Lightroom 2 nef photo import gets way too light?

<p>When I import nef photos, which look fine on the screen of the camera and the histogram looks good on the camera, it opens up in Lightroom develope module very bright and very burnt out. I have to do a lot of work to tone it down. It doesn't sound normal. Does lightroom all of the sudden bump up the exposure into unacceptable levels? Is there a preset that is taking over and doing it? Or, am I doing something wrong! Exposure on the camera is beautiful. Image comes on when I pick the thumbnail on the screen, and in about a second or two after it loads to lightroom and the editing tools become available, all of the sudden, the photo becomes way to bright and highlights, which were fine in camera, in thumbnails are too burnt out and the lightroom histogram is all the way to the right.<br>

I hope there is a solution to this. Any help, as ususal is greatly appreciated.<br>

Abe</p>

<p>Just fix one to your liking, them make that a new default preset (which you can also select from import). </p>

<p>Exposure you see on the back of the camera is based on a JPEG. If you are shooting raw, then what you saw and what you get are not going to be the same. </p>

<p>Thanks for the reply Andrew. I understand that they will not be the same, but to be that much off is too crazy. I think LR is actually making the photos when they load into Develope module way to bright. I thought maybe a preset was too much, but I can't figure out how to bring it down to normal levels. It looks good in Library, but when I go into Develope module to do work, it pops up way to bright. How do I change the default preset, which I never really set at all.<br>

Thanks,<br>

Abe</p>

<p>Well something doesn’t sound Kosher. You say when you look at the images in Library they look OK but too light in Develop? The previews should match module to module. Are you sure when going into Develop, you are not somehow loading a different preset (on the right side)? </p>

<p>It sounds like you may have accidentally altered the default settings in the Develop module. You can hold down the ALT key and click on Set Default... in the lower right corner. Then click on Restore Adobe Default Settings. This should make your pictures look reasonably normal. After that you can follow Andrew's suggestion to modify one picture until it looks the way you want, then hold down the ALT key and click on Set Default..., and then click on Update to Current Settings.</p>

<p>I used Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw (that is also the "engine" in Lightroom) for years until I gave Nikons "Capture NX 2" a try. A much better RAW converter that understands Nikon NEFs perfectly and applies the same picture control settings as the camera. A waste of time, I should have known that Capture NX makes pictures that look identical to the ones I saw on the LED.<br>

Give the 60-day trial a go. CNX is my RAW converter of choice now. It may not be a perfect user interface and it is annoying that you'll have to pay for it but my RAW files are imported into Photoshop now in a quality so good that I almost don't edit color, contrast and sharpness at all, instead I can focus on editing the details in the image.</p>