Superb demo of the zone system. Students of photography will do well to study Adam's work and the zone system. I have had a play with this module and am blown away with the very fine exposure and contrast control it affords. It's almost like having independent ISO values for each zone. The more I learn about DT, the less I like HDR which nearly always looks over cooked and artificial especially landscape skies. DT very nearly makes multi-exposure and graduated ND filters redundant. The only filter that (maybe) it can't emulate if a polarising filter. I used to spend hours editing my landscapes in Adobe Photoshop and then Gimp carefully creating masks etc but DT is amazing with the mask systems. However, thanks for another brilliant tutorial.
Just discover this playlist on darktable couple days ago, and I have to say, it is just AWESOME !!! I've been using Darktable for almost 2 years now, and this is the first videos that I find really helpfull and that goes really in depth of each modules. Keep going mate, and thanks a lot !
Doesn't look like there's been a comment in 9 months. I just wanted to let you know that these videos are still valuable to us out here still learning. I know the new version is out, but your videos are fantastic and have really helped me get started. Thank you!
It might have been 9 months on THIS video, but believe me, three are new comments daily on my most recent content! And don't worry, I'm still churning out new videos. 😃
The "zone system" module is definitely another tool which gives more options. Maybe quicker than masks? Laugh at myself for not ever trying it before watching this video. One step at a time and making progress. Thanks Bruce!
Nice video Bruce I like that Darktable has an actual Zone System module. I use the Zone System in my photography all the time to attain my exposure so it's nice to see a module I can use to check myself with. Thanks for all the great videos.
Glad to see you're using Linux and free software. This makes your videos practical for everyone regardless of budget. I am using second hand computers and cameras and I can achieve nice results with this setup and now with zone system explained I feel like I am starting to come to grips with darktable. What a marvellous piece of free software.
Isn't it awesome? When I was contemplating the jump from windoze, I was really nervous of never finding something as good as lightroom. When I found darktable, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. But it's only been as the months have rolled by, and my use of it has grown that I've come to realise it's way more powerful than lightroom!
It seems that monochoriome can also apply to shades of other colors than grey, so monochoriome basically includes black and white pics tinted with one color, like sepia. I Guess you can also interpret the term black and white literally, so you have only 100% black and 100% white pixels - but this obviously doesn't happen very often.
Wow! finally something helpful on darktable. I watched a few other youtubers and read the manual for darktable just trying to figure out how to only adjust exposure in particular areas of the photo. Which there are several ways. Though I was not getting the results I wanted. With mask and feathering it wasn't idea and only allowed for a certain range of difference before it would ruin the effect I was aiming at. Gradient, exposure, contrast/brightness, learning that the mask can be inverted and the shapes applied to others without having to redraw them was very helpful but still wasn't the key area to adjust the issues with just starting with photography and having your image blown out in certain areas. Now I'm just looking at every module and layer effects and have got some desired results from weeks of editing that I wish I knew at the start but could not find the key areas or how it could be applied and moved around. This zone system should be a key point and the importance stressed on this. Sure there are other ways but this puts it on a whole new level of ease in comparison to just starting off in darktable. Would of saved me valuable time from research on the web. I should of just stuck to youtube. Google and research isn't as proficient Seems I have fallen out of the times, as it was the number one source for learning. At least when google first came number one as a search engine. Glad to be aware of the difference in sources now. Just want to say your vid is a life saver for a novice at the whole spectrum of photography. If your vid wasn't posted or made, I would of wasted another week trying to research and tweak things from manuals and actual application of the concept explained. Not to mention the frustration of watching something happen and not quit sure what it is exactly effecting, until after a couple of hours of editing with several other photos to make a comparison to see the target effected areas. Thank you so much for your time and videos.
