importing problems - noise & colour issues

[Nabeel]

I am a Nikon D5' user and up until recently have been using the software that came with the Camera, namely Nikon PictureProject 1.5. It's a clunky bit of software but served me well, albeit pretty slowly, for just under a year.
I read into it and decided to get lightroom for my mac and am currently using 1.4.1.

Theoretically, LR was perfect but from the first time i imported images i noticed a problem which i can't get round. LR seemed to have terrible noise issues and it would also discolour my images to the point that no messing around in Develop mode could restore them to their correct colours.

The best way is for me to show you...
From the attached images, the one titled PictureProject - NEF.jpg is a test image which i imported straight into pictureproject and which i feel most truly recreates what i see on my D5' display. This is good, this makes me happy.

The next image is LR-PreAuto NEF.jpg This image is what lightroom shows when it has freshly imported my NEF. I am aware that there are the possibilities of having import settings which could affect images while importing but i haven't managed to locate these yet, maybe this is an option but i feel the problem runs deeper than this.

Next is image LR-PostAuto NEF.jpg This Auto is after hitting the Auto Tone option in Develop mode hoping that would help. It's an improvement but still not a touch on the pictureproject version.

My other issue is with what seems like a loss of detail. In other shots mine it has come across as very noticeable blocky noise in dark parts of the shot, here you can best see it in the below shots. The first image is a zoomed section of the PictureProject image PictureProject Zoomed NEF.jpg if you ignore the standard noise you'd expect of a D5' ISO2'' and then a screen grab made of it, but look more at the detail of the hair.... and then look at a zoomed image of the Pre Auto'd LR image LR-ZoomedPreAuto NEF.jpg the difference is MASSIVE!!

These here are my problems. I've read through some related threads and there seems to have been no answer to those but *fingers crosed* with the help of these images someone out there will save me from the personal hell of moving back to Nikon Picture Project, however better the image quality is, it is soooooooooooooooo slow.

Thank you for taking the time to read this drawn out rant.
nabeel

 

[Denis Pagé]

...These here are my problems. I've read through some related threads and there seems to have been no answer to those but *fingers crosed* with the help of these images someone out there will save me from the personal hell of moving back to Nikon Picture Project, however better the image quality is, it is soooooooooooooooo slow.

Thank you for taking the time to read this drawn out rant.
nabeel

First welcome to the forums Nabeel!
I hope that your pictures are not generally that dark!

Unless you are shooting with a D3 or D7'' nuch noise have to be expected for images so much underexposed. The "Auto" in Lightroom can frequently salvage what was tought at first to be a total loss but it is not perfect. It gives you a starting point tough. In such a case, I would prefer to go manually...

For the "As Imported" images (last two), this is normal as Lightroom do not have access to full Nikon (TM) processes. It does its own interpretation then. You may be interested by the conclusion of this current thread.

"Noise about noise" by Mark Segal is a nice reading to do in your case.
As for working in the darks THIS is a must read.

You can also consider working this single shot with Nikon PictureProject 1.5 and do the better exposed ones with Lightroom.

 

[Nabeel]

thank you denis, and no the pictures weren't that dark when i loaded them up, they seem to have been darkened since(?) i will try to upload them again.

But in the meantime i will try reading those threads. Thank you

 

[Denis Pagé]

...But in the meantime i will try reading those threads. Thank you

Even if this do not apply because your shot wasn't that dark, this is good reading anyway.