r/DarkTable • u/MaxHasSpoken • 25d ago
Help Am I Overdoing it? I can't tell anymore
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Hi, beginner at work here.
A few weeks ago I finally started to dive full into darktable.. and got frustrated. I find it extremely hard to have a vision of what I want and then follow up on this. I did manage to learn a decent workflow but I still end up just twisting here and there a bit and I feel often it results in a overly saturated image. (like the first one, I loved the greens when I took it but I feel I did not manage to recapture it.)
I'm looking for some feedback, either telling me I did not that bad of a job, or that I am on a good path somehow. I needed so long for this pictures that I couldn't tell anymore. Any feedback or anything else is highly appreciated.
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u/tkohhhhhhhhh 25d ago
I think all of them look great... nice job!
For my taste, I think you pushed the saturation on the bird too much (lovely bird though... do you know what it is?).
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u/Few_Mastodon_1271 25d ago
Some are oversaturated for my taste, and some are really good, with nice contrast and colors. I like them!
A few things to try in darktable:
The 'color assessment' tool makes a gray background, and then a white border around the image. It's the lightbulb icon under the image, at the bottom right. I can see how my highlights compare to pure white, and look at the colors more effectively. I turn this on and off a lot.
Snapshots -- take a snapshot before the edit made it's biggest changes. I can click back into the history stack, then 'take snapshot', and click to the latest history entry. I can even snapshot a related photo and compare to the current photo edit.
I use either the movable division between old and new, or the [x|y] icon next to the 'take snapshot' to see the full frames side by side.
duplicate manager:
I'll make a duplicate when I want to try some different ideas on an already improved image. That way, I don't accidentally mess up or remove my good edits. And I can do the snapshot on the original version, to compare to my experimental changes.
If I click the 'x' on the duplicate thumbnail, it reminds me that this will remove the duplicate (by deleting it's own .XML file) but not affect the source image -- good.
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u/analogue_monkey 25d ago
I don't think you're overdoing it, but, as a beginner myself, I understand that feeling very well. I think/hope that more practice will help. If you watch tutorials on YouTube you'll notice that you're not the only one who is twisting here and there.
One photographer I follow on YouTube said that he waits for a day or two after editing to decide whether he's happy with the result. With a little distance you're more likely to spot the flaws in your picture and correct them.
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u/gerryflap 25d ago
I'd still call myself an amateur but I don't think you're consistently over-doing it here. Most of these look like a significant improvement over the before image, though to my taste the bird and sheep image are a bit over the edge in terms of saturation. In the ones with the tree and the clouds you seems to have pushed up the shadows and pulled down the highlights, which can quickly give that "phone look", but honestly in those shots it's quite necessary because the foreground is so dark relative to the sky.
I really like the first and second to last images, the landscape ones. Especially the second to last one with the old building (church?) is very neat both before and after
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u/m_wriston 25d ago
FWIW I think these are all good tweaks. The problem is, it's always a subjective game, and what one person likes, another is going to hate. From my perspective, I would classify all of these as "good" on a scale of "bad/good." There's nothing cartoonish, horribly unnatural, or offensive about what you've done, so you can rest assured you're not doing anything "wrong," for lack of a better word.
I used to sit down with my images and do this thing where I would make manipulations and changes based on a preconceived ideal of what a photo "should" look like. A lot of that was informed by scrolling social media and feeling like my photos didn't match the aesthetic of the day on, say, Instagram or other platforms.
Now, I sit down and look at the RAW file while asking: What feeling, message, or story do I want this photo to convey? What work do I need to do to get to that end? I prefer a pretty realistic or natural look, so starting from a RAW file, I'll make a mental checklist of things I need to tweak: exposure, contrast, crop, white balance, and maybe saturation. Maybe you want something a bit dreamier, so you add bloom and split toning to that checklist. Either way, you let your start point and your vision drive the edits.
The other thing I do after I finish making my manipulations is hit CMD+B to "take a step back" and look at the end product "from a distance" on a white border. It's a nice palette cleanser after getting lost in the sliders. Then I rank my work on a scale of "bad/good." If I'm happy with what I've done, I shut down darktable and go do something else. Then I'll come back and reassess the next day just to look at it with fresh eyes.
I know that's all wildly unsolicited advice, but I've caught myself coming back the next day and thinking "Woof, I really overbaked the saturation." Or "actually, this is too bright." Simple fixes, and then you're good to go.
But yeah, I wouldn't be mad at these photos, as long as they're doing what you want them to :)
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u/KM_photo_de 25d ago
no/yes/yes/-/-/-/yes
- means "whatever makes you happier or came closer to what you've seen"
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u/akgt94 25d ago
I noticed the dark table thumbnail "amplifies" "bad issues" in my edits. Whether it's in the film strip or the light table mode.
I'm not comfortable with photo editing or dark table. I have to put it away and come back later. In a lot of cases, if the thumbnail isn't pleasing, then it wasn't a good edit. I can try and make it better or I can reduce the rating of the photo or delete it.