Hi Bruce, interesting series of videos! I have been using Lightroom since version 2 and don't like the way Adobe is going with their pricing policy. I'm using Lightroom 6.14 (perpetual license) but I'm investigating alternatives. Darktable has been high on my list, but it's only thanks to your videos that I got started with it. Thanks a lot for these very useful videos. I would love to see a full edit from start to end of a photoshoot including all steps (how do you select and rate your images, what post-processing steps (modules do you use), what export settings do you use, etc, etc, etc .... Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the kind words. Exactly why I bailed on Lightroom as well. Price just kept going up and up and up. Will put an end-to-end workflow video on the list.
thanks for explaining this so clearly! i've been playing with darktable on and off for about a year now, but i'm not very familiar with some of the more advanced features like this. (or at least this feels more advanced to me, ha ha.) looking forward to checking out more of your videos!
thank you, I just download it, and for shure I'm gonna try it, very promissing. congratulations, and thank you for your time and effort. best brazilian regards.
Hi from an old guy in Canada. I am new to darktable and tried many other programs. I've also tried other channels (without being able to understand what they are trying to teach). Your tutorials are easy to follow and the info put to good use. They also stick to the subject and unlike many others don't wander off. Like in any learning process,, we sometimes have to review and repeat, therefore it will take me time to catch up to where you are, but I will. Thanks, you're a natural teacher.
Thanks for the kind words, Peter. I strive to keep my videos on-topic, because it drives me crazy when I'm watching someone else's video and they can't stay on topic!
Hey Bruce thanks for another great video....I had one comment Bruce I think that when you were explaining the editing of the zones in your images you demonstrated that you were lightening and darkening zones and so I think the focus of what you presented may have come across only as a way to selectively edit exposure of the image, which is i guess true but isn't it also effectively a remapping of a zone or tonal range in your image so that if you drag a single zone across three fixed zones either lighter or darker then that single zone in the image is now remapped to 3 physical tonal ranges and so ultimately has more contrast/detail as well...I think that is true?? Anyway great tutorial I just thought I would ask this as some time ago I messed around with an open-source program called Lightzone and it was based around the use of the zone system....Also I think your video is a great addition to get people to think about images in a different way that can be very useful..I came across this video which talks about metering and exposure and how it relates to the zone system and I think it complements yours well showing how zones could be put in place while shooting your photos and it provides a good tie in to your video and comments related to the post processing part...so maybe check it out and see what you think....ruclips.net/video/sR5CKay8WM4/видео.html . PS it was likely me about the BW vs monochrome vs grayscale... in the context of image analysis for scientific purposes we often consider BW images as binary. They are made of black or white pixels...so if it is an 8 bit BW image then the amount of pixels that are black vs white depends on the threshold value between 0-255. We often use this on an image to say count the cells on a slide. You convert your colour image to binary and then threshold it..not unlike the parametric mask but no feathering.. When you get to the point that you have located your cells by creating essentially black spots the software can easily count them and measure area etc..... it was just the way that the person had asked their question about a single colour and BW image that had made me question it as I was not 100% sure what she was asking for...in the end it was simple ...she wanted the red flower/bike isolated in a grayscale/monochrome picture
Monochrome = 1 color, Black and White = no color. Technically speaking of course. Although there are many different ways to perform similar functions in darktable, sharpness for example, the method or module you use may be dependent on where it falls in the pipeline.
Thanks Rico! Yep, have now passed both thresholds for monetization of the channel. Sweet. No, I wouldn't use this in place of exposure. This will simply allow you to adjust RANGES of tone within your current exposure level, whereas the exposure module will allow you to boost or cut the ENTIRE tonal range.
Your videos are excellent. Thank you for sharing them. The video on the retouch module was particularly helpful. Are you open to suggestions? If so, I would suggest a comparison between Darktable and Lightroom. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? What can be done with Lightroom that cannot be done with Darktable, and vice-versa? A second suggestion: a video on the liquify module. Again, thanks for the excellent videos.
Thanks Francisco! Trouble is, to do a comparison, I would need to subscribe to CC, and I've gone to Linux exactly because I didn't like Adobe's price-gouging model! :) But I'll keep it in mind. As for what they do differently... that's easy. Now that I've got my hands dirty with darktable, I realise just how "dumbed-down" Lightroom is. It doesn't let you do parametric masks or stuff like that. dt is waaaay more powerful!
