December 6, 2025
What is it about?
Every lens has physical weaknesses. Wide-angle lenses often distort the image in a barrel shape (lines bend outwards), telephoto lenses in a pincushion shape. In addition, almost all lenses are slightly darker in the corners than in the center (vignetting). This module corrects these errors fully automatically.
How does it work?
Darktable relies on a huge database (Lensfun). It reads exactly which camera and lens you used from the metadata of your photo and applies the appropriate correction profile.
The three corrections:
- Distortion: Makes crooked lines straight again.
- TCA (Transversal Chromatic Aberration): Another method against color fringes.
- Vignetting: Brightens the dark corners.
How to apply it:
Simply turn it on! In 99% of cases, Darktable automatically detects your equipment and the image immediately “jumps” into the correct shape.
Tip:
If you consciously want to keep the “look” of an old lens (e.g., the dark corners), you can deactivate individual corrections (e.g., only “Vignetting”) in the module.