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Darktable: Introduction, installation and interface

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Hello friends, my name is Jen0f0nte

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and I welcome you to a series of video tutorials about darktable.

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darktable is a software for RAW development [and photography work-flow];

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if you are a digital photography fans

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you will know what I mean with this "RAW development".

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If you do not know, but you like photography,

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you need to know this:

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power-on your cameras;

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if it is a more advanced camera will have an option to select the file format for the photos you'll take.

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Usually, the default format is JPG.

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This format is the result of a series of operations carried out by the camera,

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resulting in a compressed file with the information derived from the internal development process.

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The quality of this image is enough to see it in the computer screen and to print it.

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That is, the average user will not need more from that file.

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However, if you want to go a little further and you move into the world of retouching,

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you'll find that this format is a bit short, and the results are often quite poor.

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I will not go further in this matter, because is technically complex.

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Suffice is to say that if you are lucky, your camera will have an option to save photos in RAW format.

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Maybe you find it by other names, NEF, CR2, etc.

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all these file extensions concern the RAW format and depend on each manufacturer.

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What matters is that the data of the image is not processed by the camera's internal software, is data as the sensor receives it, and contains a lot of information.

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This you can easily verify by checking the size, in bytes, of the file and comparing it to the same image in jpg format.

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This format, in order to be seen on web pages or printed, need to be developed (like a digital negative) by ourselves using a specific software.

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The advantages of doing this are enormous if we intend to give a personal touch to our photos or just improve the results of the shoot.

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This is impossible in jpg.

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believe me, the results can be surprising, depending on the quality of your camera and, of course, of each picture.

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There are plenty of programs to do this digital photo development.

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The most common are Lightroom and Aperture.

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Both are really good programs, and used by professional photographers. However, they have a "problem":

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they are commercial programs and therefore cost money (and is not little).

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Some people turn to more or less clumsy solutions to use this software without paying. Well, there are two reasons not to do this.

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For one thing it's illegal and secondly seriously compromises the security of your system.

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Remember this: every time you use a crack or serial generator program you'll expose yourself to serious infections of viruses in your system.

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The decision depends on each one. I love photography and in fact, I started using these programs.

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But gradually I realized that using these programs is not worth it if there are free alternatives. Darktable is one of them.

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The program is very complete and I assure you that the results are truly professional. However, because it is so complex, it is not easy to understand at first.

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It contains many modules, plugins and options. And this can be complex and confusing to a beginner.

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So I decided to start this series of video tutorials, hoping that will inspire you to start with developing digital photos and to use open software.

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This series will consist of several parts. Today's chapter is only dedicated to the installation and to a general overview of the interface.

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In the remaining chapters we will go deeper into the use of the program, its many options and possibilities, in much detail as possible.

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I'm not a professional photographer, but very enthusiastic, so I hope that my explanations will satisfy you.

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The software and the web.

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Here you see the interface of the program;

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for whom have ever used Lightroom you will notice the resemblance to the Adobe program interface,

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the truth is that they are quite similar in general.

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It is quite attractive visually, which is appreciated, and it is different from other GNU-Linux programs.

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This program is only available for Linux and Mac,

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so those of you with Windows will have to make room for a partition on your hard drive for a Linux distro

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and that way you introduce yourself to open and free software.

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For installation, always recommend going to the web page of the software. This is the page, darktable.org, where you can find all the information.

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The page is very minimalist, very simple, as the program's own interface.

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The most interesting of this page: here's the section of the development team,

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a fairly complete team led by Johannes Hanika,

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a German university professor [I think...].

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As with all open software production, we can help with various contributions:

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ranslations, color matrix of your camera, code, comments and opinions through various means indicated in the development section of the website.

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Another feature of this program, common in open software, is the frequency of updates. In proprietary software updates are usually long,

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as they release to the public only stable versions or the ones that have undergone a long process of update.

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In open software the iterations are more common, so you should be aware to know what new features that are incorporated,

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through the news section.