The Zone System Module is an advanced version of Lightzone's Zonemapper, but function virtually the same. Here is the help for Zonemapper, if you are interested. It talks about setting black point, adjusting contrast, etc., similar to what DT is doing: lightzone.helpmax.net/en/photo-editor/tools/zonemapper/introduction/ Also, Lightzone uses blend modes. Since you weren't familiar with DT's blend modes in another video, I thought you might be interested in Lightzones, even though there are several difference: lightzone.helpmax.net/en/photo-editor/blend-modes/
Hi Bruce, Fantastic video series: i recently purchased a G85, my first 'serious' camera, & i'm blown away by the potential of Darktable, & explanations such as this one really demonstrate the potential, so many thanks for your insights & methodical explanations. I'm just wondering if you do much video editing? (aside from this series of course ...) I've been looking at both Shotcut & KDEnlive on linux, the latter seems to have slightly better functionality, but is a tad flakey on my admittedly now ageing Ubuntu machine that i'll be tempted to upgrade if a good, solid performing video editing option is out there. I'm particularly interested in colour grading / correction, curves, editing video as 'photographically' as possible rather than being concerned with silly effects & transitions etc. Any thoughts or advice or ideas about video on Linux? There's DaVinci Resolve of course at the 'far' end of the spectrum, but that is going to require way more hardware investment than i am likely to be throwing at the problem ...
Thanks for the kind words! As you'll find when you catch up to the latter videos, I have just moved to davinci resolve myself. There is a free version which does 95% of what the paid version does, including all of the color grading stuff. Check it out. I'm loving it so far!
@@audio2u thanks Bruce. Yes, I'm randomly sampling your series in no particular order. Good to hear first hand DaVinci free is offering you all the possibilities. May I ask what specs are you running (& Linux distro... ) to enable that to work well for you?)
Hi Bruce thanks for your help. I had a look and I have 3.6.0+3 version, seems that when I go to "darkroom" still selected "lighttable", maybe it's because of that iI can't see Zone System ?? Where I can download your version, 2.6.1 ? Thanks again Best Ivan
3.6.1 can be downloaded from the darktable website, or if you're on Linux (and depending on distribution), it should be available through that distro's repository. Or you can compile from source.
While Sepia, Selenium, Cyanotype etc. are called monochrome photography, that isn't technically accurate. These are all chemical treatments (at least until the digital age) to tone a typical B&W image, while true monochrome photography is done as the image is created, whether film or digital, by capturing the image through colored filters in order to manipulate what wavelengths actually make it to the film/sensor. Astrophotography is one typical use of true monochrome photography...since a mono sensor is able to actually capture more photons than a color sensor, it makes for shorter exposure times with less noise.
Hello, there again! I come for help! I’ve recently shot a series of pics on the beach, on a very cloudy but still bright day. The pics came out really dull and I’ve been playing and tweaking them on darktable, but I can’t seem to make them pop a bit. Any tips on that? The sky ended up blown out but, even using a flash on the models doesn’t seem to have had an effect when I go to exposure. Well I’m at a loss here. PLEASE HELP!!!
Hi Bruce, this excellent series and your commitment to the process is of significant value to me. I have recently retired from my work at a large Aussie Telco, to build a business in photography. I have had some challenges in getting up to speed on the software of photography, and I use Darktable in a rudimentary way. Because I try to "get it right" in the camera my quick post production process involves Exposure and Crop and rotate. But I was working in photography in the seventies when some weddings were captured in black and white. Ansell Adams' zone system was best applied by using a Weston Master (or in my case Euromaster) light-meter. Your picture of him shows him holding it. He used to choose his high-lights and shadows before exposing. www.jollinger.com/photo/meters/meters/weston_745-m4.html I still use my EuroMaster on the incident light setting with the "invercone" www.jollinger.com/photo/meters/meters/weston_S461-em.html and I also use my Sekonic 308s inside and outside the studio. One comment on HDR - shoot on a tripod, use camera setting for exposure bracketing and set the drive to match your range , you will not be concerned with alignment. I love this series, I tell people about Darktable, but now I can send them here for a really clear exposition of its features. Thank you!!
