Over darkened Nikon .Nef file when opened in Lightroom Develop

It occasionally happens that when we open a raw file in Lightroom in the Develop module it goes almost black. Yet when reverting back to the Library mode, the color is normal. I've included the file below.

Please let me know what's happening, as I can't afford to lose files when doing a Fashion Designer's shoot. Is it Lightroom? The file below looks normal.

Thanks.

John

 

Try toggling off GPU in preferences.

If that doesn't work, reset your LR preferences:

How do I reset Lightroom's Preferences? | The Lightroom Queen

Thanks for that - here's a screen shot below. perhaps this will show what I mean.

 

Could be a corrupt display profile. Or a V4 (version 4) ICC profile. Check and recalibrate the display.

Fall1 camera profile is from where?

Just went into LR Preferences to see that GPU was unticked...! Selecting it seems to have resolved the issue. Thanks for your guidance.

Alas....reopening LR again, the file has reverted to its darkened side again. The following image, which is just the same has no issues. So, I'm really confused now. Any help there? Thanks.

Sorry, I don't know what Fall1 camera profile means at all! How could that come about? Should be 'Adobe Color.'

I, too, do not know what Fall1 is. Could it be a camera profile? Changing it to Adobe Color cannot hurt; give it a try. Develop module changes for RAW file are non-destructive,

 

Has this file been processed in any other RAW file processing program? Or did you import it directly into Lightroom from the camera?

 

I do not see your History panel; that might give a clue. Step back through the History Panel to the time the RAW file was imported. Does that change the display? If not click on RESET bottom right hand side. That should get you the file as it was imported.

Sorry, I don't know what Fall1 camera profile means at all!

 

- If you don't know, then who does!?

 

From your screenshot, it's the name of the profile that's being applied to that image.

 

The image doesn't look underexposed. It looks as if it's had an extremely steep (contrasty) tone curve applied to it.

 

Compare to the correct-looking shots and see if they have the mysterious 'Fall1' profile applied as well.

The Profile box has a pull-down menu. from which you can select several profiles. The default is "Adobe Color". You can also create custom "Develop" profiles and save them as the default, through the menu at the top of the screen. The first step is probably to restore "Adobe Color" as the profile of choice.

 

The "profile" in question is the one used by Lightroom to interpret a RAW image. It has nothing to do with a monitor profile through calibration, nor a print profile, which can be added for that purpose.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Ed_Ingold

- If you don't know, then who does!?

… good one ……

From your screenshot, it's the name of the profile that's being applied to that image.

 

The image doesn't look underexposed. It looks as if it's had an extremely steep (contrasty) tone curve applied to it.

Compare to the correct-looking shots and see if they have the mysterious 'Fall1' profile applied as well.

 

… applying a profile at this point would display the corresponding histogram so i think thats not the problem.

On your screenshot, I see under the histogram Smart Preview. Can you change that back to Original Photo? Does it say Original Photo when you are in the Library module? I'm guessing that the Smart Preview is somehow corrupt.

Another thing that I would try is making a virtual copy and monkeying with the profiles/smart preview with that since it is all non destructive to the original image.

extremely steep (contrasty) tone curve

Like something set up for Autumnal Leaf Colo(u)rs on a dull and grey day?

I use Lightroom but not Nikon so I've not encountered the problem. But as a Lightroom user, I was curious and googled it.

There are a number of threads on other sites complaining about Adobe apps and Nef files. I don't know whether this helps, but this one looks interesting. I noticed one thing which is that a Nef file contains an embedded JPG image. This is just conjecture but it could be that the Lightroom 'Library' module displays the embedded JPG (which seems to work fine) while the Develop module applies a (correct or incorrect) RAW camera profile + any default settings for color profile, etc.

 

I don't know the solution and it's odd that the problem only happens occasionally. While you're investigating the problem and finding a permanent solution, a temporary workaround might be to convert the occasional 'problematic' Nef files to TIFF using Nikon software and import the TIFF into Lightroom. Not ideal, but it's not a brick wall either.

 

Hope this helps. You could try some Nikon user forums to check whether other people have had similar problems and found solutions.