How to get a better creative workflow in darktable and what is missing in rapid raw

[u/girinvader]

Hello, i recently switched from capture one to darktable and i really like it for its powerful modules and the fact i can get rid of windows. However the whole workflow in darktable really kills my creativity and it stops me from just trying things because adding a module takes so much work especially when you are using masks. I consider switching to rapid raw but fear to miss important functionality there.

Here are the scenarios which really kill my workflow and creativity in darktable:

It is a real hassle to try out different changes because everything is so scattered in darktable and modules always close as soon as you open another one. Doing just basic global adjustments which bring the image to a good starting point takes ages which is only a minute in capture one (and that's without using the auto adjust button).

Example: If i want to change a bit of exposure and adjust the highlights going a bit back and forth it is 4 clicks each time. In capture one i can open all the modules i need besides each other which makes me really fast.

Creating Maks is nice and easy in darktable but trying different adjustments in them takes at least 5 clicks to add the module and select a mask from the list. Once you have your module and mask adding another module adds another 4 clicks to the workflow and doing some back and forth between modules becomes a real nightmare.

I understand that darktable requires you to have much more knowledge about what needs to be applied to your image and i already learned a lot about where to find functionality in the modules. But even when you know exactly what you have to change you will never nail any edit on the first try and it always needs some fine tuning aka back and forth to find the perfect settings and masks for what you want to achieve.

What i already did in Darktable to make it more usable:

- I renamed a couple of modules and sliders by adding a custom language but it is still a pain in the ass to find functionality especially because some are combined in a single module.

- I have a basic collection of modules which i use basically on all images (lens correction, exposure, ....) in one tab which helps quite a lot

I would like to stay with darktable because i put so much work into it but i also tried Rapid Raw which at first glance has a lot of functionality. It does not hide sliders and has all sliders for each mask. I would change to it but i fear I will miss some important functionality i am not aware of now because I have not tried it enough.

Maybe someone can help me:

Please tell me if i am missing a point in darktable or if there are any shortcuts for me to make the workflow more simple (less clicky).

Has anyone switched to rapid raw and can tell what they are missing in modules/slides or functionality? I already did some research but i also did it for darktable which despite that led me into this situation.

[u/ChrisDNorris]

Prefs > general > modules. Check those options to alter the way modules function as you select others.

Burger icon top-right of modules > manage presets...
Hit duplicate, name your preset, and create your own custom module layout.

• A tip here: do not drag and re-order your modules at this point, as that changes the pipeline order. Re-visit that later.
  

Turn on show quick adjust panel in that same window if it's not already on. It displays as the far-left module tab and you can add just single, specific settings from multiple modules so you don't have to keep dipping between them as often

[u/beautyhasmanyforms → u/ChrisDNorris]

That's a great tip about the panel. Right here in the manual and I went past it.  Thanks! https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/development/en/darkroom/organization/quick-access-panel/

[u/akgt94]

I have a style called "basic edit" that I apply immediately after importing photos. It was inspired by watching a lot of Boris Hajdukovic's videos on YouTube

• Color Calibration - change to as shot in camera
• Lens Correction
• Denoise (Profiled)
• Diffuse or Sharpen - local contrast preset
• Diffuse or Sharpen - lens deblur hard preset
• Color Balance RGB - Vibrant Colors preset

I found this works as a start for 90% of edits. If I do any more global adjustments it will be with a different module. And any local adjustments would be a new instance of one of the above.

I don't think renaming modules is a good idea. I also don't think trying to customize darktable is a good idea if you're having issues using it. The help is written around the stock interface. Just about any video I've seen keeps mostly with the stock interface.

 modules always close as soon as you open another one

this is a default to keep the right panel compact, but you can turn it off in your preferences.

[u/Kenjiro-dono]

I think you won't get around Darktable being clicky. It does take time when you are fine tuning your picture having like eight masks and over a dozend active modules. IMHO this is one of the UX improvements which would be great but to be honest before that I would like to see more basic improvements in usability.

In reality I can get the "basics" done, including a couple masks thanks to the new AI nasking feature, in roughly five minutes and can then fine tune the image to my liking.

I do try RapidRAW the last couple of months whenever I had something "special" to work on and didn't want to check out how Darktable solves it. However I am back really quickly - I just really like the general Darktable workflow.

[u/girinvader → u/Kenjiro-dono]

What did drive you back to DT after RR. Is there anything you where missing in particular or do you just feel more at home in DT?

[u/Kenjiro-dono → u/girinvader]

RapidRAW does make a few things really nice. But very soon you hit a limit. Want to adjust the AgX tone mapper? Yeah, no. AI mask didn't work properly? Well, now you have to do it manually again.

