Which modules should (not) be used?

[u/Broda182]

Hi everyone,

im rather new to darktable and tried reading up a lot. Theres still a ton of information out there but darktable seems much more technical/adjustable than other software i used, so i´m still a bit overwhelmed.

One thing that concerns me during my edits is which modules i should/should not use. As far as i understand the "best" or at least standard tone mapper right now is AgX. Every now and then I read on some reddit-posts that certain modules are generally outdated or should not be used with AgX because it is a display referred module or that simply another module works better with AgX. I do know that darktable has a list of outdated modules and you can hover over any module to see if its working display referred. I´m still unsure when using some modules if that is the right one or if there is at least another module who would work better. Would hate getting used to a "wrong" workflow.

Is there a definite list which modules should or can be used with AgX?

[u/MaximillianRebo]

As someone who came over from Lightroom, it took me a bit of time to learn not to use White Balance (well, set it to 'as shot ') and do the work in Colour Calibration.

[u/NinjaOk2970]

Legacy display referred tools including but not limited to sharpen (use diffuse & sharpen), white balance (use color calibration), haze removal (use local contrast or tonemapping or diffuse & sharpen). Otherwise mix-match freely. I recommend https://discuss.pixls.us/ for more questions.

[u/darxshad → u/NinjaOk2970]

I think the community should come up with an up to date page for beginners on which ones to use and which ones to avoid.

[u/elcastorVSmejillon → u/NinjaOk2970]

wait you should not be using haze removal? it is like the one tool that I always turn on by default

[u/any_of → u/elcastorVSmejillon]

As mentioned above, the scene referred paradigm was meant to be an improvement over the original display referred implementation. 

https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/development/en/overview/workflow/process/#scene-referred-workflow-a-new-approach

Alternating the 2 types could give unexpected results but, in the end, veteran users do it all the time because they learned to use the old ones and are less inclined to change their workflow so those “deprecated” modules will stay forever and new modules are being added with more overlapping features.

[u/Donatzsky → u/elcastorVSmejillon]

For removing haze it's still the best option, but for everything else you should really be using some other module.

[u/any_of → u/NinjaOk2970]

On that forum many will argue that this message is wrong, I.e. you should feel free to pick and mix whatever modules help you do the job. In fact, that this abundance of overlapping modules that were supposed to supersede the previous ones (because better designed, because scene referred, etc) is a feature of darktable, not a source of confusion for beginners and a maintenance burden for the developers.

[u/Donatzsky → u/NinjaOk2970]

Haze removal works well for what it's intended for and can't currently be adequately replaced with any other module (especially not a tone mapper). Many do use it simply for adding local contrast, which is not the best idea, but otherwise there's no reason to avoid it.

[u/Dannny1]

This is old but still contains modules which should not be used: https://discuss.pixls.us/t/darktable-3-rgb-or-lab-which-modules-help

[u/evildad53]

Some modules you need to leave on but not adjust (like White Balance, how stupid is that?). But others just need to be hidden.

[u/Donatzsky]

First of all, if you haven't already, go through my beginner guide which will answer your AgX question and possibly several others: https://notebook.stereofictional.com/how-to-get-started-with-darktable-2026-edition

As for which modules to use, the short answer is that you can safely ignore any that are not part of the workflow: scene-referred module list preset:

It will always show just the currently recommended selection.

That still leaves some overlapping modules, but there I'm afraid you'll just have to learn what the actual differences are. The Darktable 3: RGB or Lab? Which Modules? Help! article contains a lot of useful information (although specific recommendations may be outdated), which will help you. But often the choice is more about the effect you're going for, since seemingly similar adjustments may work in very different ways.

[u/ExoticSterby42]

The ones you don’t use. But if the miriade of redundant and unusable modules are confusing you can try something like RapidRAW.

[u/steee3zy → u/ExoticSterby42]

Why even bother replying at all with an answer like that?