Well, it depends on where you are looking. B&W silver based paper has a limited range that is approximately 10 zones, B&W silver based film will often have a greater range than that (depends on the film itself, could be almost 18). Take a look at "The Art of Photography" by Bruce Barnbaum. Also pure black and pure white should be counted as zones, so you have to be careful "total zones" or "zones between pure black and pure white"
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
Superb demo of the zone system. Students of photography will do well to study Adam's work and the zone system. I have had a play with this module and am blown away with the very fine exposure and contrast control it affords. It's almost like having independent ISO values for each zone. The more I learn about DT, the less I like HDR which nearly always looks over cooked and artificial especially landscape skies. DT very nearly makes multi-exposure and graduated ND filters redundant. The only filter that (maybe) it can't emulate if a polarising filter. I used to spend hours editing my landscapes in Adobe Photoshop and then Gimp carefully creating masks etc but DT is amazing with the mask systems.
However, thanks for another brilliant tutorial.
Thanks Benny! Yep, it sure is a powerful piece of software, that's for sure.
Just discover this playlist on darktable couple days ago, and I have to say, it is just AWESOME !!! I've been using Darktable for almost 2 years now, and this is the first videos that I find really helpfull and that goes really in depth of each modules. Keep going mate, and thanks a lot !
No worries, Alexis! Thanks for the kind words.
darktable is awesome, just like GIMP!
Doesn't look like there's been a comment in 9 months. I just wanted to let you know that these videos are still valuable to us out here still learning. I know the new version is out, but your videos are fantastic and have really helped me get started. Thank you!
It might have been 9 months on THIS video, but believe me, three are new comments daily on my most recent content! And don't worry, I'm still churning out new videos. 😃
Sorry if you are getting negative feedback, it is totally undeserved. Just keep doing what you are, the content is great for us Newbies.
Thanks Archie. I don't get very much negative feedback, so when I do, I tend to ignore it. 😃
The "zone system" module is definitely another tool which gives more options. Maybe quicker than masks? Laugh at myself for not ever trying it before watching this video. One step at a time and making progress. Thanks Bruce!
Nice video Bruce I like that Darktable has an actual Zone System module. I use the Zone System in my photography all the time to attain my exposure so it's nice to see a module I can use to check myself with. Thanks for all the great videos.
No problem. Glad they're helping! Yeah, I should try and use the zone system more. Sadly, I don't, as a rule.
Glad to see you're using Linux and free software. This makes your videos practical for everyone regardless of budget. I am using second hand computers and cameras and I can achieve nice results with this setup and now with zone system explained I feel like I am starting to come to grips with darktable. What a marvellous piece of free software.
Isn't it awesome? When I was contemplating the jump from windoze, I was really nervous of never finding something as good as lightroom. When I found darktable, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. But it's only been as the months have rolled by, and my use of it has grown that I've come to realise it's way more powerful than lightroom!
In my humble opinion, Ansel Adams was probably the most extraordinary genius of photography History.
It seems that monochoriome can also apply to shades of other colors than grey, so monochoriome basically includes black and white pics tinted with one color, like sepia. I Guess you can also interpret the term black and white literally, so you have only 100% black and 100% white pixels - but this obviously doesn't happen very often.
Another great video.
6:25 I really like that image.
Glad you like it
Wow! finally something helpful on darktable. I watched a few other youtubers and read the manual for darktable just trying to figure out how to only adjust exposure in particular areas of the photo.
Which there are several ways. Though I was not getting the results I wanted. With mask and feathering it wasn't idea and only allowed for a certain range of difference before it would ruin the effect I was aiming at.
Gradient, exposure, contrast/brightness, learning that the mask can be inverted and the shapes applied to others without having to redraw them was very helpful but still wasn't the key area to adjust the issues with just starting with photography and having your image blown out in certain areas.
