A selection of Darktable Styles

Darktable has its own presets that are known as Styles. They’re a powerful and useful part of editing in Darktable, and they can be great starting points to give your images a consistent look and feel. As a major contributor to Fujifilm film simulation “recipes”, it’s been at the back of my mind for a while to create a set of useful colour modifying presets to Darktable. Here I present my first 14 Styles (updated to V1.1 with tweaks to improve performance 14/10/22), including a modification to give a filmic look.

Before you start

Many, if not all Styles currently available are based on older versions of Darktable, and use many deprecated modules. These new Styles that I have put together assume your default workspace is for the newer “Scene Referred” workspace to ensure they are compatible with all the newest versions of Darktable.

Ideally, there are a few steps you should take just before, and just after applying the Style required (however because of the nature of the modules in use, it isn’t always a necessity).

For optimum results I would advise:
1. Turn on your lens correction module.
2. Make adjustments to your horizon level.
3. Crop the image as required.

4. Choose your desired Style from the 14 available on this page.

5. Adjust the exposure module and filmic module (white relative exposure and black relative exposure is a must, contrast is up to you).

Next steps

The look is now complete and you can tweak your image from here. The saturation (30) and chroma (15) are deliberately set to the level they are at initially. The way I’ve developed the DtStyles needs initial saturation. If you find the levels a bit too much on certain images, go into the Colour Zones module and reduce the opacity slightly.

Certain Styles work better with certain subjects, although of course, you can use them as you see fit. As a guide, this is their suggested use.

The example images within the Darktable screenshots below were created by double clicking on the desired Style in the Styles option on the right of the lightable and are initially raw files with no corrections. Where a Style is a bit more specific (such as Autumnal and Sunset Bliss), interactive examples have been used so you can see a side-by-side comparison of a base corrected image and one with the colour zone (final Style) applied.

Autumnal – For landscapes.
This is a subtle change to colours, turning greens to more autumnal colours. Adjust Colour Zones to correct shades as needed. Adjust saturation and chroma to affect it intensity. (See downloads at the bottom of this page for an alternative Style called “Autumniser” which I made a while ago using the older Look Up Table module) Many more images from this DT Style can be found here.

Chrome It! – General photography.
Based on Fujifilm Classic Chrome, this Style works on most images for that Fujifilm look to your images. Many more images from this DtStyle can be seen by clicking here.

Crimson Boost – Enhance reds in images.
A subtle tweak in the colour palette that boosts the reds in images to give them a pop. Ideal for most forms of photography.

Desaturate – General photography.
This is an artistic Style, bringing you a desaturated look to images, with tweaks to the brightness of the colours.

Futureist – Architectural and landscapes with sunny blue skies.
Give your images a modern look, transforming them into something very special. The sky needs to be blue in these images to get the benefit. Reds, orange and yellows are also affected. Many more images from this DtStyle can be found here.

Grey Skies To Blue – Turn those grey skies blue!
Does what it says, it turns grey skies into blue skies! Adjust the Colour Zones modules opacity if you want to tweak the shade of blue.

Magenta Skies – Landscapes and architecture with blue skies.
Turn blue skies to a lovely shade in this artistic Style.

Mono Chrome – General photography.
A black and white, monochrome Style that targets various brightness’s for different colours. A great overall monochrome for most images.

Mono Infraredish – Landscape
Daytime skies become very dark, while plants and grass become white. Different intensities give an Infraredish monochrome look.

Pastel – General photography
Inspired by more pastel shades, Pastel is great for most types of photography. With a look similar to Fujifilm cameras Provia, it’s a great all-rounder. Many more images from this DtStyle can be seen by clicking here.

Preety – Beaches and sunny days
For use on beach photos on sunny days, this is an artistic Style that can be used as a starting point for bright, high contrast colour image.

Sunset Bliss – Landscape sunsets
Refine your sunset images with this subtle change to blues and oranges.

Velviatic – Landscapes, Flowers, Architecture
A bright and colourful Style that is heavily influenced by Fujifilm Velvia. It’s really good for a number of types of photography, if you need to adjust it, change the opacity of the colour zones module. Many more images using this DtStyle can be seen by clicking here.

Modifier

I’ve included the “film modifier” Style called “Magenta Film (Add To Look)”. This can be added on top of the main 13 individual DtStyles above, or used as its own, 14th Style. It adds some split toning, giving images a look of an old colour film. You can adjust the intensity of this by adjusting the opacity in the RGB module. This modifier can make big, positive differences to modules such as Autumnal, so it’s well worth experimenting.

Base Settings

I’ve also included a base settings Style that can be added as point 4 (in the instructions) instead of one of the preset colour versions. This applies the base settings without the colour zones module being active. This can be useful and save you time when editing from scratch.

Final words

Some people consider Darktable to be quite difficult, even after a lot of practise. These styles are just meant to give you starting points to your work, or used “as-is” if you want. I am partial to using the Chrome It! and Pastel Styles in most of my edits, along with Velviatic which I find works really well on flowers and landscapes.

Use them to learn about Darktable, or use them as a tool to create your images. However you use these, just enjoy using Darktable and feel free to share this article with others.

Downloads

Download the .DtStyle (V1.1) files safely here.

Download Autumniser older .DtStyle here.

Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoy these. If you do, you can support me by looking around this website, or a donation via PayPal to mgadams1970@gmail.com really helps! Thank you!

More Darktable articles by me include… Ultimate Darktable Resource & Guide, Quickly Get A Workable Image In Darktable and Why Darktable Is Perfect For Fujifilm Users plus many more on my blogs section!

See me using my Styles as I edit four images in Darktable…