Lightroom Develop Question

[Beder]

Good day everyone,

first time posting here & am very pleased to be a part of the comunity.

I have a question that I am hoping any Lightroom users may help me with.

When importing a selection of raw images into the develop module you are required to wait a few minutes while the images load, these are all raw format, I notice that when the images become sharp after a few seconds that they change colour & contrast from the original look to a less contrasty & less vivid colour.

I have no presets selected during import, does anyone know why this is?

The files look great straight off the camera, I use manual exposure & manual WB all the time, but when viewing in Lightroom they seem flat & require a healthy dose of oomph to get them looking juicy.

Many thanks in advance,

Beder Kaddouri
Oxford, England
www.bederphotography.com (http://www.bederphotography.com)

[LanChop]

Beder,

I'd put this down to the default settings in LR that the Adobe developers chose as the starting point for the develop process. So when you first view the image in LR you'll be looking at it with the LR presets. Michael touches on this topic in his 'RAW without FUD' product.

Are you also using a Whibal? Selecting the WB from the Whibal shot and copying it to other similarly lit images will certainly get the image more true to life.

My humble recomendations are - Use a Whibal (if you aren't already) and purchase the RAW without FUD DVD which will be shipped anyday soon. In in the meantime, while waiting for the DVD, use the access to the online RAW without FUD content that the purchase gives. There's lots of great information and I, for one, am really looking forward to receiving the finished DVD product.

Hope this helps and I'm sure Michael will have some useful pointers for you also.

Regards,

LanChop

[Beder]

Thanks for the reply Lanchop, very interesting.

I am using a wibal, but not as often as I should, at present I shoot most of my wedding coverages in a manual WB usually 5200 & 3800 when indoors ceremony & getting ready shots.

I do a bulk colour correction by just dialling the correct colour temprature,
I'm wondering if a Wibal will give a better colour than just dialling in WB slider by eye.

I have the FUD DVD on order, so I'll hope I can get more imformation from there, anyhows I'll keep trying to perfect my workflow & see how I get on.

I just starting shooting RAW after five years as a Jpeg shooter, I've finally seen the light.

Best regards
Beder

[LanChop]

Hi Beder,

I think your comment that you colour correct by just 'dialing in the correct colour temperature' says a lot. To me, you give they way to go in the in your next line.

Don’t get me wrong, as I’m no expert, but just using two colour temperatures (5200 and 3800K) is asking too much for them to represent all lighting situations. In a church, for example, there may well be a mix of candlelight, tungsten and other light sources. I don’t see that you can reliably determine the WB for the shot without taking a Whibal shot in the light that is falling on the subject of the shot. You could always take a Whibal shot just before or after the ceremony without intruding on the wedding proceedings.

Also, when shooting with a Whibal set the WB setting in your camera to Auto as, so long as you have captured Whibal shots in the various lighting conditions though out the day, you can leave your colour correction to your LR workflow. By using the appropriate Whibal shot you can take copy the WB settings in LR and copy them to all other similarly lit images and get a datum point from which you can start fine-tuning the image settings.

Hope the above comments/opinions assist.

I’m sure Michael will comment on this but I guess he’s busy sticking postage stamps on our RAW without FUD DVD envelopes!

Regards,

LanChop