Darktable Episode 88: sigmoid and contrasts

darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer:

Free/Open Source Photography:

0:00 Intro
0:48 request from erroplatus
2:15 issue with sigmoid
4:11 what sigmoid does
8:42 how to adjust contrasts
17:13 how to adjust contrasts, second method
26:01 how to adjust contrasts, second example
29:08 how to adjust contrasts, third example
32:37 how to adjust contrasts, fourth example
37:40 how to adjust contrasts, fifth example
43:57 how to adjust contrasts, sixth example

All but one raw file are used in this episode are by:

The raw file used at the beginning is from herbert-50 from the post here:

[timroach]

Wow, what an eye opener for me. The examples you did of the backlit scenes. The woman in front of the window and the seascape. I have been struggling with using Darktable for those types of scenes and you just helped me 100%.

[andreasfloter]

Boris, for me you are a magician who uses Darktable like a magic wand to transform the digital world for the better. Great job again.

[mke]

Thanks, Boris! Your tutorials are literally the reason why I switch to DT.

[bminney]

Excellent. Sometimes its like watching a true artist and I learn so much from these videos.

[adabbleinphotography]

A masterclass in the use of the tone equaliser. Thanks!

[bernym]

The best and most comprehensive tutorial so far. Thank you.

[MattInWA]

You are a wizard. These tutorials are amazing Boris. Thank you so much for putting the effort into teaching others about the magic of photo editing and darktable.

At 30:50 you bring down the highlights in 1 instance of tone equalizer, and then raise them again in another instance. This happened earlier in the video too and I am having trouble understanding why one doesn't cancel the other out.

[Michael_UK_]

So many lessons in this video

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge Boris

[GaryParris]

wonderful. especially love the sunset scene!

[danielspenner]

Thank you again for yet another great tutorial. There is always much to be learned from those videos.

[PaoloSantucci]

Thank you, your videos are always a treat!

[timjacobs]

Thank you once again, Boris. I really enjoy your tutorials. They truly are extraordinary.

[pd]

Amazing transformations. It is very educative. Thank you Boris for this presentation

[digitalspecter]

Thanks for your very informational videos! Also, it's great you started narrating them!

[davegoldberg]

Thanks Boris, that’s a great video. It’s good to have the option where we can separate the tone mapping from the tone shaping to take control of contrast. Your approach will help with many of my wildlife shots where the brightest and darkest details get lost in the default Sigmoid settings.

[voiceinthewilderness]

Amazing video. It was a great help to me Boris.

[TaxiDriver]

Wow this is great! I've felt like the colors sigmoid produces are much better than filmic, but it drove me bonkers the way it seemed to darken highlights so much

[rosbianca]

Thank you so much! Your knowledge of this awesome software is highly valuable and your explanations are great.

[Eigil_Skovgaard]

It's like candy. Thank you, Boris.

[lechindianer]

I wasn't that interested in the last video about styles but this one is terrific 👍 the different shots you've used as examples should make it good learning material for all photographers!


I did expect you'd crush the color space in the seastack shot - at least I i would do given the amount of saturation. That didn't happen in your case because you've applied your linear preset for tone equalizer I guess... What a wonderful resource ❤