an introduction to darktable's workflow on darktable 5.6 user manual

introduction

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This section is intended to provide you with a flavor of what darktable can do and offer a suggested end-to-end processing workflow. New users should start by working through this introduction and following the links provided for further details.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive guide and many useful topics are not covered. You are advised to read through the reference sections of this manual once you are familiar with the basics.

import & review

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Before you can do anything in darktable you must first add some images files to the library using the import module in the lighttable view. This will create entries for your images in darktable’s library database so that it can keep track of the changes you make. There are three ways to import images, each accessible through buttons in the import module:

add to library: This option adds images to the library without copying or moving – your original files will stay in their current location and will not be altered. On import, darktable will read the metadata from the image files and any accompanying XMP sidecar file. If an image has already been added to the database, any updates you have made to the sidecar file will be loaded.
copy & import: Copies the images to the storage location (following the file naming pattern defined in preferences > import), then adds the copied images to the library – the original images are not changed or moved. Only the images are copied and if an existing XMP sidecar file is available for the image, it will not be read, copied or used.
copy & import from camera: Connect the camera to your system with a USB cable (if your camera is auto-mounted by your system, you will need to un-mount it before it can be accessed by darktable). If you don’t see your camera listed in the import module, press the “scan for devices” button. Once your camera is detected the import module should offer the ability to copy & import images from the camera. Clicking the “copy & import” button physically copies the selected images from the camera into a specified directory (following the file naming pattern defined in preferences > import) and then adds the copied images to the library.

Once images have been imported, their thumbnails are displayed in the lighttable view, within which you can organize and catalog your imported images – please refer to the digital asset management section for more information.

process

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This section is intended to get you comfortable processing images in the darkroom view using a scene-referred workflow. You are advised to follow the guidelines provided below, up to the end of the image processing in 3 modules section and then choose other areas to learn as-and-when you need to use those techniques in your images.

🔗getting started

🔗take a well-exposed photograph

Good image processing techniques start in the camera – a well-exposed image (without blown highlights or heavily crushed blacks) will always make post-processing much more straightforward. Under- or over-exposure can be “fixed” by darktable to some extent but no software can recover information that is not present in the Raw image (clipped highlights). Where possible, you are advised to use exposure to-the-right (ETTR) techniques to maximize the amount of data available for processing while avoiding clipping. As a general rule of thumb, in cases where the scene-dynamic-range exceeds that of your camera, it is safe to underexpose all images by 0.5 to 1 EV (by reducing the ISO sensitivity if possible) even if the in-camera preview looks darker than expected (the preview is not the raw data). If the scene dynamic range is lower than that of your camera, you may wish to dial in some over-exposure (decrease shutter speed or increase aperture) to capture more light and reduce noise.

export

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

darktable is a non-destructive editor, which means that all changes are recorded in the library database (with a backup stored in an XMP sidecar file), and the original Raw file is left untouched. You therefore need to export images in order to bake your edits into an output file that can be distributed outside of darktable.

Choose an export scenario.

The export module offers many options, but by far the most common use is to “save a developed raw image as a JPEG”. You can either export the currently-edited image directly from the darkroom view or select one or more images from the lighttable view and export them all at once.