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:

Changing the OS

So here are some thoughts about changing OS:

I have been using different versions of Windows for ages (twenty years or more), the worst have been Windows Millennium and Vista, the best Windows XP and Windows 7 (my last version). But there have always been moments when updates broke some functions or programs I rely on. Very bad and not good for the peace of mind!

So when it happened again after installing a new hard disk, it was the straw that broke the donkey’s back. I have been looking at Ubuntu for a while, found the look of it pleasing (don’t laugh, that is something important for me!) and heard nothing but good things from serious sources. I was just too lazy to search for replacements for my Windows apps and to dive into a new OS and so I jumped on the occasion when I had to re-install 7 to change completely.

I downloaded Ubuntu 14.04, created a bootable USB stick and off I went. Windows installation have often been a long and boring procedure, taking more than an hour, so I was positively surprised when it only took less than 15 minutes and I was up and running.

The biggest problem was finding the Linux equivalent of the Windows programs I have been using, even in the Software Centre there are hundreds of apps, often more than 3 for the (supposedly) same task! I spent hours on the web, reading tests for the apps to choose the right one and when I thought I had nailed it I often found after installation that the UI was just not to my liking (to put it politely).

So after two weeks I had almost everything, the only thing missing are the Adobe Creative Cloud apps, Adobe does not have a Linux version of it and as it goes, will never do one and it does not work in WINE, the Windows environment for Linux. No more Photoshop or Lightroom!

For importing RAW files from my camera I use Shotwell, to work them there is Darktable, almost better than Lightroom for the developing, far less good when it comes to cataloguing and managing the photos. I can go with that.

Replacing Photoshop is different, in Linux you seem to have The Gimp or ... The Gimp!

And I don’t like the UI, it just don’t click with me!

So my big work of the next weeks: Learn to love and use The Gimp! 

You must be kidding!

Ok, I have been quiet for a while, two reasons for that:

1. One of my harddisks died suddenly, the one with the OS partition and we had other, more important things to do than buying a new one.

2. When I got the new one (1tb) I reinstalled Windows 7, all my software and wanted to start working on the Martinique photos when a Windows update broke some stuff and I had to start anew. And this happened twice!

So I was boiling! Ready to kick my computer out of the window (no pun intended).

I took a long walk, calmed down and decided to take another route. I dl'ed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64bit and installed it using an USB stick, which worked just great, took about 20 minutes.

There was a time to get used to the new OS, hunting down Linux software to replace my Windows stuff. The bad news Adobe's CC does not work under Linux, nor using Wine!

Well, I found Shotwell and Darktable to replace Lightroom, no sweat here. Especially Darktable is a great app to work and develop RAW files, really!

And to replace Photoshop? Well there really is only The Gimp! And I can't say that I like it, it will take a long time before I get used to the UI (hoping that some day before that Adobe may decide to make a Linux version of Photoshop and Lightroom, and yes I know, hell will freeze over before).

To make it short, I am up and running again and there will be more stuff in the next days and weeks, especially photos from Martinique, my experience with Ubuntu and the apps I use, new photos and so on.

So hang in, the blog will go on!