I have been noticing that when I upload my photos into Lightroom the color, saturation and vibrance seems to lighten from what I can see on my live view screen. So I created a preset so that when I upload future photos I can click on that preset to automatically deepen the color, saturation and vibrancy without having to do all those things individually.
The colors seem to fade when I upload my photos, too. I haven't tried any presets but, it sounds like a good idea. The color looks fabulous on this grouping of flowers!
Presets are awesome, I have a lot of them made. I also had to compare on several monitors as they all vary in color & brightness to find happy mediums...and too be honest, not sure I've found it yet or if it's to be had. Anyway, it's a fun adventure for killing time LOL. Oh, and nice image!
@joansmor - Thank you Joan, I am not sure I will use it on every image.
@mittens - I am still learning. I bought PhotoShop first and have a better grasp of it. I thought that since PhotoShop and Lightroom were both photo editing software made by the same company they would be similar in how they work, but that sure isn't the case. I have found many tutorials on You Tube that has helped me learn my way around PhotoShop, but the Lightroom tutorials haven't been as helpful. At least not for me. It's almost like me changing from a film camera to a digital camera. I could easily set my aperture on my film camera and know what the DoF would be based on the scale on the lens. the digital cameras don't have that so it took me a while to rethink what I was doing.
@paulam - Thank you Paula! I have set my camera to shoot 1 or 1 and a third stops underexposed to see if that helped, but it didn't. As I load them into Lightroom when they first appear they look like they do in my live preview, but as they finish loading they look washed out.
@maggiemae - When I took the pictures of the covered bridges awhile back I wanted to retain the red color, but Lightroom washed it out. I am not sure if this is something everybody is faced with using Lightroom that there is a setting you can select to keep it from happening or if it is strictly a Lightroom thing. My thinking is, why am I made to have to edit every photo I take to make it look like what I saw? That means I can't say any of my photos are SOOC.
@icamera - Do you give Lightroom lessons? Do you notice a change in your photos as you load them into Lightroom? Before I bought Lightroom I used Bridge to load them into PhotoShop and my photos looked like they did in my camera. I haven't found any answers as to why LR washes almost everything out? I bought a Colorminki display calibrator some time ago because when I sent prints away they didn't look like what I saw on my monitor. Is has helped a lot, but it isn't 100% Yes, you definitely can kill time editing! ツ
@wannabe - Thank you Catherine! It seems like many top ranked photographers are using LR to edit their photos. I don't know if I personally would say it has helped me edit mine as much as I can say PhotoShop has. But that could be due to me feeling more comfortable with PS over LR since I have used PS for years.
@mzzhope - While this brought out more detail, it still doesn't match the color of the flowers. The flowers are actually a deep burgundy/brown. I've been playing around with the white balance a little. I think I need to get a grey card and try that.
@lyndemc - Thank you Denise. I love Autumn. I hope this Autumn is more colorful than last year.
@skipt07 I haven't to date, I certainly don't mind trying to pass along some info. where/how I learned LR: If you have $25USD I recommend signing up for KelbyOne.com. It's a $25/mo subscription. I signed up and then canceled three weeks later - after I had watched all the LR instruction videos. $25 for some solid LR instruction was quite worth it.
Aside from that, my first question would be are you shooting RAW or JPG? If shooting RAW, those images are quite dull when pulling in to LR. When shooting RAW, the back of the camera will present a 'converted' JPG, but what gets pulled into LR is the RAW which will look incredibly dull in comparison to what you saw on back of camera as it will be minus the 'in-camera' JPG conversion.
If you're shooting JPG then there shouldn't be that much of a difference between back of camera and original in LR but it's still possible. The next thing I would wonder is if a preset is somehow being applied on import. Check the LR Preferences dialog as well as the Import dialog (there is a section "Apply During Import") to make sure it's not doing anything you don't know about. Another quick thing in LR to try to match what you saw on camera screen is in Develop mode, on right panel select Camera Calibration" section. There is a Profiles dropdown. If LR has read the info in your image correctly, that dropdown should list the various "in-camera" profiles for JPG. Selecting one of those should match it up. If colors are still way off after then there is definitely something odd going on. Another way to see if LR is doing anything on import is in "Develop" mode before you do anything, hit the "\" key for a Before and After toggle. Is there any difference in what you see between Before and After?
Feel free to email me "joe at digipicsbyjoe dot com" and I'd be happy to discuss LR more!
@skipt07 Skip, I don't even have Photoshop anymore. When we replaced our computer it didn't have Photoshop on it. I did buy Lightroom and it seems easier to use than Photoshop. I have also found some great tutorials on YouTube for Lightroom which has been very helpful. I love the processing side of photography even thought I'm very limited with it. Anyway, enjoy using Lightroom.
