cursor is, if you are on the left side it secretly switched saving location from PC to "Piwigo" and then always displayed an error when I wanted to export a picture, which took a while to figure out what went wrong. Now imagine this with every. single. setting. possible. In the middle section it sometimes zooms into the picture, but if you are in certain menus like color grading then scrolling sometimes changes the parameters instead, even if you are pointing at the picture. Scrolling is your biggest enemy in this program.
Also saved a style as preset, then when selecting the style it only applied some of the changes, not all of them. Turns out when creating a style then you have to manually select the rest of the parameters as for some reason it only selected ~4 out of the 8.
Powerful program if you dive deep into it, but in terms of user-friendliness a pain to get into it, having to discover each of its peculiarities through trial and error and unpleasant surprises.
There’s a huge learning curve for sure and it’s way different than Lightroom and other programs were used to. For people who don’t want to pay for a program, this can do everything. But my advice, save yourself the headache and just use Lightroom!
i dont understand why i dont have some of your options like contrast brightness saturation
Found out where it was?
Import compared to Lightroom is very slow; and it crashed when I tried importing 4000+ photos from a trip. That said; I'm DONE with Adobe. I only edit my family vacation photos and so I just want fairly fast and simple; unfortunately; DT is not fast nor simple. hahaha. But it's powerful, and everything I did in lightroom I can do in DT. The learning curve is a bit steep though.
A suitable Lightroom alternative is the only thing truly missing from the Linux eco-system. Unfortunately, I don't find Darktables is even remotely on the same field on Lightroom. I find its Ui is not intuitive and the photo management is poor. That's just my opinion.
dt is very friendly to linux. They build flatpaks for OS-neutral. Plus the 'major' ones (Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Debian).
Don't use the tone curve use tone equalizer instead.
I post process with ON1 Photo Raw
How can i download darktable ?
I am unable to install it on my desktop (win10 ver22H2) could you give me a solution to my problem.
Slow? did you try ON1 photo raw? that is slow!!! The learning curve in DT is very high but it is a very powerful tool.
It's slow when compared to Lightroom but you're right! I've tried ON1 Photo Raw and actually made a video on it, that is way slower than this.
is it possible to get Lightroom for free?
Unfortunately not legally at least lol it's not too bad honestly $10 a month and it's a business expense
I appreciate the effort but this is not beginner friendly at all lol
true im struggling over here lol
There no photos at my library
it's now 4,99 but that's okay😄