I have imported my photos into Lightroom (RAW) and the colors straight out of camera are stunning. But, a couple of second in Lightroom, and it changes my colors, sort of dulling them down. I don't have anything set to apply on import, and it seems to do it regardless of JPG or RAW. Any idea what's up?

Ksenia

Ksenia,

This has been my biggest frustration with Lightroom. It's my understanding that Lightroom has its own color space, but when you export you select AdobeRGB or sRGB. Calibrating my monitor to sRGB seems to have helped. I'm sure others with more expertise can give a better explanation.

you need to download or create a camera calibration preset. these presets can be applied automatically upon import and can also be adjusted for each camera, ISO setting etc if you'd like. i've just started experimenting with calibration presets for both of my 1D series bodies, and the results are fantastic. no program will perfectly render your camera's colors without some information telling it what to process.

google "lightroom extra" and you may find what you are looking for. i don't have the URL at the moment, but I remember getting presets from that site, or another one that is linked there.

The Adobe Lightroom Podcast have the answer you seek in detail. It just published a great tutorial in the inside working of Lightroom. (search for it in itunes or go to George jardine blog

Basically, what you see right away when you import is the jpg that your camera created that comes inside your raw file. It is what you see in the LCD screen in the back of your camera. Once Lightroom interprets the RAW data it creates a new preview and discard the one first one. That is why you will see a change in your preview.

Remember that the jpg that is part of the raw file is an interpretation of your camera software of the RAW file and as part of the process it will process the file with all the settings of your camera. So it aboosts saturation, contrast, color balance settings, etc. The RAW data is just that RAW data and it has to be interpret by you in Lightroom. The advantages of this are discuss or debated constantly in the RAW vs. JPG forum.

What you can do is create a preset in lightroom that renders the image as you want it and apply that preset as part of the import step. That may give you a better starting point.

Hope this help you.

That helps a ton, actually!

Thank you!

Ksenia

Yup, what David said. To add to it, what you see upon importing the RAW file is the JPG image as your camera manufacturer interpreted the captured image. Then Lightroom's RAW engine goes through and interpret the RAW data it's own way, and is the result you see second. The secret formula to convert the data from the sensor to an image from each camera manufacture is a closely guarded secret. That is why Nikon released their own Capture NX program where they claim is the only program that can fully unlock the image from their own sensor as they have engineered it, instead of the "interpretation" that software like Lightroom, Photoshop, etc. al. does. Sounds good enough...but in the end, the interpretation and my own curves/presets turns the final image into the result I am looking for.

-David