Quick Start

You can find the current Darktable version 5.4 here: (https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/releases).

Darktable is (very) extensive. This is a big advantage “later”, but can be overwhelming at the beginning. For a quick and simple start, it is important to concentrate on the essentials.

You can find important help under Preferences.

At the first launch, darktable (DT) looks as follows; here we use a Custom Theme (optional).

If the location of your photos is not listed, click on the “+”, the following view opens:

Confirm the folder containing your collection with “Open“.

This adds the folder with your collection to the locations.

If your collection is organized in subfolders, activate “recursive directory”. If you (like me) do not want to manage or edit your JPEG photos with DT, also activate “ignore non-raw files”.

Start the import with “Add to library“.

DT now displays your photos in the Lighttable.

Open the collections menu at the top left.

With a double click (left mouse button) you open a folder; this displays all photos in the folder including subfolders.

With a click of the left mouse button on a thumbnail, you select a photo.

There are various ways to open the darkroom:

• Click on Darkroom at the top right
• Double click on a photo
• Shortcut

The darkroom looks as follows.

For now, ignore the left side and hide it with the small arrow symbol on the left edge. While we’re at it, let’s create more “space” and try out the arrows at the top and bottom edges.

Now the darkroom should look similar to this; this simplified view is all that is necessary for editing a photo for the moment.

At the top right, under the histogram, is the menu for the module filters.

Quick access group

Active modules

Base processing

Color

Corrections

Effects

For now, let’s look at the “active modules“. The following are ALL important points to reduce the likelihood of problems while editing later.

You probably noticed that my example image already contains some active modules; this is not accidental.

In this theme, a blue symbol means it’s an active module.

There are “optional” modules. Optional means it is not mandatory for viewing a photo on the screen.

Furthermore, there are non-optional modules that are mandatory for viewing. These have a circle with a border.

In the following image you see two special features:

First, the “Exposure” module exists twice. Darktable has the option to provide multiple instances of a module.

This symbol opens the menu for managing the modules.

Second, there is the symbol for masks (square with circle); it indicates that a mask was applied to the Exposure 1 module.

I deliberately do NOT go into the pixelpipe and such at this point; the goal is a basic understanding of the most important steps for editing a photo. (In-depth information from the manual is found here: the pixelpipe & module order.)

On the image to the right, you see the complete current menu for Exposure -> drawn masks.

To add a drawn mask, there are the following options.

The dropdown menu shows “no mask used” because we haven’t drawn a mask yet. Later, drawn shapes/masks can be reused with this.

To the right of the dropdown menu is the “–” symbol, which changes to a “+” with a click. This inverts the drawn mask, or not.

The following menu shows the options for drawn masks.

• Circle
• Ellipse
• Path
• Brush
• Gradient

The rightmost symbol (path with mouse cursor) is for displaying already drawn masks.

Click on the symbol for Ellipse.

Now move the mouse over the desired “target” and confirm with a left-click.

The inner ellipse is the core area of the mask, the dashed ellipse is the area where the mask “feathers” out. At this point, keyboard shortcuts in DT are really useful.

• Right-click with the mouse deletes the mask
• Scrolling (with the mouse) enlarges/reduces the mask (the mouse pointer must be inside the mask)
• Ctrl + Scrolling changes the opacity of the mask
• Shift + Scrolling changes the distance between the core area and the dashed ellipse (feathering)
• Ctrl + Shift + Scrolling rotates the mask

With the “Exposure” slider, you can now change the brightness. The change is limited to your drawn mask.