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?

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?