The darkroom view is where you develop a single image. The center area shows the picture currently being edited; the left panel holds peripheral tools (navigation, scopes, snapshots, history…), and the right panel holds the image-processing modules.

Open the darkroom from the lighttable by double-clicking a thumbnail, or by selecting an image and pressing Enter. Return to the lighttable with Escape (or the home button in the header). You can switch to another image without leaving the darkroom by enabling the filmstrip (Ctrl+Shift+F) and clicking a thumbnail in it.

How an image is processed is the subject of the pixelpipe and modules sections; this page and the darkroom layout page cover the view itself.

Zoom and pan

Middle-click the center area to cycle between fit to screen, 1:1 and 2:1.

Scroll with the mouse wheel to zoom between fit-to-screen and 1:1. Hold Ctrl while scrolling to extend the range from 2:1 up to 1:10. When zoomed in past the window, drag the image to pan.

Working with modules

The image-processing modules in the right panel are organized into workflow tabs that follow the order of the pixelpipe. The recommended way to edit is to move through the tabs from left to right, and through each module stack from bottom to top.

Modules and their controls are fully navigable from the keyboard, and any module or control can be reached directly through the global action search (Ctrl+P) or an assigned shortcut. The anatomy of a module page explains the common module controls (enable, reset, presets, multiple instances, masking & blending).

Autoset: auto-developing an image

Some modules can compute their own settings from the content of the image instead of relying on a fixed default. The autoset button in the bottom toolbar runs this automatic computation on several modules at once, giving you a sensible starting point that you then refine by hand.

Right-click the autoset button to open a list of the modules that support it, and tick the ones you want it to act on. Capable modules include:

flowchart LR
    A([Click autoset]) --> B{For each
ticked module}
    B --> C[Module analyzes
the image]
    C --> D[Module writes
its own settings]
    D --> E([Refine by hand])

Autoset runs in the background and processes the modules one after another (the button shows a busy state while it works). Each module’s result is recorded in the history like any other change, so you can undo it or tweak it afterwards.

On-image overlays and assessment

The bottom toolbar gives quick access to the visual assessment overlays: ISO 12646 color assessment, raw overexposed and clipping warnings, soft-proofing, gamut checking, and guides & overlays. The quick-access styles menu is also there.