Better Lightroom RAW profiles?

[n00g33]

Hi

I figured out last night - or rather bothered to stop and figure out - why my imported lightroom RAW photos look good for about 3 secs and then revert back to something dark. Lightroom can't detect the cameras settings... So I tried the adobe lightroom beta profiles - they dont do very much to be honest.

Anybody know how I can maintain what I see on my camera display in lightroom? Or know of any better lightroom raw profiles?


Tim

[campo]

lightroom shows the preview from the RAW file (ie. with in camera settings applied) before rendering the RAW file. You can get profiles for lightroom (they show up in the camera calibration section in the develop module) that mimic your in camera settings. I have presets for each setting so when i import files i can simply apply the preset to all images.

I got profiles ages ago and installed them (in the LR 1.x days) so I've forgotten how to do it and whether or not it's necessary to actually do this with the new versions of LR

[mithrandir]

Have you tried searching for Mithrandir and lightroom? You will find a series of presets that might give you the results you are looking for with LR.

[n00g33]

campo - i'm fine with using and installing them. I just need to find one for my nikon d90. All the pictures go dark like somebodys turned up the contrast and blacks. I try to turn it back but it never looks quite the same. Also my camera settings don't transfer over so I have to go and do it all over again.

mithrandir - thanks. Found them. Will give them a go when I get home. Do you know of any profiles specific to the d90 or nikon range?

[Remorhaz]

Since about Lightroom 2.6 or something they came built in with Lightroom - Camera Calibration Profiles or something - you just select the one you want to use - you can even have it so it's applied on import automatically (e.g. Nikon Camera Standard)

I've got a blog post about using it when I got my D90 and started shooting in RAW and started wondering the same thing as you :)

http://www.rc.au.net/blog/2010/02/05/my-nikon-d90-settings/

[arthurking83]

....

mithrandir - thanks. Found them. Will give them a go when I get home. Do you know of any profiles specific to the d90 or nikon range?

If there's one for the D300, considering most of the presets are the same or similar, they should work(same sensor).

[n00g33]

i had a look at the camera profiles folder and there IS a specific camera profile for pretty much every camera.

I think the photo difference could possibly be due to the altered picture control in my d90 - which lightroom just does not detect?? I think this is something I'll have to live with and keep on changing everytime I import.

Thanks for the help guys.

[arthurking83]

AAznd just so that you;re aware of how LR works too tho...

It doesn't actually alter the raw file in any way. It renders the raw file as you want it too with psudo profiles, but the raw file itself is largely untouched.

you can see this with the help of Nikon's ViewNX, where if you make edits to the raw file using LR, the NEF is still as you shot it, when you open it in VNX.
LR makes it changes on (what I think is) a jpg file for viewing the image as you edit, but of course you can save it to any format as it's sort of handling the NEF file... but remember that it never actually changes any of the NEF file data itself.

that was my biggest grief with using LR(3 in my case), where the images I was capturing in the camera never looked anything like I had them exposed.. and so I had to do more work in LR3. Something that I never had too in either VNX or CaptureNX.

best advice is: if you want your images to look as you see them in camera, is open the ones you want to keep in ViewNX(free) and convert them to either jpg or TIFF, and then send them to LR for editing from there. ViewNX has what can only be described as no PP ability.
Very basic whole image enhancements, such as exposure compensation, WB, contrast, Picture Control variance(on NEF files only) D-Lighting(would not recommend via ViewNX tho!!!).

If you want LR for it's editing ability, then export the NEF to raster format, make WB and exposure compensation adjustments via ViewNX and send the raster image too LR.
You can add LR as a program in the list of third party software in ViewNX's rightclick context menu.

Note if you send a NEF file to LR via either ViewNX or CaptureNX, the file that subsequently gets sent to LR for editing is always a TIFF file.

[mithrandir]

DSLRs only show a jpg rendition of the RAW capture on the camera display. The closest thing to that is to run the RAW through the software provided with the camera because it picks up the camera settings from the EXIF and applies them. LR does not use the jpg settings on the RAW file. The camera profiles in LR are mostly for color correction. You can create a preset for everything else.

[n00g33]

Thanks guys. Yeah I googled around and figured all the jpeg preview and RAW LR conversion or lack there of.

I suppose i could just import with ViewNX but that requires a doubleup on my images in RAW and TIFF formats...