Lightroom 3 - frustrating issue!

[Will James]

Hello,

Photos I take with my Canon 500d appear properly exposed on the camera display and in Digital Photo Professional, but when I've imported the images to Lightroom, when I first view a photo, the exposure and color looks correct (for about 1-2 secs). However, after a second or two, the photo exposure drops to a level that is unacceptable, the color saturation and vibrance also changes to a level that is unacceptable. When the photo first appears in Lightrroom, it looks as it does on my camera and in Digital Photo Professional though after a second or two, it is completely wrong. When I move over to the next image, the exact same behavior occurs.

I have checked the preferences in Lightroom 3 to see if I have set Lightroom to apply any settings, such as auto tune, when I import or click on photo's - none of these settings are active. One thing I have noticed is that under Develop --> Camera Calibration --> Profile, all photo's are set to Adobe standard, rather than the Canon picture style that I used when taking the photograph. Is there a way of Lightroom importing these picture styles along with the photographs?

However, even though the colours can be improved (one by one!), the overall brightness and exposure of the photograph is still a problem.

Surely there is a way to get Lightroom to import the photo's in exactly the same form as they were taken, and like they are shown in Digital Photo Professional?

Any assistance on this issue will be appreciated

Will .

 

[Jimmy_Lemon]

When you import them it displays the jpeg preview (the same that is show on the back on the camera) which includes any picture styles you have applied in camera. But as Raw is raw it doesnt include the picture styles, so all Lightroom is doing is loading the true Raw after a few seconds.

The way to get it to not change is shoot jpeg, but then you lose all the usefulness of raw. You can try and create a processing preset that matches you picture style and then apply it to all the images once you imported them (select them all and right click and go to Develop settings and select the preset).

Personally I don't notice a massive difference but then I do just shoot on the basic picture style on my 40D so I know my preview on camera is much like I am going to get in Lightroom

 

[swanseamale47]

If your in develop mode on the bottom of the right hand panel is a camera callibration palette, click on the drop-down next to Profile, what options have you got there?

 

[arad85]

One thing I have noticed is that under Develop --> Camera Calibration --> Profile, all photo's are set to Adobe standard, rather than the Canon picture style that I used when taking the photograph. Is there a way of Lightroom importing these picture styles along with the photographs?

You can create a develop preset with the appropriate camera calibration set and apply it at import. There isn't an automatic way to choose the style if you change it on individual photos though.

 

[Will James]

When you import them it displays the jpeg preview (the same that is show on the back on the camera) which includes any picture styles you have applied in camera. But as Raw is raw it doesnt include the picture styles, so all Lightroom is doing is loading the true Raw after a few seconds.

The way to get it to not change is shoot jpeg, but then you lose all the usefulness of raw. You can try and create a processing preset that matches you picture style and then apply it to all the images once you imported them (select them all and right click and go to Develop settings and select the preset).

Personally I don't notice a massive difference but then I do just shoot on the basic picture style on my 40D so I know my preview on camera is much like I am going to get in Lightroom

Hi Tom, thanks for the explanation - it makes sense. I too often use standard for my photo's, and use portrait and landscape if I'm shooting portraits and landscapes obviously!

I will create a preset which I will use as the general one - hopefully I can create one that satisfies most of my photo's, and then make a small amount of adjustments on the others.

If your in develop mode on the bottom of the right hand panel is a camera callibration palette, click on the drop-down next to Profile, what options have you got there?

Hi Wayne,

I have the following options:

• Adobe Standard
• Camera Faithful
• Camera Landscape
• Camera Neutral
• Camera Portrait
• Camera Standard

You can create a develop preset with the appropriate camera calibration set and apply it at import. There isn't an automatic way to choose the style if you change it on individual photos though.

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the reply. I think what I'll do is set it to import on a standard preset (either Camera Standard or my own), and then where I want to change the profile I can do manually.


Now I've realised it's pointless to shoot in a picture style if shooting in RAW because it won't get picked up in Lightroom anyway, and I can apply it in Lightroom manually or on import.

I suppose another thing to do is to shoot in RAW + JPEG, that way if I like a picture in JPEG, I can just delete the RAW and the picture style will be in the JPEG

Thanks for the help everyone

Will .

 

[Will James]

Also, is the cause of the decrease in exposure due to the same reason?

 

[hollis_f]

When LR first imports the image it displays the jpeg that is embedded in the raw file. It then takes the raw data and processes that using its default prarameters. Obviously those defaults are not correct. What you need to do is load up a representative raw image and fiddle with the parameters in the develop module until it looks right. Once you've got a good set of defaults just press the 'Alt' key and you'll see the 'Reset' button in the bottom right will change to 'Set default'. Click on that and you can save those settings so that they're automatically applied in the future. You can also set different defaults for different cameras and different ISO values.

 

[maninsuitcase]

I have the following options:

• Adobe Standard
• Camera Faithful
• Camera Landscape
• Camera Neutral
• Camera Portrait
• Camera Standard

If you change that to "Camera Standard" then it should be close to the camera preview. If you're happy with this you can set the default (for new images) by pressing alt (which changes some button functions) then Save default at the bottom of the develop panel. You will be given a set of tick boxes to choose from for what to use as a default (iirc anyway been a while since I did it). Then clock save.

You can have a global default or you can have per camera, or per camera per ISO. This is done in the standard preference menu.

 

[Will James]

When LR first imports the image it displays the jpeg that is embedded in the raw file. It then takes the raw data and processes that using its default prarameters. Obviously those defaults are not correct. What you need to do is load up a representative raw image and fiddle with the parameters in the develop module until it looks right. Once you've got a good set of defaults just press the 'Alt' key and you'll see the 'Reset' button in the bottom right will change to 'Set default'. Click on that and you can save those settings so that they're automatically applied in the future. You can also set different defaults for different cameras and different ISO values.

If you change that to "Camera Standard" then it should be close to the camera preview. If you're happy with this you can set the default (for new images) by pressing alt (which changes some button functions) then Save default at the bottom of the develop panel. You will be given a set of tick boxes to choose from for what to use as a default (iirc anyway been a while since I did it). Then clock save.

You can have a global default or you can have per camera, or per camera per ISO. This is done in the standard preference menu.

Many thanks for the help and advice!