Lightroom Initial Previews

F8&Bthere · 07-13-2009, 11:42 AM

I notice when I'm importing photos from my K10D card and viewing the results as they load that for a brief moment the image looks good, then within a few seconds LR 2.2 does something and it becomes washed out and dull looking. I searched unsuccessfully for the answer, but maybe my search wasn't worded correctly.

I have played with different calibration profiles and various presets but I find that what works for one photo doesn't for all. Can someone please enlighten me on what is going on as LR loads the photos (captured in DNG format) that is dulling down the final displayed result? Is it possibly briefly showing me an embedded jpeg that is reflecting the in camera settings? Note- my computer is really slow with LR, so those of you with faster computers my not even see this happen.

Jim Royal · 07-13-2009, 11:56 AM

I believe what you are seeing is the embedded JPEG. Any RAW file will require some work to get it to match the look of the JPEG, which is processed in-camera.

*Canada_Rockies* · 07-13-2009, 12:02 PM

What colour space have you selected in camera, and what colour space have you selected in Lightroom? If there is a mismatch, that could cause the preview effects you describe. My camera settings:

Adobe RBG.
Saturation 0
Contrast 0
Sharpness 0
Image tone natural

Obviously I disagree with many on this list about these settings. I dislike the cartoon look some others prefer.

F8&Bthere · 07-13-2009, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by Canada_Rockies

What colour space have you selected in camera, and what colour space have you selected in Lightroom? If there is a mismatch, that could cause the preview effects you describe. My camera settings:

Adobe RBG.

Saturation 0

Contrast 0

Sharpness 0

Image tone natural

Obviously I disagree with many on this list about these settings. I dislike the cartoon look some others prefer.

My settings are Adobe +1 +1 +1 vivid. I have to confess I find most unPPd images shot with neutral settings too flat. I don't worry about the settings other than the colour space since I rarely shoot jpeg, and since I post-process all my keepers to some degree. I like the latitude RAW formats give me to fix what I often screw up.

So, it appears from the replies thus far that what I am seeing is a brief jpeg preview. I guess I'll start working on some presets of my own to save repetition of adjustments in LR- I have tried a couple downloaded Pentax K10D/20D presets but I find them a bit too heavy handed for many shots. I also find it difficult to be consistent with the camera profile in LR- adobe standard is fine in most cases but I find it does a poor job on orange to my eye. Like I said, I'll have to play some more and fine tune.

**Marc Sabatella** · 07-13-2009, 02:12 PM

Note the brief preview you see is the JPEG created by the camera using the camera's JPEG settings - so if you've set Bright mode, or have saturation or contrast or sharpness turned up for whatever reason, that will be reflected in the preview. There are proabbly ways to get LR to look at those settings (they are store din the EXIF) and try to mimic them in the defaults settings for its own adjustment, but I don't know for sure.

*Canada_Rockies* · 07-13-2009, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by F8&Bthere

My settings are Adobe +1 +1 +1 vivid. I have to confess I find most unPPd images shot with neutral settings too flat. I don't worry about the settings other than the colour space since I rarely shoot jpeg, and since I post-process all my keepers to some degree. I like the latitude RAW formats give me to fix what I often screw up.

So, it appears from the replies thus far that what I am seeing is a brief jpeg preview. I guess I'll start working on some presets of my own to save repetition of adjustments in LR- I have tried a couple downloaded Pentax K10D/20D presets but I find them a bit too heavy handed for many shots. I also find it difficult to be consistent with the camera profile in LR- adobe standard is fine in most cases but I find it does a poor job on orange to my eye. Like I said, I'll have to play some more and fine tune.

Aha, that is exactly what is happening to you, I think. As I have no jpeg processing set up, I get the same from RAW as from jpeg. Here is my suggested procedure to fix this for you.

Take an image using RAW+ that is a typical subject for you.
Load the RAW image into LR
Open the twinned jpeg with some viewer or other. Windows picture and fax will do, as long as it shows the jpeg as you want to see it.
In the [Develop] module in LR, "develop" the image to match the jpeg.
[Photo] > [New Preset]
Name it whatever you wish (I used K10D)
Create the preset.
If you want to use these settings as the default, [Set Default Settings ...]

You can create presets for your preferences for different types of image as well, such as "Kids in the back yard", "Downtown buildings", "Sunset", whatever you like. You can then select the preset to apply on import when you import the images. The import routine will remember the one you last used, so be careful when you use more than one that you change it as appropriate.

Enjoy!