Lightroom and Nikon RAW vs JPG

[DavidGregg]

I've been battling something here for a little while and need some help.

I suspected the change in a the color quality my camera was producing. I am no longer using Nikon software but now only Lightroom and CS4. I typically shoot RAW format.

Well, the colors just seem off. no matter what camera calibration profile I use. they just don't seem to pop like they used to.

I had a suspicion that Lightroom cannot take the RAW and display it in the manner that the Nikon software would. So I tried a little experiment.

I set the camera to save RAW *and* JPG. I then loaded them side by side into Lightroom.

The JPG displays very nice. The RAW is flat and lifeless in comparison. I then tried cycling through each of the camera calibration profiles in Lightroom. Some, such as "Camera DX2 Mode 1" looked pretty good as did the "Camera Landscape" profile. Again they looked pretty good but not as nice as the JPG.

So, any advise? Anybody have a decent "developer preset" that fixes this?

Oh, and I can't use the Nikon tools to convert to TIF prior to loading into lightroom because their tools don't work on VIsta 64bit...


Thanks.

[KmH]

Originally Posted by DavidGregg

I've been battling something here for a little while and need some help.

I suspected the change in a the color quality my camera was producing. I am no longer using Nikon software but now only Lightroom and CS4. I typically shoot RAW format.

Well, the colors just seem off. no matter what camera calibration profile I use. they just don't seem to pop like they used to.

I had a suspicion that Lightroom cannot take the RAW and display it in the manner that the Nikon software would. So I tried a little experiment.

I set the camera to save RAW *and* JPG. I then loaded them side by side into Lightroom.

The JPG displays very nice. The RAW is flat and lifeless in comparison. I then tried cycling through each of the camera calibration profiles in Lightroom. Some, such as "Camera DX2 Mode 1" looked pretty good as did the "Camera Landscape" profile. Again they looked pretty good but not as nice as the JPG.

So, any advise? Anybody have a decent "developer preset" that fixes this?

Oh, and I can't use the Nikon tools to convert to TIF prior to loading into lightroom because their tools don't work on VIsta 64bit...


Thanks.

JPEG is a print format and your camera has a built in processing engine that processed them, contrast, saturation, sharpening, before recording them to your memory card.

RAW is a data format. Most RAW converters do no image processing at all. Nikon's RAW converter is one of the few that do, though what processing it does is minimal.

Check what color space each version is in. Most are using the ProPhotoRGB color space in Lightroom 2.2.

[blumesan]

If you search around a bit you will find that this subject has been discussed in a number of threads. It is just a fact of life that raw images opened in Lightroom or ACR (using any default profile/camera profile) will just not "pop" like the jpeg out of camera. That is because the in-camera processing of the jpeg image has applied various amounts of sharpening, saturation enhancement, contrast enhancement, etc. I am sure if you take some time to fine tune the raw image in LR or ACR you can achieve the same or better quality images. If you find some settings you like, you can save them as new defaults for routine use.

Cheers.

[DavidGregg]

Originally Posted by blumesan

If you find some settings you like, you can save them as new defaults for routine use.

Exactly... I was hoping somebody had some generic 'presets' that actually worked well for them. The ones I have found are really no better than what I come up with myself.

I used to use Nikon tools on the front end prior to photoshop. But since upgrading my computer, I now use Lightroom since the Nikon tools don't run on 64bit OSs.

That said, It seems as though I have more tweaking to do

[DavidGregg]

Found my problem.... Reset all Lightroom defaults. My custom camera calibrations are now working as expected!

Moral - Don' t be afraid to go through the preferences and reset things to the defaults and start over

[Anna...]

David,

What was the problem Seems I have exactly the same one!

Nikon DX2, 64 bit computer... And my jpeg in Lightroom looks nice, but Raw files off color, and all color modes doesn't help much)))

Please explain to me what you did

Thanks,
Anna

[blumesan]

Anna,
First of all WELCOME TO THE CAMEL!

For you and all others who are having the problem that the raw images when loaded into Lightroom or ACR don't look like your jpegs: The place to start is to look at what settings you have chosen in the camera to process the jpeg images, such as Softer/Vivid/More Vivid, or the custom settings for sharpening, contrast, saturation and hue (all in the "shooting menu"). Since Lightroom and ACR pay no attention to these settings when opening the raw file, you must set/edit them yourself. There are a multitude of controls in the raw software to do just that, and in addition a variety of camera profiles to give you even more options. It's a bit daunting at first but some experimenting will teach you a lot. Once you have found settings that you like, you can store them as LR/ACR defaults and they will be used automatically each time you open an image. From there you can fine tune.

[DavidGregg]

If you've messed around with the Lightroom defaults, reset them. When importing your NEF files, make certain you are not also applying a preset automatically (unless this is what you want). Lastly, I found it easier to scrap the Nikon camera calibration profiles and use Adobe Standard for everything, tweaking what is needed after that. You will quickly get the hang of how to boost the colors, sharpen, set contrast , etc... Make note of the settings you often use and the types of images that use those setting and save them as presets. That way when you are in the develop module, you can hover over your custom presets and choose the most appropriate starting place. I say starting place because I've yet to make a preset that is perfect for everything (you can only get that in camera produced JPGs or if you use NX2 to convert your images to JPG or TIF prior to using Lightroom. The convert step just isn't worth the time. Additionally, nikon software is not supported on 64 bit platforms.

Perhaps one day Nikon will allow 3rd parties to interpret the secret sauce saved within the NEF files so using excellent tools like Lightroom could be easier.

[taswood]

Maybe I should have started a different thread but I thought I would ask here. Has anyone had any issues with printing out of lightroom? I have experienced problems with the color and saturation in the print. It looks fine on my monitor and then when I print it is really messed up. Any help?

[DavidGregg]

Monitor calibration or even the 'brightness" of your display? Please see http://photocamel.com/forum/image-editing-color-management/82833-im-calibrated-but-im-still-having-issues.html