Digital Photo Professional VS. Lightroom for RAW (and issues I'm encountering)

[afliegs]

I'm in the process of trying to switch from using Digital Photo Professional to Lightroom for my RAW processing.

I really love the extra features that Lightroom has compared to Digital Photo Professional, which is very basic. However, I've run into a few problems that I can't seem to figure out.

Problem 1: When I process my RAW files with Lightroom (and then over to Photoshop), after I save the image - that image looks great and exactly how I want it to on my computer. However, when I email or upload, the photo is extremely desaturated and flat. The photo looks fine on my computer, but somehow it changes when I upload. I assume this is some kind of color space/settings issue, but being that I'm new to RAW processing and Lightroom to Photoshop workflow techniques, I can't seem to figure it out yet.

Problem 2: I've tried to edit a few photos side by side using both RAW editors. When I open up the same RAW file in Lightroom and in Digital Photo Professional, the photos look different. I'm getting a lot of extra noise on the files in Lightroom (and the photos seem a little darker with a little more detail/sharpness). I'm assuming this is because of differences in presets between the two programs? (ie, noise reduction presets in Digital Photo Professional (unsharp mask)). Do both of these RAW editors apply noise reduction and other presets to the RAW files?

Thanks for any comments or help!

 

[Big Mike]

Firstly, problem 1 sounds just like a color space issue. Raw files don't have a color space yet. When editing in Lightroom (and I assume DPP) there is very large working color space...but when you export the image and save it as an image file (Jpeg, Tiff, PSD etc.) you will have to choose a color space for the new image file.
Most internet browsers are only capable of interpreting sRBG properly, so if you inadvertently set the color space to something like AdobeRGB, it will look weird when you upload it.
So just make sure that you save the images with sRGB when you export (if your goal is uploading or printing at most labs etc.)

As for problem two, the two programs are different in how they interpret Raw files....so the image will likely look different from one program to another. But I'd guess that what you are seeing, are just the differences that come from different preset defaults. I don't know exactly what the defaults are, but noise reduction and sharpening are likely some of the things affected.

The thing to do, is to figure out what works for you and make that your own workflow. If you find that Lightroom applies too much sharpening, or not enough noise reduction...then you can change that. You can set up just about anything to be applied upon import, so you don't have to manually do it each time.

 

[afliegs]

Thanks for the tips, Mike!

I think I figured out the first problem. When I clicked on "Edit In Photoshop" from Lightroom, the default Color Space was ProPhoto RGB. When I changed it to sRGB, I don't seem to be having the same problem when emailing and uploading files after saving them.

Thanks!

 

[KmH]

Yep. Lightroom edits in the ProPhoto RGB color space, which is the color space most imaging editing experts recommend editing in, and then converting the color space to output requirements.

I agree with Mike on issue #2. Each Raw converter uses unique algorithms to render the raw image data file, so they all look somewhat different from each other, including before any edits are made.

 

[Ysarex]

Mike is right about the color space problem -- sRGB for the Internet.

The second problem is more complicated and involves more than just presets. Each raw converter pre-processes the raw file to come up with the image you see. The algorithms they use are proprietary and no two raw converters have a "default" setting that will get you the same image on screen. You can learn to work with each different program to get the results you want -- mostly. Every once in awhile I get an image that one converter just doesn't want to get right and I typically solve the problem by switching to another converter.

Joe