Lightroom darkening photos?

[brookewhatnall]

Hey,

I have been having exposure problems with my D200, and I got told that it is to do with the tonal curve in

lightroom that is not set up for my D200, when I import my raw files as psd, they appear exposed untill

they render, then they get darker. Is this from the tonal curve, or is there some other way that I get get

lightroom to stop darkening my photos, how do I import the tonal curve from my D200 to lightroom,

Cheers,

Brooke

[scottl1]

This exact same thing is happening to me with my D50 and it's getting really frustrating. I had a long post with a lot of responses in the Nikonians forums but it never really got solved. I hope someone here can help. I don't import raw files as PSD's though, I import them as .NEF files.

[alan_olander1664878205]

How do you import your NEFs as PSDs? Have you already converted them in something else? Or do you mean DNG?

 

How do you know you have exposure problems? What does the histogram look like? Is your monitor calibrated?

[hakon_soreide]

Lightroom doesn't change the photos, so if they get darker, it's because the camera has added some post-processing lightening that Lightroom for some reason fails to read when it picks up the "as shot" metadata. Quite a few digital cameras might do small amounts of exposure compensation as a digital processing, for instance, rather than actually changing the exposure time and aperture.

[alan_olander1664878205]

The only "as shot" information Lightroom can read is the WB, so everything else is its "best guess".

[seland]

Lightroom does not know how you want your NEF converted. This is maybe a problem, but this is how third party raw converters work.

 

Make a curve you like in LR, and make that applied by default when you import. Only Nikon Capture can convert the NEF the same way your camera have converted the JPEG preview that is embedded in the NEF (the picture you see shortly before the NEF renders).

[tonybynum]

Hakon hit the nail on the head. . . it's your in camera settings adding adjustments and lightroom ignores them . . .

[ellis_vener_photography]

in Lightroom's develop module try using the Auto button and see how that schanges the interpretation -also what does the histogram look like?

[bill_fouche]

I don't understand what it means to "import raw files as PSD." If you are importing your NEF files directly from the camera or the card, then what you are seeing is Adobe's best guess at how Nikon's raw files ought to be rendered. Lightroom ignores settings you've made in camera (except White Balance), so if you've punched up the saturation or decreased the contrast, Lightroom won't know that. And I'm guessing that Nikon guards is NEF conversion formulas jealously. So Adobe is forced to reverse-engineer by trial and error.

 

Speaking from the perspective of a Canon user, I find that Lightroom just does not make particularly good "guesses" about Canon's raw data. I get better color and better tone from the camera-maker's software (DPP), even though I am not fond of DPP's very clunky interface. Lightroom, IMHO, needs better camera profiles (if that is the right word.)

 

The best solution I have come up with is this: make a "preset" for the default look that you are after. This is slow and fiddly. You have to look at photographed color charts and compare lots of images, but it's the most reliable way I know to harness Lightroom's disappointing (at least on Canon raw files) effort to do what the camera maker's own raw converter usually does better.

 

Lightroom does lots very well, particularly if aggressive changes in "look" are desired. What I am saying is that its default "starting place" on both tone and color is disappointing. Just my two cents.

[mgmphoto]

I think I'm having the same problem (When I import my NEF files to lightroom, the thumbnail looks fine but when I go to develop the image, for some reason it goes flat, right?)

Try adding adobeRGB1998 into your windows color management by going to Control Panel >> Display >> Settings then Advanced. Under color management, see what you have under Color profiles. If you have your monitor calibrated, you see that profile there. If you don't have adobe rgb 1998 there, go to add and look for adobeRGB1998 (assuming this is the color space set in your D200).

This worked for me. What I have set on my D200 is what I get when I open the file in lightroom.

I hope this helps. Goodluck.