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Lets jump to the installation:

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in the install section is perfectly explained how to do it;

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as I said earlier, there is no version available for Windows,

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I have to say I have not tried the Mac version, so I can not say if it works well or not,

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so I appreciate any comments if any of you has been able to test it on this platform.

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Here are the different flavors available: Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Arch, Gentoo ...

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You can also download the source code and compile it for your specific distribution.

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In terms of specifications, there are a list of the required dependencies when installing from source

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or from a non-automated installation system.

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The developers recommend using a 64-bit operating system, and the fact is that the difference is quite noticeable in performance.

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You see, I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 and I only know well the installation details on this platform.

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I recommend using the PPA.

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For those who do not know, the PPA is a server hosting programs and updates

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and allows us to be aware of the updates permanently.

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Generally, versions of Ubuntu have their own repository, with programs that are updated as Ubuntu developers test their stability in the system.

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Through the PPA we can have the software permanently updated.

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To install the PPA repository, you just have to open a terminal using CTRL + ALT + T, and type the following commands

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(look at the video description to cut and paste directly into your terminal)

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(here are some boring explanations about “sudo” and other concepts, just for newbies)

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I recommend the PPA Plus release, containing some extra content.

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The upgrade process holding the command sudo apt-get update can take time, depending on the number of dependencies and repositories that you have already installed.

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The program will be installed in a few seconds, and it takes up very little space, as most of the GNU-Linux programs.

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The installation will result that the program will be available in the Graphics section of your program list

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or, as a launcher in the controversial Unity bar

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Ah! Another thing on the page:

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in section Resources you can find more information about the program,

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including a complete on-line manual or in pdf.

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A wiki with a guidance maybe a little technical.

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The manual is in multiple languages, but not in Spanish (pledging for translators)

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Here is the manual,

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is fairly complete and I like it,

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so I will use it as a base for this series (some complaints about the lack of a Spanish version).

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There is also links to other screencast in English,

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and the camera compatibility list.

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There are actually a large number of supported cameras, but the level of fidelity in the results can change from one to another.

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Here we encounter the problem that the RAW formats are proprietary to each brand,

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so the job of analyzing the information of each file must be reverse engineered,

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which gives a lot of work.

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I have a Nikon D60 and the results are quite similar to those I achieved in Lightroom.

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We spent the last part of today's tutorial at the overall program interface.

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As I said before, is very similar to Lightroom,

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because of the layout in three columns:

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on left is more general information,

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a central panel showing the photographs that we have imported,

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and a panel on the right with the plugins.

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Around these main panels we find small collapsible panels.

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In the top corner to the right you have another element very similar to Lightroom,

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access to the different modes of work available to the program in this version:

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Lighttable, darkroom and tethering.

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The mode Lighttable contains plugins for general management for the photo library:

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making sessions, tag, picture s ratings...

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the typical work of a photographer to have their collection organized.

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The darkroom mode we have plugins for the digital development,

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on which I will not speak yet because it would be too much for this chapter,

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one important thing that I will say, especially if you plan to install the program immediately,

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is that in the «more plugins» is where you have access to all the darkroom plugins,

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which by default are not active in the different panels

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The plugins are represented by very minimalist icons,

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so to know what each one is, I recommend leaving the mouse over each of them and wait until you see the name.

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Plugins are very numerous and also (and this is very important),

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many of them may be redundant,

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that is, you can get similar results using one or the other but their interface is very different.

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This is an advantage, as it gives the photographer freedom to operate those tools with which you feel most comfortable.

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In the upper panel icons have access to the different plugins groups:

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a group of active plugins, indicating those being used in each photograph;

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a favorite group, where are the plugins selected by the user;

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a basic group,

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with tools aimed at controlling exposure, framing, etc.;

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a tone group, a color group, a correction group and an effect group.

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We will see all these groups in detail, in the next chapter

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In the next video we will see the most basic edition

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and the combinations of keyboard shortcuts to facilitate the use of the software.

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This is darktable, I will continue in the next chapter,

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you see that this is going to last long,

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hope you enjoyed it, greetings!

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