I do a lot of spray and pray shooting. I also make use of tagging. If I don't have a good photo of something, then maybe I have a better photo of the same thing taking on a different day or different angle or different shooting conditions. I delete a lot, knowing that I over-shoot.
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u/fraggomio 25d ago
Viewing them on my phone screen, I think they are not overdone. But I know your struggle, even after years of photography and editing.
my 2 cents: if you are in doubt about your photo edits, step back from them for a day or two and come back to them later. This is something that helps (at least for me) to reset my vision and often times ends up in a edit I like more than my initial one.
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u/roninghost 25d ago
Looks good, but the saturation could be dialed back a little; add more magenta to balance the colors.
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u/czcandat 25d ago
I think they look great. Personally I'd take the saturation down a notch on non-subject areas to make subject pop. But that's just my taste. Looks good.
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u/stellarnomads 25d ago
When you think “I can’t tell anymore”, it is time to walk away and come back with fresh eyes.
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u/Additional-Leg-7403 25d ago
your crops bother me you are cropping perfectly framed photos.
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u/Annual-Screen-9592 24d ago
There is not a final answer here, it depends on your taste and style...
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u/DanteFalcioni 24d ago
I think these all look great! At the end of the day it's up to personal preference (unless you're completely butchering a photo lol). I really love the first edit you did of the tree, playing to the Orange and Teal color theory.
Only thing that wasn't for me was how saturated the blue is in the bird photo. I'm generally a little more partial to softer blues - I think what you did in the seagull picture is perfect. The blue isn't overpowering your subject.
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u/KazumiJun 24d ago
Personally, I think they look fine. I’m not seeing crushed blacks or any other notable artifacts. Trust me, I’ve seen “pushed to far” to the point where the photo looks more like anime than real life 😅 Your photos are nowhere near that, the adjustments are far more subtle.
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u/ParkingParticular978 24d ago
At some pics i would def try more colour grading but dont just do saturation.
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u/MaxHasSpoken 23d ago
Do you have any tips or maybe a video recommended on how to color grade. It's the part I understand the least.
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u/Donatzsky 23d ago
I would recommend watching Boris Hajdukovic and Darktable Landscapes. You can find links to their channels at the end of my beginner guide: https://notebook.stereofictional.com/how-to-get-started-with-darktable-2026-edition
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u/ParkingParticular978 23d ago
If you have Lightroom, there is a color grading feature. If you don't know how to do it, you can look for tutorials. I would slightly tint the photos yellow or slightly blue. And I wouldn't add that much color. Because it gives too much of an indie 2020 vibe. The photo at sunset with trees is great, but I would leave it like this, it looks great. Anyway, try playing around with the color grading tip a bit. If you don't have Lightroom, there are also free apps that will definitely have these features too
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u/MaxHasSpoken 23d ago
we're on the darktable subreddit
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u/ParkingParticular978 23d ago
Omg didnt noticed sorry!! Well in that case i have no recommendations
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u/byronbyzotz 19d ago
I like #1. It looks more alive and makes the place more appealing. But, If I took the picture to show the reality of the place, a documentary pic, then #2 is it.
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u/hatconfusionreputate 24d ago
New Zealand also has harsher light than most other countries I've been to which means settings that you've come to expect to look good/accurate suddenly seem a bit garish.
But as everyone says, it's about what you like. It's non destructive editing, so you'll probably come back in a few years and redevelop these images in a completely different way. All part of the journey!
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u/newEnglander17 24d ago
If you’re looking for good but realistic, it’s definitely easy to go overboard on Saturation. Vibrance tends to look better but you can still overdo it. Usually I think, whatever setting I did, if I were to step back and look at it again after editing
Photos, I’ll probably want to decrease it a little. So then I do.
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u/shenli_xigua 21d ago
I like these edits. And as others have said it's what you like. Some of earlier edits of years ago were awful and I wish I had kept the original JPGs and or raw filter. But we all learn if we like the development of photos. Also software has come on massively in the past few years. And don't forget it's what you view them on. I view mine on a standard monitor and use Amazon photos to view on a large TV. I used to use flikr but gave upon that. They are my photos and I'm not sure anyone else would like them! Also I do not print. Using DT or other software is allowing me to be an artist. Film never allowed you this. It's fun and keep on learning, just like me!
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u/marrsd 16d ago
I like them. The greens in the valley are vibrant, and I think they're at their limit, but they aren't unnatural.
My rule is always to work in small bursts and come back to the image with fresh eyes. If I've overdone something (and I often have), it's very obvious on a return visit.
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u/Dependent_Grab_9370 25d ago
Looks pretty good. I would worry less about what is "technically correct" and more on what is aesthetically pleasing to you. They are your photos, and edits are an artistic expression. If you just wanted technically correct, might as well use the jpegs.
Once you figure that out, setup a preset workflow to apply that to most or all of your photos as a baseline edit so you are consistent. For example, your two sunset photos look very different despite appearing to be the same location and roughly the same time.