[GeneV]

This might be a better question for an Adobe board, but I notice that the "auto" exposure or "auto tone" functions of Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw in their current versions seek a level which seems too bright to me. That was not true of older versions. I know I can set defaults (and do) for some of the general settings, but the Auto function changes a number of those settings. Is there some way to scale back the level which the Auto function seeks?

[Miguel]

Probably not, but why don't you create a preset that dims things to your pleasure and just use that after clicking on auto?
What version of LR are your using? The current process version, 2012, isn't all that new.

M

[adwb]

Not that I know of, and I agree that version 3 and 4 did a pretty good job of getting a image about right for you to than fine tune.
I find that v5 constantly moves the exposure slider to the right by over a stop so I have to zero it and use the brightness slider instead after using the auto function.

[Smeggypants]

I never use the Auto Tone function. Even the Auto colour balance is rarely accurate

[Steve.Ledger]

Is there some way to scale back the level which the Auto function seeks?

Would not really be 'Auto' if you could manually set it how you wanted it.
As has been mentioned, just create your own preset.

[GeneV]

Would not really be 'Auto' if you could manually set it how you wanted it.
As has been mentioned, just create your own preset.

Any auto function, just like the metering on a camera, is shooting for an average or a certain histogram.The auto function is adjusting highlights, shadows, blacks and overall exposure to get there. I would like to be able to adjust that target and still have the auto exposure do its thing to get there. I would like to have to make a less dramatic tweak.

OTOH, to come up with a preset the way others have suggested would take away the auto function. It does not seem practical to come up with a "post auto" preset, because the auto function may change so many different parameters.

---------- Post added 07-13-14 at 09:27 PM ----------

I never use the Auto Tone function. Even the Auto colour balance is rarely accurate

On prior versions, I used auto as a starting point. Now I am with you. It is usually further off than starting from the camera settings.

[adwb]

I agree with your last post and I don't think there is a answer to your question, I cannot see a way to fine tune the auto settings and you cannot create a global preset that takes into account exposure differences as does the the auto feature
As I previously said the current version seem to be be particularly prone to over exposing images perhaps it's because Pentax tend to under expose compared to other brands?
It might be worth over exposing a few shots by one stop and a few under by one stop and then see what the auto does with them, perhaps that's the way round it.
I have found for instance that images with predominantly red like a red car that fill the frame comes out best if underexposed by 1/2 to 1 stop before.

[GeneV]

I agree with your last post and I don't think there is a answer to your question, I cannot see a way to fine tune the auto settings and you cannot create a global preset that takes into account exposure differences as does the the auto feature
As I previously said the current version seem to be be particularly prone to over exposing images perhaps it's because Pentax tend to under expose compared to other brands?
It might be worth over exposing a few shots by one stop and a few under by one stop and then see what the auto does with them, perhaps that's the way round it.
I have found for instance that images with predominantly red like a red car that fill the frame comes out best if underexposed by 1/2 to 1 stop before.

It may be some quirk with Pentax raw files, because ACR does a much better job with the RW2 files from my wife's Lumix LX7, though they are still just a bit brighter than I would prefer. I have started using Photoninja for more of my raw processing, and its auto exposure on batch files is much more to my liking.

I agree about underexposing reds, because the latest Pentax sensors seem to blow them out.

[Just1MoreDave]

It may be some quirk with Pentax raw files, because ACR does a much better job with the RW2 files from my wife's Lumix LX7, though they are still just a bit brighter than I would prefer. I have started using Photoninja for more of my raw processing, and its auto exposure on batch files is much more to my liking.

I agree about underexposing reds, because the latest Pentax sensors seem to blow them out.

Maybe you could adjust the camera profile to give you a better starting point for Auto magic.

[RGlasel]

It may be some quirk with Pentax raw files

LR 5 does the same thing with DNG files. It doesn't matter whether it's outdoors/indoors, bright scene/dark scene, every time I've clicked on the Auto button, I've reset after. I use the Sync function to apply the same adjustments to multiple photos, once I've got a typical photo reasonably close to what I want.

[GeneV]

LR 5 does the same thing with DNG files. It doesn't matter whether it's outdoors/indoors, bright scene/dark scene, every time I've clicked on the Auto button, I've reset after. I use the Sync function to apply the same adjustments to multiple photos, once I've got a typical photo reasonably close to what I want.

FWIW, I have all my Pentax cameras save DNG raw files. I have one computer with CS3 on it, and that version of ACR cannot be updated to the new PEF files.

In addition to unnecessarily adding exposure, one of the culprits IMO is that ACR seems to want to kick the levels for whites way over to the right, sometimes to the point of barely holding them. I have used a procedure like the one you are describing, but in the end, I seem to be doing a lot of individual tweaking.

---------- Post added 07-14-14 at 12:46 PM ----------

Maybe you could adjust the camera profile to give you a better starting point for Auto magic.

I'm not sure I understand what you are suggesting. Could you explain what I could do to the profile that would help?

[emalvick]

Hmmm... My K5 is set to save DNG files.

I observe similar behavior with LR5. I attribute most of my issues with auto to the White slider, not really the exposure one specifically. In other words, if I click on Auto, I have set a preset that sets the White point back to the zero setting, and the exposure is quite close to what I want.

Conversely, I often use the auto for the exposure only (I think you hold shift while clicking (double maybe) on the exposure slider). You get auto on only one item rather than all the sliders. I do believe that once you set up a preset, including one that might include auto settings, the resulting text file for the preset can be edited so that only some items are auto adjusted. I don't remember the details; I had a sort of swiss army knife preset back in the LR3 (and K10d) days that adjusted everything in one swoop with a lot of auto adjustments. With the process adjustment in LR4 and LR5 that preset was no longer useful, and I never bothered replacing it. But I think the principles still apply.

Just googling around a bit, I found an example where someone edited the preset's text file to auto on the exposure and shodows slider:

settings = {
AutoExposure = true,
AutoShadows = true,
},


I'm fairly certain there are more options, but I'm not sure what they are (AutoBlack and AutoWhite perhaps). Perhaps i'll experiment again with this. I generally find I have less I need to do, so never really messed with it once I had my K5 and LR4 and LR5.

[wildman]

I never use the Auto Tone function. Even the Auto colour balance is rarely accurate

Ditto.

I never use auto anything - auto or presets.
Trust your eye not the machine.

To me using auto settings and presets in post processing is a lot like shooting in jpg and letting the camera decide what is "normal" or "correct" - at best sometimes close but no cigar.

[Kerrowdown]

As has been mentioned, just create your own preset.

+1 it's the best way to go for your own custom settings.

[Just1MoreDave]

I'm not sure I understand what you are suggesting. Could you explain what I could do to the profile that would help?

I'm just guessing, not even sure if it would help.

The easiest thing would be to see if there is an alternate profile choice for your camera. For my K-7 in LR4, I have an Adobe profile, a Camera Standard one, and something I downloaded. I use Camera Standard.

It looks like you could also make some adjustments to each color channel and save that as a new profile. That could solve specific issues with reds.

The wild card is, will the Auto settings respect your carefully crafted profile or work hard to undo it?