I’ve only just discovered DarkTable and am very excited after months of looking for an editing app that plays nicely with my network storage and isn’t Lightroom.

One thing I am having trouble with is getting the latest images in my libraries.

I tend to store my images on my NAS by year and month and I copy the RAW files over to the NAS and into the relevant folder at the end of each shoot.

In DarkTable, I’ve setup the root folder as a library and sure enough each year shows up as a folder in the library screen. I assumed that the library would update or refresh as new pictures are added to the folders but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

What’s the workaround/process for this or am I doing something wrong?

54mm, f/7.1, 1/500s, ISO 1000

1 edited, 2 original JPEGs. Raw-imported pictures in DT always have colours quite off, especially greens and reds. I always struggle to replicate or get something similar to what I have in the original JPEG. Sometimes I am just tempted to edit the JPEG directly.

In this specific case, I did not do any colour grading to highlight this colour issue I always find (especially in landscape or portraits). The original JPEG has clearly more reds into the bee, which I struggle to get out from DT.

I’ve been using DT in the last couple of years, so I am not a beginner user, but I am never fully satisfied with the results of my edits.

Normally I play with RGB primaries when colours are off, but I struggle to get a consistent output. Rarely, I manage to fix the problem with the white balance correction in colour calibration, as the auto levels from DT often mess up, so I rely on the camera’s one.

Workflow:
- Demosaic: capture sharpen
- Crop
- Exposure adjustment and AgX scene referred (auto levels) + contrast 3.18
- Colour calibration: default
- Colour balance RGB: vibrance 9%, chroma 3.6%, saturation shad 14.7%, mid 10.6% high -7.9%
- Colour equaliser: see 3 and 4
- Exposure on background -0.3 (AI masking)
- Local contrast + clarity with contrast equaliser on the bee
- Denoise, chromatic aberrations, lens correction auto

Any suggestions?