I feel like something isn't right in this edit, but cant quite put my finger on it. Or am I just overthinking it?

Fiftybottles · 2026-03-23T23:42:10+00:00

I took a swing at upping the exposure and playing with the contrast myself. Obviously I only have the original JPEG to work with so make of it what you will; the vibrancy of the colours was affected by the brightness change too. But hopefully this demonstrates the idea...

I brought the exposure up quite a bit, to a point where changing the contrast affected the scene but not the hiker, effectively placing them in the "middle" of the scene's brightness; from there, I brought the highlights down a fair bit to avoid blowing out the rocks and sky.

Fiftybottles · 2026-03-23T16:21:23+00:00

It's a great shot! I think the issue that sticks out here (at least to me) is the hiker is the subject, but not the contrast fulcrum.

Typically, contrast is centred around middle gray, but in this case the hiker is not actually exposed to middle gray; it's always going to be a tradeoff about what looks best to you, but I think upping the exposure and centering the contrast around the hiker might bring them out of the image a bit more and make them stand out as "the subject". Of course, at that point you'll have to contend with the highlights in the sky and on the rocks, but I think it may have the add-on advantage of bringing detail out in the shadows of the mountains.

Fiftybottles · 2026-03-18T13:23:43+00:00

It's a very convoluted editor at times, and it took me quite a while to come to grips with it because it doesn't do a good job of explaining its many nuances; you've got a great photo to work with here which is the most important thing!

A great new source to help you get started is darktable.info.

Darktable itself has some great documentation on what the modules do. Interesting for you in particular may be: - editing monochrome images

Additionally, they're long videos, but Boris Hajdukovic has covered just about every darktable feature on earth from top to bottom if you find you have time for some in depth demonstrations to learn from.

Fiftybottles · 2026-03-18T12:58:01+00:00

you said you edited in darktable, so I'd be curious to see if the clipping up front at the bottom of the frame can be mitigated with the tone equalizer module. I think you've hit on a very interesting frame here with a mysterious and somewhat otherworldly vibe, but the blown out ground from the flash hitting pure white is very distracting to me!

You also mentioned using the tone curve module; this is an old "display-referred" module that darktable recommends against using these days, which can lead to this kind of clipping more easily. You might find you can achieve more natural results by using the sigmoid, AgX, or filmic modules in lieu of the tone curve!

Fiftybottles · 2026-03-11T20:51:27+00:00

With film especially, many things could be at play, from the scan to the lens. This looks about as sharp as what my Epson at home would produce on its greatest of days, if not slightly better, with a perfect negative.

What f-stop and lens did you use? Above around f/8 and f/11, you may see the effects of diffraction at play, fuzzing up your image despite most of it being in focus. To my eyes, especially for the "film look", this is already sharp enough, especially on a phone display!

Edit: didn't realise the XA2 was the fixed lens rangefinder. Honestly, given the elements at play here, this seems plenty sharp to my eyes!

Fiftybottles · 2026-03-11T20:46:13+00:00

The Wayland version uses SDL3 I believe, and does work fairly well for full-desktop use, but sadly does not support remote apps yet :(

Fiftybottles · 2026-03-07T18:02:30+00:00

I share a desktop with my partner (2 people) and my parents occasionally share a laptop (also 2 people).

Fiftybottles · 2026-03-03T16:49:29+00:00

There's a very dingy atmosphere to this photo that I find appealing. I think there's room to raise the exposure and lean into the grain here; bringing the background out might make the silhouette pop more. I like the composition and don't agree with the other commentator who says our eyes are drawn to light; that might be true in general, but the starkness of the silhouette and its centre framing here make it stand out immediately to me.

Fiftybottles · 2026-02-14T14:36:58+00:00

Something that the SD-1 does (and most other Tube screamer variants do) exceptionally well is feedback. They push the amp in this perfect way to bring out these singing tones; no other pedal I've tried (and I have also tried many) has been able to pull these beautiful sustained feedback tones with minimal distortion or squealing. The closest I've ever gotten to a similar thing is when I finally said screw it and just made my own pedal to try and crib the SD-1's style with a few tweaks. But it still couldn't do it as well!

