this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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Yeah Darktable is the way to go from what I've gathered so far. At the very least in terms of freeware. I can tell that it does a lot of things very well and offers endless features. I've already played around with it previously and use it exclusively now since I've switched my mainOS to Ubuntu and can't use Lightroom anymore. I did enjoy Lightroom's pre-sets that are offered by default. Filters and such. It helps getting some inspiration in what way the image could be modified to convey itself better.
I'm sure similar filters exist for Darktable as well but it's not as much point-and-click as Lightroom I guess.
Do you know if there are camera (manufacturer) specific modules for Darkroom that can be used? Would be nice to 1-click-recreate what my camera did for the .jpg and go from there. I think it'd help me a lot to adjust the image I've already evaluated instead of starting 'from scratch' regarding pretty much all image data, you know?
Well, Darktable by default gives you a proper looking input without having to do anything. It will look boring, but right. So there's nothing you need to do to make it look like a normal picture. Also, if you want, there are manufacturer-specific presets directly built in, which make it look a bit nicer.
Also you can use 3D LUTs files. They are essentially like program agnostic styles. Be sure to set the colour space properly to the colour space of the LUT when you use them, however.
Here's an article with a download link that gives you a few very high quality ones. They're all strictly scene-referred, not display-referred like the other programmes, so they are consistent across pictures.
https://onecameraonelens.com/2022/10/13/a-selection-of-darktable-styles/
Also, if you want to do white balance with Darktable, do not do it with the white balance module, but with the color calibration module. The white balance module does something very different in a scene referred process.
Lastly, I highly recommend you also do your own ones because it's fun and it will make your pictures look unique, since it will be your own unique creative colour grade.
If you have any questions, DM me.
Edit: Fixed typo.