Matching Lightroom output to Nikon Picture Control setting

dbr1066

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David
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Hi all,

I hope someone can help me out on this one. I have my Nikon D700 set up with a Picture Control of 'Vivid'. Of course this is irrelevant as I shoot in RAW, but I find that the Vivid mode often shows me the sort of output I'd like to achieve for my landscapes. When I import my RAW files into Lightroom (v4) LR of course uses the camera preset for the initial previews, but when I actually go to edit the image it uses the RAW data, so any in-camera output is lost. (Just going over the obvious here as I know there are LOTS of threads along the lines of 'how come my images in Lightroom look different than they did in the LCD preview in the camera').

So my question: for those times when I actually think the LCD preview is how I'd like my Lightroom output to look, is there a setting to (loosely) get close to that 'look'.

I always thought that using the Camera Calibration menu in the Develop module should do that, but every time I select 'Camera Vivid' or 'Camera Vivid v4' from the calibration menu the result looks way too contrasty and honestly, not very much like my LCD preview in the camera. Of course I can fiddle and tweak and get the Lightroom output to look as close as possible to the LCD version, but its often a challenge to achieve the same look.

Am I missing something obvious over how to get the RAW file to output reasonably close to the in-camera Picture Control setting, or am I stuck with eye-balling it on my monitor and manually tweaking?
 
Best thing to do is create a preset. Take one image and process the heck out of it. Save these settings as a preset and apply on import.
 
Yup, good idea Andy. I have plenty of presets for applying AFTER importing, depending on the image, but I haven't really made the most of presets to use while importing.
 
Check out lightroomkillertips.com. Matt K has loads of lr presets, including the one you're after.
 
Hi John,

Back home myself, just in time to check out Matt K's site. Wow! Lots of great looking stuff there. I've just downloaded the Nikon/Lightroom presets, and will give them a try this evening. Thanks, mate, I appreciate the help.

David
 
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