Now I'm just looking at every module and layer effects and have got some desired results from weeks of editing that I wish I knew at the start but could not find the key areas or how it could be applied and moved around. This zone system should be a key point and the importance stressed on this. Sure there are other ways but this puts it on a whole new level of ease in comparison to just starting off in darktable. Would of saved me valuable time from research on the web.
I should of just stuck to youtube. Google and research isn't as proficient Seems I have fallen out of the times, as it was the number one source for learning. At least when google first came number one as a search engine. Glad to be aware of the difference in sources now.
Just want to say your vid is a life saver for a novice at the whole spectrum of photography. If your vid wasn't posted or made, I would of wasted another week trying to research and tweak things from manuals and actual application of the concept explained.
Not to mention the frustration of watching something happen and not quit sure what it is exactly effecting, until after a couple of hours of editing with several other photos to make a comparison to see the target effected areas.
Thank you so much for your time and videos.
Thanks for the kind words!
Hi Bruce, interesting series of videos! I have been using Lightroom since version 2 and don't like the way Adobe is going with their pricing policy. I'm using Lightroom 6.14 (perpetual license) but I'm investigating alternatives. Darktable has been high on my list, but it's only thanks to your videos that I got started with it. Thanks a lot for these very useful videos.
I would love to see a full edit from start to end of a photoshoot including all steps (how do you select and rate your images, what post-processing steps (modules do you use), what export settings do you use, etc, etc, etc .... Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the kind words. Exactly why I bailed on Lightroom as well. Price just kept going up and up and up. Will put an end-to-end workflow video on the list.
Thanks Bruce, ya I had the darktable 2.6.1 update come through my update system, should be interested to see the difference. Another great video.
thanks for explaining this so clearly! i've been playing with darktable on and off for about a year now, but i'm not very familiar with some of the more advanced features like this. (or at least this feels more advanced to me, ha ha.) looking forward to checking out more of your videos!
Thanks!
What a great playlist! Thank you so much!
Another super helpful and informative darktable video. Keep up the great work!
Thanks!
thank you, I just download it, and for shure I'm gonna try it, very promissing. congratulations, and thank you for your time and effort. best brazilian regards.
Thanks! 😃
thanks for the videos an absolute must
Thanks man!
Hi from an old guy in Canada. I am new to darktable and tried many other programs. I've also tried other channels (without being able to understand what they are trying to teach). Your tutorials are easy to follow and the info put to good use. They also stick to the subject and unlike many others don't wander off. Like in any learning process,, we sometimes have to review and repeat, therefore it will take me time to catch up to where you are, but I will. Thanks, you're a natural teacher.
Thanks for the kind words, Peter. I strive to keep my videos on-topic, because it drives me crazy when I'm watching someone else's video and they can't stay on topic!
Hey Bruce thanks for another great video....I had one comment Bruce I think that when you were explaining the editing of the zones in your images you demonstrated that you were lightening and darkening zones and so I think the focus of what you presented may have come across only as a way to selectively edit exposure of the image, which is i guess true but isn't it also effectively a remapping of a zone or tonal range in your image so that if you drag a single zone across three fixed zones either lighter or darker then that single zone in the image is now remapped to 3 physical tonal ranges and so ultimately has more contrast/detail as well...I think that is true?? Anyway great tutorial I just thought I would ask this as some time ago I messed around with an open-source program called Lightzone and it was based around the use of the zone system....Also I think your video is a great addition to get people to think about images in a different way that can be very useful..I came across this video which talks about metering and exposure and how it relates to the zone system and I think it complements yours well showing how zones could be put in place while shooting your photos and it provides a good tie in to your video and comments related to the post processing part...so maybe check it out and see what you think....ruclips.net/video/sR5CKay8WM4/видео.html . PS it was likely me about the BW vs monochrome vs grayscale... in the context of image analysis for scientific purposes we often consider BW images as binary. They are made of black or white pixels...so if it is an 8 bit BW image then the amount of pixels that are black vs white depends on the threshold value between 0-255. We often use this on an image to say count the cells on a slide. You convert your colour image to binary and then threshold it..not unlike the parametric mask but no feathering.. When you get to the point that you have located your cells by creating essentially black spots the software can easily count them and measure area etc..... it was just the way that the person had asked their question about a single colour and BW image that had made me question it as I was not 100% sure what she was asking for...in the end it was simple ...she wanted the red flower/bike isolated in a grayscale/monochrome picture
Monochrome = 1 color, Black and White = no color. Technically speaking of course.
