Help I'm struggling...

I know I'm not the only one with this problem, but I have not figured out the fix completely.

My photos look wonderful in my D100's LCD, but Lightroom is making them ugly when I import them. I've done a few searches and now understand it has to do with camera calibration and true NEF color files not being available. (I'm not super computer savvy so forgive me if the techno jargon is a little off.)

I've tried downloading a preset for a D200 but that is not working at all for me.

I'm using a Nikon D100 and LR 1.4.1, shooting raw.

Does anyone around here have a successful fix?

Blessings & much thanks in advance!
~Renée

Here's the deal:

Your D100 has a set of presets that you've chosen to make the files look just like you want them to look. Those settings are read by Nikon Capture (NX or earlier) and are applied to your NEF files so they look just like preview JPEGs.

Lightroom is not Nikon Capture. Lightroom has no idea what to do with the settings in the NEF files. So it just applies a default set of settings to each file -- usually looking really dull and flat and just basically crappy.

You'll need to make a preset (in Lightroom) for your D100 so they end up looking just like you want them to look. This is a real PITA to do, but it must be done. You can get started by finding some presets (Google) and that should get you started. You'll likely want to tweak them a bit. It'll be harder to find a D100 preset than for another, newer, camera, but you should be able to find one.

It would be fantastic if Lightroom could accept plugins and then if Nikon made a Capture NX plugin for Lightroom that would apply all the NEF-specific settings, but I don't see that happening any time soon. I'm sure Nikon could charge whatever they charge for NX for the plugin and they'd sell tons.

I'd help you out, but I don't use Lightroom.

Excellent idea Adam! they really should I know of at least one Nikon user that would be doing cartwheels. Not quite, but it would make me very happy I can't get into using NX even after a couple of attempts to incorporate it.

Does anyone know if this problem is fixed in LR 2.0 with the latest update of the camera calibration? I hear it is suppose to be camera specific. So I'm wondering if it will work for me if I upgrade to a D200 or D300.

It doesn't have anything (or, at least not much) to do with camera calibration. You'll need to make a new preset.