Why do RAW photos look different in darktable than on my Sony camera, and can darktable apply the camera’s settings automatically?
Asked 1/24/2020
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When I browse RAW files in darktable’s lighttable view, they look similar to the preview on my Sony camera. But when I open the same image in darkroom, the crop/aspect ratio, lens corrections, and color rendering look different.
I assume lighttable is showing the embedded camera preview, while darkroom is rendering the RAW file itself. Is that correct?
Can darktable automatically use the camera’s own JPEG-style processing, including white balance/color look, lens corrections, and crop/aspect ratio, or do these need to be set manually?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
2
First off, darktable doesn't know how your manufacturer processes it's jpegs, each camera is different and the method an important differentiator between camera's and manufacturers.
In the preferences is a section for GUI (graphical user interface) options, specifically:
Don't use embedded preview JPEG but half-size raw
Check this option to not use the embedded JPEG from the raw file but >process the raw data. This is slower. (default off).
Unless told otherwise darktable defaults to showing the small jpeg preview embedded in the RAW file by your camera which will have all the settings your camera had at the time applied to it. Once you have opened the image and edited it, the preview is updated to reflect your edits. This is most noticeable if you take an image with the camera's black and white settings on. The preview jpg is black and white but the RAW is a colour image. You're camera's own software (and any that pays for the info) will then apply the black and white settings itself. Darktable and other free open-source software doesn't have access to this information.
It is possible to use ctrl+c / ctrl+v to copy and paste full or partial history stacks from one thumbnail to another or create styles which are basically a recording of the history stack of modules that have been used on one image and saved under a preset name to use on another. See history stack and styles.
In Junkyardsparkle's answer here a third option is described where the darktable-chart binary is used to try and creating base settings to mimic the output of camera modes. The Darktable manual page 1.1.4. darktable-chart binary describes it as
"This binary is a dedicated utility to create styles out of pairs of images such as RAW+JPEG with in-camera processing."
Using darktable chart states:
10.3.1. Overview
With darktable-chart we provide a tool for extracting luminance and color values out of images taken from color reference cards like IT8.7/1 charts. Its main purpose is to compare a source image (typically a largely unprocessed raw image) to a target image (typically a JPEG image created in-camera) and produce a darktable style that is able to convert luminance and color values of the source image to produce the target image. This style employs the tone curve module, the input color profile, and the color look up table module for that purpose (see Section 3.4.2.3, “Tone curve”, Section 3.4.3.11, “Input color profile”, and Section 3.4.3.6, “Color look up table”).
Some cameras are particularly advanced in offering various film simulation modes of your choice. With the help of darktable-chart and the underlying modules you can now create styles that replicate these film simulations from within darktable.
Originally by user60903. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user60903
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—what you’re seeing is expected. In lighttable, darktable often shows the embedded JPEG preview from the RAW file, which was generated by the camera using its own processing and settings. In darkroom, darktable renders the actual RAW data with its own processing pipeline.
Because of that, darktable generally cannot reproduce the manufacturer’s in-camera JPEG look exactly. Camera makers use proprietary processing, and darktable does not know or apply all of those algorithms automatically.
So in practice:
- the lighttable image may match the camera preview because it’s using the embedded JPEG
- the darkroom image differs because it’s a fresh RAW rendering
- lens correction, crop/aspect ratio, and color/white balance may need to be set in darktable rather than inherited from the camera’s JPEG styling
If you want lighttable to stop relying on the embedded preview, there is a preference to use half-size RAW instead of the embedded preview JPEG, but this is slower.
Bottom line: darktable can edit the RAW, but it does not automatically apply your camera’s full JPEG-style settings in darkroom.
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