darktable ep 146 - My top 100 images project (film noir)

#darktable #tutorial #filmnoir
In this episode, I'm processing a film noir-style image from a group shoot I organised in 2016.

00:00 start
00:19 introduction
01:12 exposure
01:31 white balance
02:20 colour calibration
03:08 retouch
09:35 a glitch in the matrix
11:23 contrast adjustment
13:11 crop
13:56 split-toning
14:18 an example of poor UI choice
15:26 split-toning again
16:18 sharpen with contrast equaliser
19:06 the finished image

As always, thanks to my tier 1 Patreon supporters:

Leona
Jon Hoskins
Alun Spencer
Rohn Shearer
Martin Vines
Matthias Liebich
Michael Rasmussen
Martin
Andy McGarty
Preben Rasmussen
Ignacio Mauleón
Ulrich Gesing
Bart Bartels
Daniel
Robert Stites
Emil Ohlsson
Steve Ansell
Fernando Pérez
Frank Jäger
Ferg
Rob van Esseveld
Erik Oksanen
David Staves
Gitte
Jürgen Bauer
Rudolfs
chris8142
Wolfgang Schimeck
Kevin McKibben
Alexander Haak
K&C
Carsten Wünsch
Hitesh Tulsani
mike s
Paul Sauve
Bernard Marsden
John Bell
Pascal
Marcus Ahlberg

[shamanbeartwo]

Ditto on the 4-ways confusion. I just used it last night and had to really pay attention to what I was doing. Regarding the hat - how about a second retouch module and this time, add a tiny bit to the top of the hat. No one would notice that the hat gets just the tiniest bit taller but that little bit of white would be gone.

[zisoft]

Regarding the separator lines in 4-ways-tab of the colorbalance rgb module: The darktable gui styling is done in CSS and can be changed by the user. Open the preferences dialog, general section. Here you find the css editor. To change the separator line to be above the label, enter this:

.dt_section_label
{
border-top: 0.05em solid @section_label;
border-bottom: none;
}

(don't forget the dot in front of the class name dt-section-label).
Click save and the change will be applied immediately.

[andrewgreig]

At the ten minute mark, the trouble you have with his hat is down to the choice of healing tool instead of Clone tool. I find that when I am working close to a lighter edge, if I use the healing tool it is drawing (appropriately) from the pixels nearby, and then I go "Duh" use the clone tool, problem goes away. Healing vs Clone is 20 vs 80 in my work flow.

[Eigil_Skovgaard]

Actually I didn't know the shift + left-click combination to point out the source in advance. Thanks for that tip. This is especially valuable when healing/cloning with a drawn Path, as all paths are committed with a final right-click - AND.. in some cases when working at a high zoom rate, the automatic source decision kicks in and the source figure can get out of range.
This is not the same problem with e.g. the Circle - Without releasing the mouse after the positioning-click, the source can be decided by drawing the mouse to any point within the zoom-area, before the left mouse button is released. In this way the source can be shifted fluently during a Ctrl-'circle' sequence. Hope I didn't kill the explanation with too many words ;O)

[vgbob]

Nice! Love the new trick of shift-click to move the point in the retouch module. I didn't know about that. I would have cropped this image in a bit on the right so the subjects would be a little off center. Nice image though! I love making noir style photos.

[Eigil_Skovgaard]

Avoid bleeding by using the clone tool for the first bit of background.

[bernym]

Re problems retouching around the black hat: Is it to do with using the healing mode instead of the clone mode? I seem to have more problems with healing so I often use the clone followed by using heal over the same area to get a better blend.
As general feedback on this series: When you first announced it, I was not especially interested. I did find I got much more immersed in them. Maybe because I am now a fairly skilled user of dt and am past the 'how to use this module' stage. I can now imagine what sort of look I'm aiming for and know what modules I need to achieve that. So what I'm driving at is that these videos are very instructive because they show dt in practical use rather than just individual modules on very select images. So another big thank you. 😀

[lzmorais]

Nice work on that image, as film noir goes, personally I prefer true black and white, no toning, it feels more Hollywood, but is a matter taste, the result is great.
On watching the video, on top of the hat, instead of retouch heal, wouldn't it work better with cloning?

[andrewgreig]

Hey Bruce,
Love your work, but there was too much work in that wall. A much bigger brush with a decent feather using the clone tool in one wipe would have sorted that out nicely.

[antl]

Great content and very helpful. Is there a way i can frame multiple photos together like a collage in Darktable?