@skipt07 I just caught your reply to Paula. It really sounds like LR is applying some sort of preset on import... I'd be real interested to see if you go to Develop a newly imported image, right-click on it, select Settings -> Reset. Does that do anthing (like maybe hopefully reverting it back to something more original?)
@icamera - I do shoot in RAW. When I started I shot in the highest resolution of jpeg. But when I joined a camera club the president was giving a lesson of PhotoShop one night and he recommended shooing in RAW saying that it gives you more options and control over when editing the jpeg allows you. So I changed to RAW.
I just loaded a photo into LR and it did the same thing. The image first appears and it looks like it does in camera. At the center bottom of the image is a little box with "Loading" inside of it. When that box disappears you see the image change to a lighter version. When I open it in Develop the reset button is highlighted but if I click on it I see no change. I look at the history button and it shows like there is something there. When I open it to see what has been applied it's the reset.
The only thing checked in the Import preferences was "Select the 'Current/Previous Import' collection during import.'"
@skipt07 He is right, and so are you - RAW is best. But it looks quite different in LR and/or PS (Camera Raw) than on back of camera. Back of camera is an "in-camera" conversion of the RAW to JPG. You can potentially emulate that in LR by:
* In Develop mode, go to Camera Calibration section in right panel
* In Profiles drop down menu, you should see various values corresponding to your camera's picture modes, e.g. "Vivid, Standard, Landscape, etc". Names vary based on manufacturer and model. If you select one of those, it will apply a preset to the image that should get it fairly close to what you saw on the back of the camera. I personally have a preset that I apply to nearly every image as a starting point:
As to why it starts to look fine on import then changes, I haven't paid very close attention to what goes on when I import, but I suspect that might have to do with LR generation of previews.
@icamera - Can I just come over to your house and you show me? ツ
Wow you certainly know your LR stuff. Thank you very much! When I have some time where I can sit down and follow your instructions on creating this preset I will let you know.
Here is what happens. I may have given you some false information or wrong impression of what happens. I put my camera card in the card reader. I then tell LR to import. I then have to show LR where to import from. The images are displayed and all are check marked. LR then loads them into a folder on the C drive that I have named My Pictures. I then move them to an external drive at the end of the day. After they are loaded into LR and I double click on each image for the first time, which shows just that one image, a little window at the button of the viewing area saying "Loading". At that time the image looks like it does in my camera. After it finishes loading if you watch it, 5-10 seconds, the image will change to a lighter look. Again, thank you for taking the time to share you knowledge of LR. I will look into Scott Kelby's LR tutorials. I have been a fan of his on shooting an PS. I don't recall seeing anything by him on LR.
Sometimes when I put in the lens corrections, I don't like the changes it makes to the images. It tends to lighten it even more.
@icamera - I thought I'd better let you know that I went into LR and created a preset using your settings. Most of the photos that I view and pass the mouse over the preset shows little if any change to the images in the preview window. I changed the setting on my camera to start talking both RAW and JPG images to see if that makes any difference.
October 16th, 2014
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@mittens - I am still learning. I bought PhotoShop first and have a better grasp of it. I thought that since PhotoShop and Lightroom were both photo editing software made by the same company they would be similar in how they work, but that sure isn't the case. I have found many tutorials on You Tube that has helped me learn my way around PhotoShop, but the Lightroom tutorials haven't been as helpful. At least not for me. It's almost like me changing from a film camera to a digital camera. I could easily set my aperture on my film camera and know what the DoF would be based on the scale on the lens. the digital cameras don't have that so it took me a while to rethink what I was doing.
@paulam - Thank you Paula! I have set my camera to shoot 1 or 1 and a third stops underexposed to see if that helped, but it didn't. As I load them into Lightroom when they first appear they look like they do in my live preview, but as they finish loading they look washed out.
@maggiemae - When I took the pictures of the covered bridges awhile back I wanted to retain the red color, but Lightroom washed it out. I am not sure if this is something everybody is faced with using Lightroom that there is a setting you can select to keep it from happening or if it is strictly a Lightroom thing. My thinking is, why am I made to have to edit every photo I take to make it look like what I saw? That means I can't say any of my photos are SOOC.
@seattlite - Thank you Gloria!
@kerristephens - Thank you Kerri!
@soboy5 - Thank you Danny!
@gilbertwood - Thank you Denise!
@denisedaly - Thank you Denise!
@lucypics - Thank you Lucy. They sit on our front porch in a flower pot. It's good to see you!