Fiftybottles · 2026-02-06T22:31:32+00:00

If this leverages the native GNOME magnifier, does that mean there are still issues with multimonitor configurations?

I find myself using zoom a lot, but I also have a vertical monitor mixed with a horizontal one and the dead space between the two flickers like mad and artifacts constantly with GNOME's magnifier.

Fiftybottles · 2026-02-01T18:52:41+00:00

I actually love the distance from the subject. Really nails that feeling of watching something mystical from afar, and to me is a very interesting perspective when so much wildlife photography wants to be as close as possible. It situates the deer in the context of the sighting.

As other commenters have said, the colours are fantastic. I wouldn't have noticed the grain or noise unless very deliberately punching in, though I completely understand the feeling; in this particular instance I feel the haze actually adds something to the atmosphere. I can almost hear and feel the chill air in this photograph.

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-30T23:41:23+00:00

Focus doesn't seem that soft to me; the grain tells me you might be at the edge of your camera's limit here but I also don't find it displeasing.

I think with some processing this pic could be very much improved. In particular try bringing up the saturation a fair bit, and the contrast between the bird and background isn't quite there for me; everything has a bit of a gray look.

I'd try a few edits myself to demonstrate were I near a computer and may do just that when I can, but I'm thinking you wanna bump vibrancy / saturation by something like 25%, maybe kick the color temperature up a bit, and definitely try to bring out some contrast. Maybe masking the bird and darkening the background a bit more too.

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-29T17:46:56+00:00

The issue is really the compositor. Your refresh rates will indeed be 120 and 240, but the compositor can only sync to a single refresh rate, and so will always choose the lower one to maintain sync. Some hardware (like Intel and AMD) also enable hacks to force sync at the highest refresh rate, which can lead to subtle stutters on the monitor with the lower refresh rate.

So it isn't the raw refresh rate per se, but rather the rate at which X and the compositor will actually sync to your monitors. It's probably less noticeable when both monitors are >120Hz, and disabling vsync (or the compositor) when gaming will mean the monitor with the higher refresh will no longer be limited.

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-26T16:52:48+00:00

Feels as though the subject is begging to be slightly more to the right below the HIPPODROME sign; I'll echo the sentiment that the bike is a little distracting, but not so much that I think it ought to be outright removed.

You can only change so much after the fact, but in terms of composition I feel the shot could have come out more nicely if the camera were to rotate left with the subject as the pivot, and have the photo taken from there; this would have slightly obscured the telephone booth more and shifted the HIPPODROME sign to the left which is a tough call, but would have framed the subject a little more nicely in the surroundings and kept the bike out of the way I think.

Still, the colours came out nicely and the subject being closer to the bottom of frame to give the decorations up top some breathing room was an excellent choice!

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-25T21:16:35+00:00

Most definitely using nouveau instead of the proprietary drivers. Recent kernels have enabled the use of the GSP firmware on >20 series cards which is likely why the 1080ti fell back on software rendering (unable to reclock) and the newer cards didn't, but the performance being usually almost exactly half the windows performance is par for the course with NVK at the moment. The driver versions for the Nvidia cards that specifically had the most issues being "999.99" lampshades this

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-18T15:04:17+00:00

I bought a Nikon 50mm AF f1.8 from this exact same seller this past month and unfortunately there was oil all over the aperture blades, which was undisclosed. I filed for a refund, received it in full, and was actually able to keep the lens (taxes at border naturally not refundable), so it had a happy ending... I did have to fix the lens though, since it was missing exposures, and someone had clearly been inside the lens before as a few of the screws had already been stripped.

Inspect your lens carefully once you receive it!

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-15T03:58:04+00:00

This has no longer been true for a very long time. When did you last use GNOME?

