Raw-file to Black and white photo in Darktable

Ok, here comes a little tuto on how I do my BW conversions:

First of all, I shoot RAW, always!
Then my OS is Ubuntu (15.04) so I don't have Lightroom or Photoshop, so my weapons of choice are Shotwell to import the RAW files from my camera, Darktable for processing of the RAW files and finally The Gimp for anything that goes behind RAW processing. All three are included in the Ubuntu distro and free.

First I open the Raw file in Darktable:

Darktable automatically does some pre-processing, sharpening and applying the Base Curve. Sharpening is ok, but the Base Curve is modifying the image in a way you might like or not (I don't!). My guess is, that this option is supposed to make it look like the preview on your camera screen.

So let us de-activate the Base Curve!

The image immediately becomes less vibrant, but don't panic, that's ok for the moment, we'll change that!

For the moment we go to the Levels module.
When de-activating the Base Curve you may find that the histogram shows empty spaces on the bright (right) side or the dark (left) side or both. You can either double click on the Auto button or adjust it manually by dragging the dark and/or the light triangle to the beginning/end of the histogram curve.

Next step, we adjust the Tone Curve:

I always start with the dark (lower) part, just click on the bright line and drag it down a bit to give more punch to the blacks, but keep the part behind the anchor still in a curve.

Now to the bright (upper) part, as you see, I set the anchor point farther away from the top and the "almost flat" part in front of the anchor is longer than the dark part.
This brightens a bit the midtones and makes the clouds "pop", but be careful not to burn out the whites!
Depending on the image you may want/have to add more anchor points in the middle part of the curve, but here it looks good to me with the "simple" S curve.

I crank up a bit the Saturation,

add some Vibrancy

and Clarity in the Equalizer module by either using the Clarity preset or adjusting the Edges curve manually.

Next step the Monochrome module! Adjust the circle with your mouse wheel to include only four squares

and drag it a bit around the center to see what happens (you get realtime update) without getting too close to the borders, which can give a dull outcome. I prefered these settings.

Finally, a bit of cropping (or not). Again that depends the image and your taste!

And off we go to export our bw photo!

And here is the final result:

Waiting for the sun

Another grey day here in Bordeaux, another black 'n white day. Shot in RAW, conversion to bw done in Darktable.

Shades of sunday

A grey sunday afternoon, almost flat light, springtime colours still not there, so I shot BW:

Smart phone camera photos

As promised, some photos shot with the Galaxy S3!

Old tech, new tech

I think I have already said that the day I re-started with photography, I was more than surprised by the lack of invention and really new cameras on the market.

Don’t understand me wrong, I stopped photography for a couple of reasons in 1995 and almost every camera was an analogue camera, I used film every day. The next time I started to look again into photography was two years ago when I got my Galaxy S3.

Oh I can hear you: Wtf! A smart phone camera is not really a camera! Well, let me put it this way, it is a real camera! It is not a DSLR for sure, but it is at least a point and shoot camera. I used and still use «A Better Camera» instead of the stock app and can’t imagine anything else because of its features and ease of use.

You can have a grid on the screen to help composing your photo, can have a horizon to keep it level, see the histogram and ... and ... and ... Lots of great features to help you make (technically) better photos. Took hundreds of photos with it, and honestly, I have created more crap with a «real» camera. I may post some of them sometime.

So when I looked for a DSLR I was baffled by the lack of such features all over the market. I mean, guys, it is twenty years later, and the only real difference is, the film is replaced by a sensor! I exaggerate, of course there is more than that, but the cameras still look like a bloody «last century camera». There is a sensor in it, why do they still use a shutter, mirror and prism? Where is the cool SF stuff like remote control over a second screen from 10 m distance, where is the connection to a Wifi hotspot or network?

I could see hundreds of things that could have been done to make a camera to a real 21st century tool. Not because I have a fertile fantasy, no, because I have had it already in my smart phone! And there are people out there with 10 000$ equipment with outdated features and techniques, telling me I don’t use a real camera?!

Lately there are some new cameras coming out, mirror-less, connected, with a new approach. Namely the Samsung NX 1 and NX 30 (there are others of course, but my eyes got caught by these). And when I look on the web, the usual suspects (aka the camera testing sites) compare a 1500$ body to 5000$ DSLR bodies, new tech to old tech. They test them in the same way as they would test any other DSLR, of course you need to see how fast the AF works, but I have yet to see a test of the remote control possibility via an app on smart phone or tablet.

Well, as soon as money allows, the NX 1 will be mine, the camera who does almost everything I have dreamed of!

Bordeaux photo walk

While waiting for the sun to show up I took a walk in Bordeaux: