Presets - What The .....?

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

EdMacke

Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2008
Messages
35
Location
Chicago Burbs
I keep reading that LR will not process my Nikon D8' RAW files like Nikon does. And the advice I keep coming across keeps saying 2 things: a) ACR ignores the camera settings, and b) develop a preset to mimic the D8' processing.

I'm still as confused as ever...

> ACR ignores the camera settings
OK, exactly which camera settings does it ignore??? I mean, there have to be some settings (shutter and aperture come to mind) that have to be "baked into" the RAW image, no?

> Develop a preset
Again, everybody keeps saying to do this but nobody says exactly how.

I know how to save a preset, but how am I supposed to come up with Nikon-equivalent RAW processing in LR by tweaking some presets - this seems way beyond my knowledge! My D8' is a fairly popular camera - it seems like I should be able to find a Lightroom preset that I can apply to all my imports to give me a more "Nikon-like" image


I, like other posters, have seen a beautiful image pop up in LR only to have it turn into a bland lifeless image seconds later as a preview / render / whatever is done. Not good!

Thanks for any advice on how to get my "beautiful" images back...!!!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
It ignores the settings for the in-camera raw converter. The camera has a raw converter too, which is what is used to generate the JPEG that is displayed on the back of the camera (which is, in turn, used for the histogram). That JPEG is also embedded in the raw file, and is the image you see briefly before Lightroom generates its own JPEG.

The typical settings are things like brightness, contrast, saturation, etc., the same sorts of controls you find in any other raw converter.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Mark Sirota said:
That JPEG is also embedded in the raw file, and is the image you see briefly before Lightroom generates its own JPEG.

The typical settings are things like brightness, contrast, saturation, etc., the same sorts of controls you find in any other raw converter.
Click to expand...

Aha! So when I hear that ACR is ignoring camera settings, that's basically just saying that ACR is doing a different translation of the raw file than the in-camera raw processor?

And, so I guess my goal is to end up with an image in LR that looks more like the JPG preview in the raw file. That's not to say that the JPG is perfect, either, but it's a much better starting point than what I'm getting in LR.

Mind you, I'm not criticizing LR - I understand why it's "different" - but rather just looking for some practical, detailed advice on how to get an image in LR that is closer to the Nikon JPG w/o having to manually tweak every image.

Thanks!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
EdMacke said:
I keep reading that LR will not process my Nikon D8' RAW files like Nikon does...
...
> Develop a preset
Again, everybody keeps saying to do this but nobody says exactly how.
Click to expand...
Ed, I just found this for you as a starting point...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Denis Pagé said:
My advice would be to suggest reading this first...
Click to expand...

Denis, thanks, the link works now.

Actually, I had read that post before I posted my question. :oops:

What Brad was talking about was the in-camera raw processing (producing a JPG preview) versus ACR raw processing producing the image we see in LR.

Upon re-reading and thinking about Mark's comments in this thread, Brad's post makes much more sense. That kind of answers the part about ACR ignoring camera settings.

So.... Part 1 answered.

But, I'm still very much in the dark as to exactly what to do in LR to at least get LR close to what my in-camera raw processor is doing. Right now, my in-camera JPG preview and the LR image aren't even in the same ballpark.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Denis Pagé said:
Ed, I just found this for you as a starting point...
Click to expand...

Reporting back, as promised...

Denis, these presets worked great!

As a control, I shot a few pics that I thought might be good tests.

I then used this free JPG extractor to pull the embedded JPGs out of the NEFs. I then imported the extracted JPGs and NEFs into Lightroom.

So I had two side-by-side versions of the same image: the JPG represented the "Nikon" interpretation of the raw file, and the NEF represented the ACR interpretation of the raw file.

Using the D2'' NX presets (especially the Color Mode III), I was able to easily tweak the NEFs to create images that were very close to the JPG "standard" that I was looking for.

Following Lars' instructions, I bunched together several of the presets, and saved them as my new, default D8' import settings. As a final test, I re-imported the NEFs, using my new "D8' Import" settings, and compared them to the extracted JPGs and they were very close. Of course, there are subtle differences, but that's OK. It doesn't have to be perfect.

So long story short: I now "automagically" get a raw image in LR that has the Nikon "feel" to it, which is exactly what I wanted.

Thanks to all for the advice and explanations - it really helped!

I'm now a happy camper!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
EdMacke said:
Reporting back, as promised...

Denis, these presets worked great!

...Thanks to all for the advice and explanations - it really helped!

I'm now a happy camper!
Click to expand...
Nice to hear!:D
As I can see, you can now really apply rule #5... ;)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top