francoisjacques/darktable-nikon-d5100-profiles

NIKON D5100: Base-curves, LUTs and input color profiles for Darktable

NIKON D5100: Base-curves, LUTs and input color profiles for Darktable

Trying to edit RAW photos in Darktable taken with D5100 camera but not satisfied with the default starting point?

Are you experiencing one of the following symptoms?

• You're having trouble to restore details in highlights, the whole L channel feels weird, you spend ages on tone-curve corrections
• Colors are shifted, skin-tones look weird, the default images tend to have a weird color tint (e.g. green)
• Subtle hue-differences are hard to distinguish

Yes? Then search no more!

Contents

• basecurves folder: Basecurve created using dt-curve-tool and custom input images with wide dynamic range

  • Run script 2018-01-27_install.sh from command line to install the basecurve preset
  • It becomes available as NIKON D5100 2018-01-27 BC in the basecurve module presets list

• luts folder: LUT profiles for this camera created using IT8 color chart and darktable-chart

  • Open Darktable, in the right pane in 'styles' section click 'import' and choose a .dtstyle file
  • Use them together with basecurve above
  • D5100 with BC to match JPEG.dtstyle
    • JPEG - created to match JPEG file processed by camera
    • BC - during creation, custom base-curve was applied
    • works best for me
  • D5100 - L96, WB, BC - exact.dtstyle
    • exact - created to match reference values from the IT8 color-chart manufacturer
    • L96 - during creation, exposure of the input files was adjusted to make the white square L channel 96
    • WB - during creation, white-balance was fixed in the input file
    • BC - during creation, custom base-curve was applied

• presets folder: Initial profiles I use as a starting point when editing

  • 2018-10-26 D5100 Ultimate Starter
    • Basecurve: NIKON D5100 2018-01-27 BC
    • LUT and input color profile: D5100 with BC to match JPEG
    • Sharpen: A little bit more than Darktable default
    • Shadows and Highlights: Disabled, but preset to bilateral filter and not to influence shadows
    • Split toning: Disabled, but preset to more warm colors
    • Vignetting: Disabled, but preset to not to influence saturation

How to create these on your own

Basecurve profiling

• No need for special equipment
• Tutorial on Darktable Blog
• README of dt-curve-tool

LUT profiling using IT8 color-checker

• You need to buy an IT8 color-checker with color values files, e.g.

  • X-Rite ColorChecker ($$$ expensive $$$)
  • Affordable alternative: http://targets.coloraid.de/ (you probably want the type C1)
  • Affordable alternative in the Czechia: BST11 | Centrum FotoŠkoda, see jhrdina/danes-picta-bst11-cie-cht for needed .cht and .cie files

• Tutorial by Harry Durgin

• Different one by Shane Milton