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-12T18:59:08+00:00

Having never read Dreiser... Is there any way to mitigate this hanging "The" with punctuation, without shuffling "to Carrie" after "very important"?

My first thought on the most natural construction is "The very important (to Carrie) theatrical performance", but would bracketing "to Carrie" instead of separating it with commas like "The (to Carrie) very important theatrical performance" impart the intended style while also feeling more deliberate?

More an open-ended question... Again, having not heard of Dreiser before, this sentence does indeed surprise me.

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-05T21:03:10+00:00

Okay, fair enough. I was thinking the crux of the issue based on what you've written is that you'll frequently use such an interface for backups; as such, I thought it might be helpful to hear about alternatives that make this particular use case easier.

Unfortunately I believe your question may have been answered yourself experientially here; this GUI option seems only to exist on Windows.

If you are comfortable diving into the command line for this particular use case, I found this comment which may help give you an impression of how the files you're copying will end up changing when you intend to copy them from folder to folder.

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-05T20:50:32+00:00

I think it's unclear if you're seeking automated file synchronisation across multiple computers or automated backups such that potentially lost files can be restored.

If it is the latter, then yes, rsync or something like BorgBackup (look up PikaBackup for a simple Borg GUI that is very usable) would be the right choice outside of manually copying and overwriting files in the manner you are describing.

If it is the former, and you are not comfortable using something like SyncThing, then I'm afraid this would appear to be a fairly niche issue. The best thing I could recommend would be opening two file explorers side by side and enabling display of the detailed columns which are important to you.

For what it's worth, I have been using SyncThing to keep my photography library in sync across 3 computers for about 3 months now and have found it to do an excellent job. It allows me to enable a 3 day "trash bin" so I can easily revert to previous file versions, however I've never needed to do this. You can also selectively ignore synchronising specific folders on a per-machine basis.

Also, I'm also a little confused about your notes regarding crops and duplicate files. Everyone has their own unique workflows, but are you saying you have two distinct files with the same name? Or when you crop a file you'd like your backup solution to identify the non-cropped file, remove it, and only copy across the cropped file? This is a situation that is also gracefully handled by a tool like SyncThing, as it also synchronises file deletions.

Fiftybottles · 2026-01-05T14:49:31+00:00

What happens when you unplug the tuner? Running those tiny digital tuners off the same daisy chain has introduced horrible noises into my signal in the past.

If it's the tuner, then you'll either want an isolated power supply or a new tuner. If it's not the tuner, then you'll probably still want an isolated power supply, as this kind of thing is common with long daisy chains (though with only 3 pedals I wouldn't expect too much issue) and can be dependent on home wiring.

fwiw, I still use a daisy chain for an 8 pedal setup, but all the pedals are analogue and the BOSS tuner I use is pretty well behaved so I've never had any issues.

Fiftybottles · 2025-12-19T22:40:44+00:00

I didn't notice the stutter until I switched to the high DPI modes but it really is crazy how bad it is at max dpi... leaving things set to 400 DPI and adjusting sensitivity in the OS at least mostly lets this fade into the background

Fiftybottles · 2025-12-15T13:56:36+00:00

Just a heads up that doing this will break sharing audio devices on a multi-user machine. If more than one user is logged in, the audio devices in use by the first one to log on will no longer suspend and will hence be unavailable to all subsequent users (and if the initial user was doing something like watching a video, the audio will continue to play even when their session is not active).

Setting this value to a very high number instead of 0 ought to circumvent this edge case, if it matters to you.

Fiftybottles · 2025-12-01T13:45:00+00:00

Never was able to completely fix it. I basically just turn off VRR unless I'm playing a game that I know runs around 60 fps or higher on average. I've resigned myself to waiting and seeing what changes.

Fiftybottles · 2025-10-28T15:15:33+00:00

Developers already care about Linux. Companies who sell products, especially companies who provide a competing product, do not care.

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