[chimpwithagun]

I have always loved the way Pentax renders images. The options to fine-tune the color modes to my preferences are amazing, and I have dialed in my K-3 exactly how I want every image to look. It's a wonderful feature that I fell in love with a long time ago.


However, in the lightroom import dialog the thumbnail has that beautiful Pentax look, but after hitting the import button I am staring at the same flat images that come off every camera. The black and whites are now bland color, the beautiful colors are muted, and I have to do all this work to bring everything back to what those images looked like in camera.


I know I can shoot in JPG, or in-camera convert the RAW to JPG and then import, but I don't want to.


Is there any way to get Lightroom to just take the camera's advice when importing?

[Adam]

If you also want to see the processed versions along your raw thumbnails, use raw+. Lightroom uses its own jpeg engine anyway. To toy with "custom image" settings after the fact, you can always use PDCU.

[Oldbayrunner]

Don't forget the images you see on your cameras LCD are enhanced via your cameras jpeg processing engine but exported with minimal processing, then adobe or any other raw processing software reads that data and applies color via their engine with minimal enhancements. That's the purpose of raw, to give you the latitude to make any adjustments using a wider color gamut and bit depth then you would with an enhanced jpeg..

[fgaudet]

Can't you set lightroom to apply presets on import?

You would simply need to prepare a preset in LR to mimic what you do in camera and apply it automatically when importing RAWs.

[clackers]

but after hitting the import button I am staring at the same flat images that come off every camera.

Is this not the idea of a digital negative, Chimpwithagun? :-)

+1 to Adam's suggestion of shooting both formats.

As Fgaudet says, if you're a meticulous tweaker of Jpeg settings, you can devise then buff and polish your own LR preset/s simulating the look you want.

[Reliant K1000]

This is exactly what I did for a few months...shot both RAW & JPG (RAW+).

And, reading the books by Martin Evening about Lightroom and Photoshop inspired me. I've had my camera for a year, and only now I feel like I'm getting exactly what I want out of it.

Just remember, a little adjustment goes a long way! And, I recommend using Lightroom to alter the image the day you shoot the image. If true to life accuracy is your goal, even a day later you can forget how things were.

[mtux]

I've made a preset in LR5 which mimics my K-30's Landscape color settings, well, as much as I know. and whenever I want to, just apply it. you can do the same.
Just shoot some colorful scenes or color cards in RAW+ and try color settings of LR or any settings to make the RAW file look like the JPEG out of your camera as much as possible, and then just make a preset with that settings. as simple as that!