@eyesmile - Thank you so much Gena!
@kwind - Thank you very much Kim!
@icamera - Do you give Lightroom lessons? Do you notice a change in your photos as you load them into Lightroom? Before I bought Lightroom I used Bridge to load them into PhotoShop and my photos looked like they did in my camera. I haven't found any answers as to why LR washes almost everything out? I bought a Colorminki display calibrator some time ago because when I sent prints away they didn't look like what I saw on my monitor. Is has helped a lot, but it isn't 100% Yes, you definitely can kill time editing! ツ
@wannabe - Thank you Catherine! It seems like many top ranked photographers are using LR to edit their photos. I don't know if I personally would say it has helped me edit mine as much as I can say PhotoShop has. But that could be due to me feeling more comfortable with PS over LR since I have used PS for years.
@mzzhope - While this brought out more detail, it still doesn't match the color of the flowers. The flowers are actually a deep burgundy/brown. I've been playing around with the white balance a little. I think I need to get a grey card and try that.
@lyndemc - Thank you Denise. I love Autumn. I hope this Autumn is more colorful than last year.
Aside from that, my first question would be are you shooting RAW or JPG? If shooting RAW, those images are quite dull when pulling in to LR. When shooting RAW, the back of the camera will present a 'converted' JPG, but what gets pulled into LR is the RAW which will look incredibly dull in comparison to what you saw on back of camera as it will be minus the 'in-camera' JPG conversion.
If you're shooting JPG then there shouldn't be that much of a difference between back of camera and original in LR but it's still possible. The next thing I would wonder is if a preset is somehow being applied on import. Check the LR Preferences dialog as well as the Import dialog (there is a section "Apply During Import") to make sure it's not doing anything you don't know about. Another quick thing in LR to try to match what you saw on camera screen is in Develop mode, on right panel select Camera Calibration" section. There is a Profiles dropdown. If LR has read the info in your image correctly, that dropdown should list the various "in-camera" profiles for JPG. Selecting one of those should match it up. If colors are still way off after then there is definitely something odd going on. Another way to see if LR is doing anything on import is in "Develop" mode before you do anything, hit the "\" key for a Before and After toggle. Is there any difference in what you see between Before and After?
Feel free to email me "joe at digipicsbyjoe dot com" and I'd be happy to discuss LR more!
I just loaded a photo into LR and it did the same thing. The image first appears and it looks like it does in camera. At the center bottom of the image is a little box with "Loading" inside of it. When that box disappears you see the image change to a lighter version. When I open it in Develop the reset button is highlighted but if I click on it I see no change. I look at the history button and it shows like there is something there. When I open it to see what has been applied it's the reset.
The only thing checked in the Import preferences was "Select the 'Current/Previous Import' collection during import.'"
* In Develop mode, go to Camera Calibration section in right panel
* In Profiles drop down menu, you should see various values corresponding to your camera's picture modes, e.g. "Vivid, Standard, Landscape, etc". Names vary based on manufacturer and model. If you select one of those, it will apply a preset to the image that should get it fairly close to what you saw on the back of the camera. I personally have a preset that I apply to nearly every image as a starting point:
* Contrast +25
* Highlights -25
* Shadows +25
* Whites -25
* Blacks +25
* Clarity +15
* Vibrance +15
* Saturation +5
* Sharpening 70; Radius 1.5, Detail 10, Masking 30
* Noise Reduction Color 25
* Lens Corrections; Enable Profile Corrections, Remove Chromatic Aberration
...then I start adjusting from there
As to why it starts to look fine on import then changes, I haven't paid very close attention to what goes on when I import, but I suspect that might have to do with LR generation of previews.
Wow you certainly know your LR stuff. Thank you very much! When I have some time where I can sit down and follow your instructions on creating this preset I will let you know.
Here is what happens. I may have given you some false information or wrong impression of what happens. I put my camera card in the card reader. I then tell LR to import. I then have to show LR where to import from. The images are displayed and all are check marked. LR then loads them into a folder on the C drive that I have named My Pictures. I then move them to an external drive at the end of the day. After they are loaded into LR and I double click on each image for the first time, which shows just that one image, a little window at the button of the viewing area saying "Loading". At that time the image looks like it does in my camera. After it finishes loading if you watch it, 5-10 seconds, the image will change to a lighter look. Again, thank you for taking the time to share you knowledge of LR. I will look into Scott Kelby's LR tutorials. I have been a fan of his on shooting an PS. I don't recall seeing anything by him on LR.
Sometimes when I put in the lens corrections, I don't like the changes it makes to the images. It tends to lighten it even more.