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Ansel

ansel.photos

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Re: Ansel

#101

Post by agos »

innovation in raw developing software is always very welcome. my main gripe with basically all of them is that the controls to manipulate colors are very tricky to use for the precise work that color grading requires. "Curves" is still the de facto standard even if it is a usability nightmare, and apparently simple stuff like "take the non saturated, light blues and move them towards cyan" is very hard or straight up impossible in many raw converters. This is especially painful if you compare that to video grading software and its companion LUT building software, where new paradigms to manipulate color has emerged.

I sincerely hope that this is an effort that will bring the state of the art forward - the author's stance on scene referred workflows is a good premise

Re: Ansel

#102

Post by actionfromafar »

kqr wrote: post #88
actionfromafar wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to use Darktable coming from Lightroom, and I have seldom felt as stupid. I just couldn't grasp how Darktable worked.

On the flip side, coming from Darktable and trying out Lightroom felt like trying to do good old darkroom work with my hands tied behind my back. Darktable offers a few really powerful, generic tools that you can use in different ways to get different effects – things like equaliser, parametric masks, LAB curves, etc. It makes little sense to use it without reading up on some of those more advanced tools first. Light…

I mostly tag pictures, adjust exposure, sometimes split toning and contrast, that’s it basically. And cull pictures quickly.

Re: Ansel

#103

Post by merelysounds »

I’ve used Darktable and would happily try Ansel. But in recent years ios compatibility became an important feature for me.

My camera can send raw files to my phone wirelessly, with an ios app I can edit them on site and have a draft ready instantly. This is especially useful for events or anything time sensitive - but convenient in other use cases as well.

Still, I have good memories of Darktable and the author’s filmic module, I hope to try Ansel anyway at some point.

Re: Ansel

#104

Post by naejin »

For those who want to switch to Ansel or Darktable, it's possible to do it in one day with this youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@s7habo The first video you should watch is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsbw98KxMJc Then if you want to learn how to use one of the most powerful feature, parametric masks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfw-GWowH9M

About the Ansel fork, I've used Darktable for 6 years and tried Ansel the last two weeks: if you have never used Darktable, Ansel UX is better for a first time user imo, more streamlined. Keep in mind that I'm biased as I agree with most of the author's points here: https://ansel.photos/en/news/darktable-dans-le-mur-au-ralent...

Re: Ansel

#105

Post by kqr »

actionfromafar wrote: post #102
kqr wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, coming from Darktable and trying out Lightroom felt like trying to do good old darkroom work with my hands tied behind my back. Darktable offers a few really powerful, generic tools that you can use in different ways to get different effects – things like equaliser, parametric masks, LAB curves, etc. It makes little sense to use it without reading up on some of those more advanced tools first. Light…

I mostly tag pictures, adjust exposure, sometimes split toning and contrast, that’s it basically. And cull pictures quickly.

Catalogue management is one of the things I agree Lightroom is better at – at least was, last I was a more active photographer.

Re: Ansel

#106

Post by hef19898 »

nas wrote: post #8

This is the work of a former "darktable" developer (Aurélien Pierre) who decided to fork the codebase and go it alone. He has strong opinions about the correct way to do things. I like some of the cleanup on the UI that he has done. For now, Ansel and darktable are compatible in terms of the underlying database. So you can easily switch back and forth between them. If the fork diverges significantly, it would be more…

It absolutely is, it is what I use for RAW developing and post. Does everything, does it good and is, above all else, non-destructive.

It is, at least of I go by my dad who is a Photoshop veteran, quite different to what he used to.

The only things I could see as, if I am really really critical, are:

- sharpening, usually decent enough but SharpenAI from Topaz is another league. As I said, good enough for all except the edge cases

- de-noising, same as sharpening, astro-denoise works like a charm so

- masks, which I haven't really figure out yet, so my problem and not darktable's, Lightroom and Photoshop seem a tad more intuitive so

One thing I'd love, but again maybe I just didn't find it yet, is the possibility to export the database of picture edits. For now, I have darktable create dedicated files once a photonis edited and I make back-ups of those. I did loose edits for around 100ish photos due to some unrelated issues which required reinstallation of darktable so, which again was on me for missing darktable stopped creating said files after an update. Being to just dump the darktable database of edit data would be really nice so.

Summary, I can only recommend it. Especially for people starting post processing, the learing curve for each software is basically the same after all, and without prior knowledge they wont recognize any differences.

Re: Ansel

#107

Post by hef19898 »

kqr wrote: post #88
actionfromafar wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to use Darktable coming from Lightroom, and I have seldom felt as stupid. I just couldn't grasp how Darktable worked.

On the flip side, coming from Darktable and trying out Lightroom felt like trying to do good old darkroom work with my hands tied behind my back. Darktable offers a few really powerful, generic tools that you can use in different ways to get different effects – things like equaliser, parametric masks, LAB curves, etc. It makes little sense to use it without reading up on some of those more advanced tools first. Light…

You are most likely both right, because it mirrors my experience everytime I look at Photoshop/Lightroom when my dad does things and when looks at darktable when I do things.

Re: Ansel

#108

Post by hef19898 »

codeptualize wrote: post #42
nas wrote: post #8

This is the work of a former "darktable" developer (Aurélien Pierre) who decided to fork the codebase and go it alone. He has strong opinions about the correct way to do things. I like some of the cleanup on the UI that he has done. For now, Ansel and darktable are compatible in terms of the underlying database. So you can easily switch back and forth between them. If the fork diverges significantly, it would be more…

> "Ansel is what Darktable 4.0 could have been if its developers were not so busy turning it into an usability nightmare. Ansel is a Darktable 4.0 variant where 30.000 lines of poorly-written code and half-broken features have been removed, and 11.000 lines rewritten : it runs faster, smoother, uses less power and requires less configuration. Enjoy an app focusing on getting work done and stability." Shots fired!

As a darktable user, I have to say none of that would motivate me to switch.

But then I care about the results, a nice picture to print or look at on a screen, way way more than about the tools used to get that result. Goes for cameras and lenses and whatnot as well.

Re: Ansel

#109

Post by jval43 »

merelysounds wrote: post #103

I’ve used Darktable and would happily try Ansel. But in recent years ios compatibility became an important feature for me. My camera can send raw files to my phone wirelessly, with an ios app I can edit them on site and have a draft ready instantly. This is especially useful for events or anything time sensitive - but convenient in other use cases as well. Still, I have good memories of Darktable and the author’s fil…

For personal photos, integration with the iOS Photos library is something I'd like to see from more apps. RAW Power is pretty much the only raw editor that integrates well, without needing to copy files around and creating duplicates.

Re: Ansel

#110

Post by actionfromafar »

kqr wrote: post #105
actionfromafar wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly tag pictures, adjust exposure, sometimes split toning and contrast, that’s it basically. And cull pictures quickly.

Catalogue management is one of the things I agree Lightroom is better at – at least was, last I was a more active photographer.

It’s not stellar, but it doesn’t suck, and I haven’t been forced to upgrade.

Maybe I will never migrate off LR and just create a new catalog on some other computer with Ansel or something.

I use the last version of LR6 one could purchase outright, and I dragged it kicking and screaming all the way into Ventura, but I’m sure the party well end pretty soon.

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