In the recently released software Darktable 4.2.0, the voluntary developers of the open source software, which is subject to the GPL, have incorporated numerous innovations. Two modules were completely newly developed for this, which is probably why there is no new main version 5.0 yet.
The “Sigmoid” corrections to the gradation curves, which combine some other controls as for the individual RGB channels, are quite innovative. As with other image processing plug-ins, most of which are subject to a fee, you can quickly create a specific look using contrast, color fidelity and saturation. For these values, there are also only three corresponding controls in the Sigmoid module, which photographer Bruce Williams in one of his darktable tutorials demonstrates.
Automatic correction of highlights
The second major innovation is called “highlight reconstruction”, which also describes exactly what it does: overexposed areas that appear purely white or often in an incorrect color can be compensated for. This works best with areas that fade gently into the light, then darktable seems to copy parts of the surrounding image content over the overexposed areas. This then appears less drastic than if only the entire highlights of the picture are reduced.
In addition, there are numerous smaller innovations, which include, among other things, the faster creation of preview images in the various views of the program. Numerous errors are corrected, and the lens correction for distortion and vignetting can now be based on the EXIF data of an image.
Correct raw format is important
And as with all new releases of raw converters, there’s support for more cameras, including Nikon’s Z9 with compressed 14-bit files and Fuji’s compressed raws from the X-H2 and X-T5. The reference to the proprietary compression depending on the manufacturer must be observed, because not all formats are supported by every camera. With the Sonys, for example, Darktable has not generally recognized their lossless format so far.
Darktable 4.2.0 has been released for 64-bit Windows from version 8.1, macOS from version 10.14 and the most common Linux distributions. Details and installation instructions are available on the common download page as well as in the description of Innovations in the blog the developer.
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