Exposure selected area not saved

[antoine-agthe]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I checked and did not find my issue in the already reported ones

Describe the bug

When I use the automatic exposure based on selected area on a picture (picture A), then I switch to another one (picture B), the selected area by default is the one set on the previous picture.
But if I set a new area for picture B, then I go back to picture A to see the area, it's the one from B that applies.

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to picture A
2. Enable exposure adjustment from a selected area
3. Select an area
4. Go to picture B
5. Enable exposure adjustment from a selected area (it shows the one selected for picture A by default)
6. Fix the selected area to better fit picture B
7. Go back to Picture A
8. Click again on exposure adjustment from a selected area (the one from Picture B applies)

Expected behavior

Each exposure module on each picture should save its own area

Logfile | Screenshot | Screencast

No response

Commit

No response

Where did you obtain darktable from?

darktable.org / GitHub release

darktable version

5.4.1

What OS are you using?

Windows

What is the version of your OS?

Windows 11

Describe your system

64GB RAM,

Are you using OpenCL GPU in darktable?

I dont know

If yes, what is the GPU card and driver?

Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Please provide additional context if applicable. You can attach files too, but might need to rename to .txt or .zip

No response

[gi-man]

6. Fix the selected area to better fit picture B

I believe dt is working as intended and this is not a bug. Once you edit that area, it becomes the new default.

[ralfbrown]

The area selected for computing exposure compensation is a global setting, not a per-image setting. It's like the live samples in the color picker module - they stay in the same place from image to image until manually adjusted.

[antoine-agthe]

@gi-man

6. Fix the selected area to better fit picture B

I believe dt is working as intended and this is not a bug. Once you edit that area, it becomes the new default.

Being the new default is not really the issue here. I even think this is a great strategy if you color grade a series of shots.
It is more that if I edit 1000 photos, I would like the selected area of a given shot to be saved so it I come back to it, I don't need to reevaluate the proper area to select again.

@ralfbrown

The area selected for computing exposure compensation is a global setting, not a per-image setting. It's like the live samples in the color picker module - they stay in the same place from image to image until manually adjusted.

Yet I think it could be a great feature.
As an example, my basic worflow is to define the exposure area around the face of the model and set the area exposure mapping to 50% to all my pictures before sharing them with my clients (I might enable some additional modules, but that's details).

Then I go back to darktable with my client's choices and I work more on the selected series (doing many changes,m enbaling many modules, adding styles, ...).
But I would like to go back to mny exposure module and reapply this 50% brightness at the end of my process without having to redefine this area for each picture>
I would like Darktable to remember that I've selected this area of this picture, that area of that picture, ...

[gi-man]

Yet I think it could be a great feature.

Yet you filed this as a bug instead of a Feature Request. I probably need to drink more coffee, because I dont understand the workflow. Once you map the exposure to most images, it hardly needs to be adjusted.

[antoine-agthe]

Now that I know it is by design, I would rather this issue.
When I create a shape to apply any effect, I don't expect the mask to turn unavailable just because it might not be necessarily to go back to tweaking it again.
My workflow is not the central point here.
There would be plenty of reasons a user would need to save every bit of choices they make and settings they define for a picture, including the selected area for the automatic exposure.

[wpferguson]

Now that I know it is by design, I would rather this issue.

It is working as designed, so there is no issue and this should be closed. Other user's workflows depend on this working the way it does, so changing it is probably not an option.

If you need a feature like the current one that works in a different manner to fit your workflow, then that should be a feature request.