Although there are many different ways to perform similar functions in darktable, sharpness for example, the method or module you use may be dependent on where it falls in the pipeline.
thanks mr. Bruce :3
No worries! 😃
Congratulations on 1k subscribers! Would you use this module over the exposure module or do you believe both still have their own purpose?
Thanks Rico! Yep, have now passed both thresholds for monetization of the channel. Sweet. No, I wouldn't use this in place of exposure. This will simply allow you to adjust RANGES of tone within your current exposure level, whereas the exposure module will allow you to boost or cut the ENTIRE tonal range.
Top!
Cheers!
Your videos are excellent. Thank you for sharing them. The video on the retouch module was particularly helpful. Are you open to suggestions? If so, I would suggest a comparison between Darktable and Lightroom. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? What can be done with Lightroom that cannot be done with Darktable, and vice-versa? A second suggestion: a video on the liquify module. Again, thanks for the excellent videos.
Thanks Francisco! Trouble is, to do a comparison, I would need to subscribe to CC, and I've gone to Linux exactly because I didn't like Adobe's price-gouging model! :) But I'll keep it in mind.
As for what they do differently... that's easy. Now that I've got my hands dirty with darktable, I realise just how "dumbed-down" Lightroom is. It doesn't let you do parametric masks or stuff like that. dt is waaaay more powerful!
In western Canada -30C is quite common in the winter. Want to come for a landscape photo shoot?
I would love to visit Canada! Cath and I actually are hoping to visit Alaska at some point too.
The Zone System Module is an advanced version of Lightzone's Zonemapper, but function virtually the same. Here is the help for Zonemapper, if you are interested. It talks about setting black point, adjusting contrast, etc., similar to what DT is doing: lightzone.helpmax.net/en/photo-editor/tools/zonemapper/introduction/
Also, Lightzone uses blend modes. Since you weren't familiar with DT's blend modes in another video, I thought you might be interested in Lightzones, even though there are several difference: lightzone.helpmax.net/en/photo-editor/blend-modes/
Excellent video good module for controlling highlights.
Could you please do a video on the colour balance module which I find confusing.
Cheers
Will do!
❤👍
Hi Bruce,
Fantastic video series: i recently purchased a G85, my first 'serious' camera, & i'm blown away by the potential of Darktable, & explanations such as this one really demonstrate the potential, so many thanks for your insights & methodical explanations.
I'm just wondering if you do much video editing? (aside from this series of course ...)
I've been looking at both Shotcut & KDEnlive on linux, the latter seems to have slightly better functionality, but is a tad flakey on my admittedly now ageing Ubuntu machine that i'll be tempted to upgrade if a good, solid performing video editing option is out there.
I'm particularly interested in colour grading / correction, curves, editing video as 'photographically' as possible rather than being concerned with silly effects & transitions etc.
Any thoughts or advice or ideas about video on Linux?
There's DaVinci Resolve of course at the 'far' end of the spectrum, but that is going to require way more hardware investment than i am likely to be throwing at the problem ...
Thanks for the kind words! As you'll find when you catch up to the latter videos, I have just moved to davinci resolve myself. There is a free version which does 95% of what the paid version does, including all of the color grading stuff. Check it out. I'm loving it so far!
@@audio2u thanks Bruce. Yes, I'm randomly sampling your series in no particular order.
Good to hear first hand DaVinci free is offering you all the possibilities. May I ask what specs are you running (& Linux distro... ) to enable that to work well for you?)
AMD Ryzen 2700x, 32GB DDR4 RAM, Samsung EVO850 SSD for OS, NVidia GTX1050Ti 4GB graphics card, Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 soundcard, and various other SSD/HDD's for data.