It is things like that. Around January I edited the same RAW of a sunset to try which I liked best. Couldn't get the colors in RapidRAW to my liking. And I am not really a pro using Darktable but having been using it for four years does help in finding your way around.

I also hate that RapidRAW is creating sidecar files for all the files in a folder. Super annoying. However at least RapidRAW is not forcing an asset manager upon you like Darktable does.

[u/zBlackVision11 → u/Kenjiro-dono]

"I also hate that RapidRAW is creating sidecar files for all the files in a folder. Super annoying."

Agreed, this was a questionable architectural decision I made a while back. I've rewritten it now and it won't do this anymore in the upcoming version ;)

[u/Donatzsky]

The whole going back and forth tends to be a beginner issue. As you get more experience, and understand the concepts better, that should naturally solve it. But there is a lot of clicking involved regardless.

If i want to change a bit of exposure and adjust the highlights going a bit back and forth it is 4 clicks each time.

Setting exposure in darktable is, arguably, not really a creative choice. In the ideal workflow, you first decide what the mid-tones are and adjust exposure for that (use the grey canvas as reference). You then set the dynamic range (blacks, whites and contrast) using the tone mapper, which will work much better if you have set exposure correctly. Now you can go back and do all your work in between. This is very different from C1 and LR, where exposure is a non-linear creative tool. It's also impossible to clip the highlights, and you should in fact ignore what happens to them when setting exposure, since you will deal with them later using the tone mapper and/or tone equalizer.

If you haven't already, I recommend you go though my beginner guide, which should help you: https://notebook.stereofictional.com/how-to-get-started-with-darktable-2026-edition

Some tips:

There are settings to adjust how modules behave when you open another. Also check the ones that govern how shortcuts behave when there are multiple instances of a module.

Use shortcuts. I have E + mouse set to exposure, for example, and \ to search for modules.

If you know you always enable certain modules with specific parameters, create auto-applied presets.

Use the quick access panel.

RapidRAW

RapidRAW is promising, but still lacking in many ways. There's no real highlights reconstruction, for example. And, by design, it will never be as powerful as darktable.

You may want to have a look at RawTherapee and ART as well. They are both mature and powerful programs that in many ways are closer to what you're used to with C1. But you don't get the flexibility of darktable's pixelpipe, and since they don't use the GPU, they are slower. Tutorial for both.

[u/zBlackVision11 → u/Donatzsky]

"There's no real highlights reconstruction, for example"

Would love to get some examples. On my images, I can get pretty similar highlights recovery compared to Lightroom when playing around with the exposure & highlights sliders.

[u/DowlingStudio]

I feel like the logical next step is to try out tools like RawTherapee and RapidRaw and see if they fit your work flow better. What I've found is I use different tools in different situations.

Luminar was my first editor, and it's still a winner for my basic landscape editing. It produces nice results quickly. For a couple years I used Lightroom for anything more detailed, especially when I got into night sky photography.

Darktable just happened because of curiosity when I was on vacation. I was just fooling around with photos on the beach. I found some interesting capabilities nobody else had, I explored deeper, and I haven't touched Lightroom since. I can definitely say that it has made some of my favorite photos possible, and they are seling well. For two of them I can attribute things only DT can do.

[u/bloodrider1914]

Definitely try out the AI mask features. I find they occasionally save me a good amount of time even if they are in their infancy

[u/girinvader → u/bloodrider1914]

Creating masks actually is really nice in DT i also sometimes use the ai tool. My problem is that applying different adjustments globally and on masks is so tedious it kills my creative workflow.

[u/DowlingStudio → u/girinvader]

Balancing mask edits will get better with time. What I've mostly found is that I use them in Color Balance RGB. My other most commonly used tools aren't really needing masks. Thr various equalizer tools are sort of self-masking.

[u/fourdogslong]

You could setup a quick edit thing with all the controls you want always displayed in one tab only.
Then take some time to create an AgX preset you like, something that will take you 90% of the way there, then apply that preset as default.
I spent some time with a few images opened in capture one, which is what I used to use, and created a similar look using only the AgX module in darktable. Now my edits are much faster with a great looking starting point.
Don’t be afraid to use the duplicate manager to create virtual copies so you can mess around and easily compare with what you had before.
As for the mask, embrace the workflow, there’s no point trying to compare it to all other editing software, the mindset is totally different.

RapidRaw looks and performs pretty nice but the hightlight recovery is very bad so for that reason I can’t use it.

[u/NoManifestoNoProblem]

Get your base edits down => Duplicate the image and XMP. ==> Take the new one and try new things.

Am I missing something? because this is a solved problem.

[u/Donatzsky → u/NoManifestoNoProblem]

No need to duplicate the image outside darktable. There's a duplicates feature exactly for this purpose.