Alternative B&W Processing

[TheDude]

I gave DT a try too, and unfortunately for me couldn't find anything better than in ASP. Even my lenses aren't calibrated in DT (except my 24-70 2.8 AFS, but ASP supports it too).

There seems to be a bug in their light table section as this is where the program goes into a working mode and never leaves it. So, I have deleted the program from my HD.

Please don't forget that DT is an open source project. By nature such projects are primarily driven by the demands of the developers. Nevertheless, they allow everyone to use their excellent software for free. Even as a user, who has no coding skills, you can help to improve DT. For example, if you find your lens being not calibrated, you might want to read this: http://www.darktable.org/2013/07/have-y ... alibrated/ You just have to follow the instructions carefully to take some calibration pictures and a lens profile will be created for you and the entire community (lensfun project). I think making some useful calibration pictures is a quite reasonable effort.
Or if you think that there is a bug, contact the developers and other users via mailing list. Ask politely if they can help you. In case it was not just a simple misconfiguration of your own system, you can probably help to fix a bug by providing useful information. They will tell you how to receive such information. Again the effort for this is quite low and you and other users will probably benefit by having a working DT installation afterwards. So if you were actually interested in using DT, removing it from your HD just because you assume that there is a bug won't help anyone.

[grcolts]

I gave DT a try too, and unfortunately for me couldn't find anything better than in ASP. Even my lenses aren't calibrated in DT (except my 24-70 2.8 AFS, but ASP supports it too).

There seems to be a bug in their light table section as this is where the program goes into a working mode and never leaves it. So, I have deleted the program from my HD.

Please don't forget that DT is an open source project. By nature such projects are primarily driven by the demands of the developers. Nevertheless, they allow everyone to use their excellent software for free. Even as a user, who has no coding skills, you can help to improve DT. For example, if you find your lens being not calibrated, you might want to read this: http://www.darktable.org/2013/07/have-y ... alibrated/ You just have to follow the instructions carefully to take some calibration pictures and a lens profile will be created for you and the entire community (lensfun project). I think making some useful calibration pictures is a quite reasonable effort.
Or if you think that there is a bug, contact the developers and other users via mailing list. Ask politely if they can help you. In case it was not just a simple misconfiguration of your own system, you can probably help to fix a bug by providing useful information. They will tell you how to receive such information. Again the effort for this is quite low and you and other users will probably benefit by having a working DT installation afterwards. So if you were actually interested in using DT, removing it from your HD just because you assume that there is a bug won't help anyone.

Replied earlier but for some reason it looks like it did not post?
Anyway, your reply is duly noted. As time permits, I will download DT once again and see if it continues to be a problem. If so, I will let DT know my situation.
I noticed Apple today released a new update to their OS Mavericks so maybe that will make a difference. Can't hurt to try.

GR

[FalCT60]

Yes, I read those pages and really wanted to contribute by sending pictures taken with my nikkor 20 f/2.8 AIS, 500 f/8 AIS, 50 f/1.4 AF (not D!) and 70-200 AFS VRII, and my Tokina 28-70 f/2.6-2.8.
Unfortunately for me, I couldn't find a suitable target where I live. No steel and glass buildings, only stone for old houses and concrete for "modern" buildings. Nothing that can offer me straight lines, only portions of lines with no alignment between each other.
That's for lens calibration problems, let's come back to DT itself.
I didn't (mean to) criticize DT. It's a free software and, as most such ones, certainly costs its developers their free time.
And, as I can't (= don't know how to) use it correctly, the little I did it didn't allow me to find much differences compared to ASP, which I'm more accustomed to.
I do respect the work and investment of DT's developers, but I'd rather see Corel do their best so ASP becomes the leader it ought to be for long (I hope I really wrote what I meant...).
That stated, if (when) Corel happens to trick us into flour by selling us a degraded version of ASP, then if DT guys still are there and offer us a sw as powerful as ASP ought to be, and guarantee us they will support it for many years, then I'll be happy to pay for it the same amount Corel sells ASP.
But I will stop there, because I would have too much to add and too few skill in english to express it.

Regards,

J.-Luc

[grcolts]

I gave DT a try too, and unfortunately for me couldn't find anything better than in ASP. Even my lenses aren't calibrated in DT (except my 24-70 2.8 AFS, but ASP supports it too).

There seems to be a bug in their light table section as this is where the program goes into a working mode and never leaves it. So, I have deleted the program from my HD.

Please don't forget that DT is an open source project. By nature such projects are primarily driven by the demands of the developers. Nevertheless, they allow everyone to use their excellent software for free. Even as a user, who has no coding skills, you can help to improve DT. For example, if you find your lens being not calibrated, you might want to read this: http://www.darktable.org/2013/07/have-y ... alibrated/ You just have to follow the instructions carefully to take some calibration pictures and a lens profile will be created for you and the entire community (lensfun project). I think making some useful calibration pictures is a quite reasonable effort.
Or if you think that there is a bug, contact the developers and other users via mailing list. Ask politely if they can help you. In case it was not just a simple misconfiguration of your own system, you can probably help to fix a bug by providing useful information. They will tell you how to receive such information. Again the effort for this is quite low and you and other users will probably benefit by having a working DT installation afterwards. So if you were actually interested in using DT, removing it from your HD just because you assume that there is a bug won't help anyone.

Replied earlier but for some reason it looks like it did not post?
Anyway, your reply is duly noted. As time permits, I will download DT once again and see if it continues to be a problem. If so, I will let DT know my situation.
I noticed Apple today released a new update to their OS Mavericks so maybe that will make a difference. Can't hurt to try.

GR

Well, since my my last post I downloaded DT again and discovered the same problem. So, I went to their website and found a listing of known bugs. My problem had already been posted and apparently is scheduled for an update. In the meantime, I found a work-a-round for the problem which has let me discover lots more about DT. It will take me some time to figure everything out but I can do a quick workflow with it and get really good results. All in all, I have to say DT is a program worth having on my computer. Even if I don't use it as my main PP engine, I can still take advantage of its capabilities. I cannot process images as quickly as I can in ASP so what I will probably do is use ASP for quick processing and then use DT for tweaking images, especially those I want to use as monochrome. The monochrome tools in DT are very nice indeed. Plus, the spot removal tool is one of the best I have used in any program. I think between ASP (soon for me ASP2) and DT I should be able to do whatever I would like with an image. Looking forward to using and learning both programs.
GR