Lightroom automatically adjusts my photos

I dont know if this is a problem with the software or operator error

but......when i import my photos into Lightroom, it seems that they all adjust

from what they looked like in the LCD display.

 

As i scroll through them in the Library or Develop module, they all

show "LOADING" as they are loading, they then go from bold, vibrant, beautiful

colors, to very flat dull images. It seems to happen in RAW and JPEG mode.

 

I dont have any Presets selected. I dont have any Auto Adjust selected under

Preferences.

 

Have you had this issue and how can i corretc it.

 

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Drew

 

dgdowns@gmaiil.com

If they don't look different on your computer than they looked on your LCD, you need to get a new computer or at least a bigger monitor. ;-)

 

The tiny LCD makes for very sharp, vibrant images. It's like watching one of those little handheld televisions that used to be so popular. Raw images in particular do indeed tend to look a bit dull and flat when you view them on your computer, at first. That's normal and you fix it in post-processing.

 

However, you might also want to be aware that Lightroom's raw conversion software does do a few little things automatically, including (I think) some modest sharpening. That's also normal and I can't remember if you can turn that off or not. It doesn't bother me.

I have come across the same apparent "desateration". What I believe it is that when you view the your image on your camera LCD screen, you are viewing it the sRGB colurspace. When you load the image into Lightroom it converts the image in the "ProPhoto RGB" colour space, which has a much larger colour range or gamut. Once you adjust your white balance and saturate a few colours, I find I need to kick up orange some times, you will be pretty close to what you want. One thing to keep in mind is that if you want to view your exported image with the same kick you give it in Lightroom, select sRGB when you export. sRGB is for images destined for web use, AdobeRGB and ProPhotoRGB are extended ranges geared to printing.

Here is a visual example showing colour gamut.

No, what's happening is that at first, you're seeing the embedded preview built by the in-camera raw converter. Then once Lightroom has had a moment, you're seeing the preview built by Lightroom's raw converter.

 

No two raw converters are going to come up with the same result.

 

You may also have set some parameters for the in-camera raw converter, like increased saturation. Lightroom's raw converter doesn't know about that. If you like that look, you need to have Lightroom also apply some increased saturation. Without any presets applied and with no automatic adjustments, it's a given that Lightroom's raw converter will get fairly bland results at first. You can always adjust later, that's the beauty of raw.

 

You can probably get very similar results after you tailor Lightroom to your preferences, but never exactly identical.

 

If you're really after exactly identical results, use the raw converter from your camera manufacturer instead of Adobe's.

 

Just to emphasize, this has nothing to do with color space. It's just two different raw converters, which will naturally get different results.

If you are talking computer LCD monitor, CS3 does the same. I keep my camera set to very

low contrast and saturation

To make it easy, here is what is happening. I was confused at first as well. No matter if you shoot in

raw or not the lcd screen on the back of the camera always displays a .jpg version of the image. You

have a RAW converter in the camera body. When you upload the photo to Lightroom the first image

you see for a few seconds is the .jpg version untill Lightroom's RAW converter can display the RAW file.

When you use in camera sharpening and saturation most Raw converters can not add those settings to

your RAW files unless you have your camera profile (plugin) installed in what ever program your using.

Not all programs allow Camera plugin profiles. Not sure if Lightroom or Lightroom 2 allow them or not.

 

-Adam