Why when I shoot in RAW????

stsinner

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Why, when I shoot in RAW and only then, do both Lightroom2 and Picasa 3 display my picture as taken as soon as the picture comes up, but then just a few seconds later, darken them down and make the colors just ugly? These programs are making automatic adjustments that I really don't like and can't reverse. Of course the original is untouched, and if I go back to ViewNX they are still vibrant and colorful, but how annoying.. I go into Lightroom to play with the exposure or horizon, and it starts by making unflattering adjustments to my pictures. If I open both ViewNX and Lightroom and switch between them, you'd swear it was a different picture..

Has anyone else run into this, and what do you do to stop the program from taking creative liberties with your pictures?
 
i'm just taking a stab at it, but perhaps camera profiles??? sounds like you have it set to automatically batch edit (on import) to a certain camera profile.. could be wrong, but thats my guess
 
i'm just taking a stab at it, but perhaps camera profiles??? sounds like you have it set to automatically batch edit (on import) to a certain camera profile.. could be wrong, but thats my guess


That's a damn good guess, because I have no idea what you're talking about.. Let me go search for that... Do you have to set it in both Picasa and Lightroom? They can't just get that from the exif...??
 
I was going to ask the same thing. At least I know Im not crazy now, LR2 is doing it to me as well. About 2 seconds after going to full screen view, colors all go flat. There is no mention of any changes being performed in the edit history box, so nothing I can undo. I went through all my settings and there is no default batch processing / editing being done on import.
 
I was going to ask the same thing. At least I know Im not crazy now, LR2 is doing it to me as well. About 2 seconds after going to full screen view, colors all go flat. There is no mention of any changes being performed in the edit history box, so nothing I can undo. I went through all my settings and there is no default batch processing / editing being done on import.

I couldn't find those settings, either, and LR2 just makes my pictures suck! I want it to leave them alone until I tell it to do something...
 
Weird, I have neither, so can't help, maybe see what it does in preferences.
 
LR2
Edit>Preferences>External Editing>Additional External Editor>set file format Tiff / color space ProPhoto RGB & bit compression 16bit
 
LR2
Edit>Preferences>External Editing>Additional External Editor>set file format Tiff / color space ProPhoto RGB & bit compression 16bit

If you meant bit depth, then done! Let see if that works, and thanks!
 
Actually, I just tried it, and it still dumbed my pictures down.. Blah!
 
In LR2 go to the Develop module and scroll down to the last section on the right hand side called Camera Calibration. Open that and at the top of that box you will see Profiles. To the right of that you will see a profile name and a set of up/down arrows next to it. Click on that and if you only see two profiles ACR 3.6 and 4.4, you will need to download the beta2 profiles from the Adobe site or update your LR2 software to ver 2.2. Once you get the new profiles, select Adobe Standard or Adobe Standard Beta 2 and you will get a much better starting profile.

Remember the view you get in LR2 is just a starting point. Only minor adjustments have been made to the raw data for the preview you are seeing. You need to make the appropriate adjustments to get the file looking like you want it.
 
LR and PICASSA can not duplicate your in cameras COLOR MODE. If the D50 has an assigned "color mode" (VIVID, NEUTRAL, STANDARD, etc) - this will be discarded by any editing program OTHER than CaptureNX. . .including Photoshop. They will apply their "own" Auto Color adjustment. If you want to maintain the "look" of your photo, then you need to edit it in CaptureNX first (creating a JPEG), and then work on the JPEG in whatever other program you have.
 
If this is only happening when you shoot RAW files, I suspect that what is actually happening is the opposite of what your are describing (in technical terms). Your camera is applying brightening, sharpening, color correction to the files, and your other program is accepting it (not reading the RAW file correctly). LR and Picassa are probably reading the files correctly, which removes the camera's changes. So instead of the programs editing the photos to make them ugly, you're actually getting the real information straight from the chip.
 

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