Hi Bruce thanks for your help. I had a look and I have 3.6.0+3 version, seems that when I go to "darkroom" still selected "lighttable", maybe it's because of that iI can't see Zone System ??
Where I can download your version, 2.6.1 ? Thanks again
Best
Ivan
3.6.1 can be downloaded from the darktable website, or if you're on Linux (and depending on distribution), it should be available through that distro's repository.
Or you can compile from source.
@@audio2u Thank you again, I've downloaded from website, but no way no Zone System tool here....
While Sepia, Selenium, Cyanotype etc. are called monochrome photography, that isn't technically accurate. These are all chemical treatments (at least until the digital age) to tone a typical B&W image, while true monochrome photography is done as the image is created, whether film or digital, by capturing the image through colored filters in order to manipulate what wavelengths actually make it to the film/sensor.
Astrophotography is one typical use of true monochrome photography...since a mono sensor is able to actually capture more photons than a color sensor, it makes for shorter exposure times with less noise.
Interesting stuff, Rick! Thanks!
Hello, there again! I come for help! I’ve recently shot a series of pics on the beach, on a very cloudy but still bright day. The pics came out really dull and I’ve been playing and tweaking them on darktable, but I can’t seem to make them pop a bit. Any tips on that? The sky ended up blown out but, even using a flash on the models doesn’t seem to have had an effect when I go to exposure. Well I’m at a loss here. PLEASE HELP!!!
Try the local contrast module. I find that to be the magic sauce that just helps images that seem a little flat.
Did you shoot RAW?
@@audio2u yes, always. The local contrast would be using a mask, do you think ?
Not necessarily. By default, it simply adds contrast just to mid-tones.
@@audio2u I’ll sure give it a try. Thank you for your prompt answer! 😘
This is the missing (as in way better than original one) darktable manual...
Cheers
Hi Bruce, this excellent series and your commitment to the process is of significant value to me. I have recently retired from my work at a large Aussie Telco, to build a business in photography. I have had some challenges in getting up to speed on the software of photography, and I use Darktable in a rudimentary way. Because I try to "get it right" in the camera my quick post production process involves Exposure and Crop and rotate. But I was working in photography in the seventies when some weddings were captured in black and white. Ansell Adams' zone system was best applied by using a Weston Master (or in my case Euromaster) light-meter. Your picture of him shows him holding it. He used to choose his high-lights and shadows before exposing.
www.jollinger.com/photo/meters/meters/weston_745-m4.html I still use my EuroMaster on the incident light setting with the "invercone" www.jollinger.com/photo/meters/meters/weston_S461-em.html and I also use my Sekonic 308s inside and outside the studio.
One comment on HDR - shoot on a tripod, use camera setting for exposure bracketing and set the drive to match your range , you will not be concerned with alignment.
I love this series, I tell people about Darktable, but now I can send them here for a really clear exposition of its features. Thank you!!
20:23 and you can go as fas as +-18,00EV.
Right! Wow!
@@audio2u yes, try it. darktable is really one of a kind of a program.
Aurora cannot be installed on Linux. So DarkTable is better than that any day for me.
Ahh, interesting. Thanks for the heads up!
i have all of the 3 books...;-)
Remind me... Which books are we talking about?
There are actually 9 zones by default not 8. You miscounted :)
Really? Oh... ok! I'll have to go back and check! :)
Well, it depends on where you are looking. B&W silver based paper has a limited range that is approximately 10 zones, B&W silver based film will often have a greater range than that (depends on the film itself, could be almost 18).
Take a look at "The Art of Photography" by Bruce Barnbaum.
Also pure black and pure white should be counted as zones, so you have to be careful "total zones" or "zones between pure black and pure white"
nine zones, not eight. :-)
It's so long since I recorded this episode, I'm not sure what you're referring to, but.... ok! :)
No zone system now.
Too bad you can't separately edit each zone
How do you imagine that working, William? Not sure I understand.
@@audio2u Like Silver Efex Pro 2