I have a question that someone may be able to answer.
Why is it that I'll look at a photo on my camera and I like it, then when I download it via LR2 and the initial preview is just like the camera, then when you select the photo, it processes it, and comes out darker!?

My question is what is LR doing and why is it making the image darker?
The Histogram is different too...isn't that weird?! It's far more to the left in LR and on the camera it's more to the right...

I'm really stumped and confused, any help would greatly be appreciated!

I'm shooting in RAW and I'm using a Nikon D90 and shooting all Manual.

Thanks,
Will

The preview you see on your camera LCD is a JPEG. RAW is almost exactly what it is. A raw view of the shot you took, with no exposure comp (other than the settings you had dialed in at the time for exposure comp.) So when you download to LR, it looks flat and lifeless, till you process it, putting saturation, exposure and contrast to work.

-Andy

And IIRC, the histogram should be a representation of the RAW, not the JPEG in camera, but I can't remember if that is right or not. It might be the other way around.

Thanks Andy, but it's a night shot and when I play with it in LR, it looks like sh*t. But on the camera it's great! I'll have to play some more.

Thanks for the info!! Hope all is well!

Edit: I just played with it some more and it's much better. Thanks Andy!

LCD screens suck. Don't bother with them for looking at actual exposure.

Originally Posted by Stime187

LCD screens suck. Don't bother with them for looking at actual exposure.

usually the photo that look meh on my lcd are amazing on the computer.

You can fix this, I have to try to remember how, what you're seeing is hte jpg version processed in camera using the picture style that you have selected. You can do the same thing by installing the presets into LR and selecting them to get it back closer. They will be in the Develop module in the ACR section once you load them, try googling that or something.

I think Ben may be able to remember how to do this, otherwise I have it at home and can help out there.

Originally Posted by Stime187

LCD screens suck. Don't bother with them for looking at actual exposure.

Originally Posted by thechickencow

You can fix this, I have to try to remember how, what you're seeing is hte jpg version processed in camera using the picture style that you have selected. You can do the same thing by installing the presets into LR and selecting them to get it back closer. They will be in the Develop module in the ACR section once you load them, try googling that or something.

I think Ben may be able to remember how to do this, otherwise I have it at home and can help out there.

Thanks! I will wait patiently.

from our PMs:

you're shooting in RAW right?

the camera review and the initial LR preview are both done using JPEG profiles... Se regardless of shooting JUST RAW, it ALWAYS shows what the JPEG would look like on the rear screen. To get them as close as possible turn off all the fancy JPEG editing options (d-lighting, vignetting control, etc) and shoot in the standard JPEG settings...

To test this (prove it) set your JPEGS to the B&W setting but set your quality to RAW only... The reviews will be B&W only, but once you get to the files in the computer, as long as they're RAWs only, you'll have full color files. The other trick, is shoot JPEG & RAW at the same time. When you see them in LR the JPEG will look the same in it's preview AND final view, the RAW will look the same initially, but THEN switch.

And it's a bummer because usually the JPEGs look better, but the have MUCH less information in them... So I'm always trying to make my RAWs look like my in camera JPEGs.....

active-D lighting is like the shadow/highlights tool in PS or fill and recover in LR... But it ONLY works on JPEGs (RAWs are straight out of the camera with no adjustments) so it WILL mess with your review if you're shooting RAWs only but not the RAW itself. Color space (sRGB or Adobe RGB) as also set with RAWs in the computer, so it's just effecting your JPEGs (reviews) but I'm not sure if that makes any difference at all in the camera...

Personally I use sRGB and make it work in PS when I print because most people see my images more online.

you're only losing that something on your conversion AT THE END coming out of LR though...

when it's RAW, the color space hasn't been set yet, so it doesn't matter in camera unless you're shooting JPEGs. If you use sRGB coming out of LR then need to print you can always switch the setting for that file.

check your default settings in LR.

the blacks slider, which sets the black point clipping, is set to 5, for example, not 0.

take a sample photo, make it look good, make a LR preset for it, then apply that preset on import.

i have 0 blacks, linear tone curve, zero shadows, shadow region pushed far left, "camera standard" custom profile. that's just me.

to the OP:

As Ken said, LR is set up to apply a default preset to all of your photos. There's several ways around it. I've just been creating a "zereoed out" LR preset that applies a setting of zero to contrast, brightness, etc so I can start with an image as close to identical that my camera sensor picked up.

or just shoot JPEGs Will...

Do I really need to shoot NEF? Isn't JPEG good enough?
If you have to ask, you need to shoot NEF because you're not confident enough to actually get all the camera settings right, which you'd have to do for JPEG.

Originally Posted by ride5000

check your default settings in LR.

the blacks slider, which sets the black point clipping, is set to 5, for example, not 0.

take a sample photo, make it look good, make a LR preset for it, then apply that preset on import.

i have 0 blacks, linear tone curve, zero shadows, shadow region pushed far left, "camera standard" custom profile. that's just me.

Originally Posted by ModernMuseum

to the OP:

As Ken said, LR is set up to apply a default preset to all of your photos. There's several ways around it. I've just been creating a "zereoed out" LR preset that applies a setting of zero to contrast, brightness, etc so I can start with an image as close to identical that my camera sensor picked up.

I hadn't really noticed that, I made some changes and that helps a lot.
Thanks guys!

Wow, I can't find my LR book that says how to do it, and I have to remember (actually I need to do it on my new install now).

The applying a preset on upload works as well. Since I've gotten the 5d I don't need to do this as they look better in their raw format for whatever reason.

In lightroom, go to develop module. At the bottom in the camera calibration there is a drop down menu set to adobe standard by default. Set this to camera standard, then save it as a preset. Then you can apply that preset on import.

^Yup, did that. That helped a lot.