why does Lightroom give better results than my 20D?

[jr stevens]

Hi there, i just shot my 1st 200 pics using RAW..I was inside and used the auto white balance.....the pics do not

look that great..kinda a yellowish tone....so l did not change it to tungsten as i wanted to see what Lightroom

could do to fix the white balance.....i was simply amazed by the quality when i let Lightroom use the built in

auto white balance....the pics were perfect! my question is why was the white balance in camera so much

different (worse) than the one applied by LR2? does it have to do with the processing power available in the

program as opposed to the in-camera processor??

[Ed_Ingold]

In my experience, auto white balance (or auto-anything) in Lightroom sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. It depends on the subject, the lighting and (I think) the phase of the moon. Auto white balance in my camera (D2x) is better than any previous camera, but is still inconsistent with flash or incandescent light.

 

In the end, choose the camera WB which gives the best, most consistent results and be prepared to edit them further in Lightroom.

[kari v]

Lock your white balance in camera (custom or preset) and you can apply the same corrected WB to all your shots in LR with a couple of clicks. Consistency is very nice. And congratulations, you have found one reason why people shoot RAW, especially in oddball lighting. ;)

 

As to why camera processing gives poor results. I don't know. It's not just 20D, if you go through, say, dpreview tests you can see that all models from every manufacturer have less than perfect auto WB (and some presets). I understand that fluorescent light can be tricky, at worst beyond natural correction, but with tungsten it seems that the processing is simply too light handed. Perhaps people actually live in darker and yellower caves than the camera labs?

[godfrey]

I'm glad Lightroom does a good job. Why or whether it's better or worse than what a camera does with its in-camera JPEG

rendering is irrelevant if you are capturing in RAW format ... White balance is a setting in the RAW conversion, so what the

camera does isn't of any importance.

[martin_savoie]

Reason: You were looking at tow different things.

 

 

Canon 20 D, 40D ,50 D and most DSLR.

 

They all show the JPG in the camera histogram. No RAW information on those camera only high hands (like Phase one

P45…).

 

Do test you will be amaze. What is your real 20D iso? My 20D is 50 iso.

 

Tip: Do I have to open up my shoot most of the time in LR2 beceause they are too dark. Iff its yes, than your iso

is not right. Do test exposure to the right. What if not only the color but the exposure was not showing right on

your 20D.Oups…

 

LightRoom2 provide now camera profile that are good. But doing a profile by shouting a 24 patch magbets

colorchecker and than have DNG software process a profile that i name and witch will be available in LR2

development panel at the bottom in the camera profile or Adobe RAW opener..

 

Tip: I will recommend to shout (braket) the Magbet under 2 lights conditions. Daylight and Tungsten. Make sure

you don’t wear your Santa outfit (red) take care for not having any color shift. Now you shout and if possible

sometime get a good snap of a grey card.

You can apply this now to your 200000 20D images done in the past. Important, now that is done ,you still have to

shoot some grey card in your photo project. You balance the film you use now, daylight or tungsten, like the old

days. We ad color meter and cases of filters now just a small good washable pocket-size grey card.

 

A color meter is 1000$ some peoples use it in their digital workflow. A good grey card

priceless. I do work sometime with an independent photo-flash-meter.

 

 

The camera profile in LR1 and camera RAW opener use to be at ø correction. Now it comes with profile that matches

more the JPG. That is why for examples you will end up with different names set in the LR2 camera profile

window, when you click on different camera files. Lets say click from a 5D to 20D ,40D and a Nikon D300 Cr2 or NEF.

 

 

All DSLR aren’t the same . CMOS are not equal. That is why they need to be profiled. I do profile my Canon 20D

40D but it is less need on Phase one and other big guys . 2 P45 will look exactly the same with LR2 or Capture

One Pro development setting synchronize together.

[garydem]

to amplify what martin s said- the dslr histogram AND lcd image after the shot are the jpeg settings in the camera. they have nothing to do with raw image. so therefore when you get the raws to the pc you are no longer bound by the jpeg settings, though the raw converter may use the jpeg setting in the exif data to set the starting raw converter settings. this the reason that if you got your dslr and never set the jpeg settings, instead use raw, you are operating it using what some engineer in japan think is right, not you.

 

so to make your histogram reflect the shot that you would like and you see on the dslrs lcd you shoud set the jpeg settings to the best looks you can. below is how to set the jpeg settings on a dslr.

-------------------

to setup for jpeg with new camera-

there are 4 functions that may be adjusted. the color mode(or whatever it is called) saturation contrast and sharpening. i assume you are using a calibrated monitor. simply select a scene immediately outside your house. hopefully it has lights darks and colors. all settings in the camera are at zero or default. adjust color mode first then check the shot on the monitor, decide if ok, if not adjust reshoot and recheck. go on to each of the other adjustment settings. the object is to get the monitor scene as close a possible to the real scene outside. do not be concerned if the finished monitor scene has enough color for your tastes; the amount of color can be adjusted in pp. you are going for accuracy between the 2 scenes. the real and the one on your monitor; when done the 2 scenes should look identical or as close as possible. do not hurry. the adjustment process could take several hours. but once done leave the settings alone. at this point you know that the camera will accurately make the best most accurate pics possible of the scene. after i set my dslr up 3+ yrs ago about, i have not ever moved the settings. It took me 2-3 hours to setup my dslr.

if i needed/wanted more color or whatever that is what pp is for. i also try very hard to do my composing in the camera and not crop heavily in the pc. my thinking is why buy a 10mp camera and crop away 40%. you are then no better that a 6mp that is not cropped. besides which the cropped 10mp is noisier.

i would not adjust the contrast to get more DR. to me you just have to get used to the idea that digital has DR limitations. i shoot slides for 32yrs; the DR in digital and slides is about equal. i never had a problem. While DR limits exposure, lighting should/can be adjusted to compensate. if you want more headroom in your camera for taking jpegs, use adobeRGB color gamut. it gives slightly more headroom.

[keith_b1]

Keep in mind also that auto white balance is funky under incandescent/tungsten light with all DSLR cameras, so expect to

have to adjust WB in post-production.