Participant

Question

Applying Lens Corrections Across Entire Import

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
September 3, 2011
2 replies
44283 views

When I choose an image, one of the first things I always do is apply lens corrections. In 99% of the cases, I don't have to tweak these. I'm shooting with multiple camera bodies, and an import normally happens from hard disk, but it would be wonderful if during the import Lightroom could apply the lens corrections that correspond to the lens/camera body used for each image imported.

A preset seems like it would have to know or assume the camera body/lens combination in advance. That's why I've initially ruled presets out. Do I have this right or would a preset honor the camera/lens combinations from image to image?

Thanks,

Steve

This topic has been closed for replies.

H

helen_gossweiler

Inspiring

s.ross wrote:
... would a preset honor the camera/lens combinations from image to image?

Yes, it does. Make sure you only have "Lens Profile Corrections" checked to be part of the preset (if you don't want anything else).

An alternative way is to make Lens Profile Corrections part of your default settings. To do so, go to an image in Develop, click "Reset" on it and apply all the value you want to be part of the default. Then press Alt and click the set "Set Default" button. You will have to repeat this step for all camera models you are working with.

One word about applying lens correction at import:

It is known that applying lens correction has a negative performance impact especially in spot removal. If your machine is fast, this may not affect you, but for this reason many people apply lens correction as one of the last steps in the develop workflow.

Beat

Y

YunusEmre

Participant

The problem with setting the default is that if you have already 'developed', i.e made modifications the lens correction is not applied unless you 'reset' in develop. I guess the only way to apply the lens correction to previously developed images is to use synchronize. Which is painful as I find myself wanting to do this to a lot of pictures.

RichardFlack

Known Participant

(Im fairly new to LR and digital image processing generally but learning a lot as i go ...)

Looking at this thread Im still a bit unclear as to what the best workflow is for me. I think I get the basic trade-off.

My main concern is regarding my primary camera's stock lens Sony A6000 / PZ 16-50mm lens.

I seem to find that when zoomed there is very pronounced barrel distortion at edges / corners and I'm applying profile correction just about all the time.

Aside from the 'crop' effect of the correction I don't see any negatives (no, not a pun).

Before I make a final decision, I want to be clear on a couple of points.

- I'm not clear ow this interacts with other develop changes. If I import (with profile correction), make other develop changes, can I then undo the profile just by unchecking the box? I think YunusEmre is saying no, but its not clear to me.

- How significant is the loss of resolution cited by trshaner... relative to say using 90% of the image in an 8 x 10" print or a 23" 1920 x 1200 pixel monitor - is it only significant in more demanding situations?

- I will probably not want to apply profile correction automatically on the 55-210mm zoom that seems to produce relatively little distortion.

My main alternate camera is Nikon P340 (other cameras are Nikon D60, and Nikon S31 which really doesn't count here) but I haven't really looked at this issue with those cameras or the impact of their lens profiles.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

L

Lee_Jay-ZyZk56

Participating Frequently

First of all, applying lens corrections all the time isn't always a good idea. They have consequences and the consequences can be more negative than any positive benefits.

The way to do it is to select all pictures, turn on auto-sync, and click the enable checkbox. Then turn off autosync.

A

affectionate_Lark16B8Author

Participant

Is there any way to quantify "consequences can be more negative..."? I have had pretty close to zero consequences and I've processed thousands of images with the new process and lens correction on Canon 5DMII and 1Ds MIII with mostly L-Series lenses. Besides performance issues, what negative issues have you observed? How does this negatively affect healing?

Todd Shaner

Legend

While I understand that correcting distortion requires some pixel bending, that's applied to the RAW file and can be un-applied (if that's a term) by unchecking the box. If I were doing this, then stamping it into some other form like TIFF or JPEG for further use, I'll grant that it would be destructive. However, what I'm thinking about is more like doing a sensor-spot removal across an entire shoot. Sure, it won't work perfectly all the time, but if it works more than 60% of the time, you're doing great. In the case of lens corrections, my experience has been better. If I'm shooting wide angle, then of course, I will evaluate the image to see whether the correction has a desirable or undesirable effect.

I say all of this to clarify that I am not looking for a silver bullet that will give me license to never think about the impact of this setting again. I'm just looking to automate a commonly-performed action. And... I find myself adding vignetting rarely and when I do, I usually use Color Efex Pro (no particular reason -- Lightroom is just as good, that's just how I work).

Thanks for the great answers! I guess by marking your answers as useful I removed the option of marking them "correct." Bummer on that one, but they're both correct and useful.

Steve

I agree with everything stated here, but use a workflow that may work better for you. I reset my lens profile default settings to 0% Distortion, 100% C Aberration, and 50% Vignetting, and then select 'Lens Profile Corrections' as a part of each camera body's default Develop settings (Develop>Set Default Settings>Update To Current Settings).

Here's my rationale based on processing 1,000s of images in LR shot with numerous single focal length, wide angle zoom and telephoto zoom lenses:

- Distortion is normally only visible in pictures that contain distinct straight line objects. My Canon 17-40mm L lens has fairly high barrel distortion at 17mm on my full frame 5D MKII, but I rarely see it in critical architectural shots. When I do apply 100% distortion correction with this lens at 17mm, the objects near the frame edge and corners become noticeably stretched or elongated. In addition these "corrected areas will be cropped from the picture where they now extend outside the original frame. You will lose part of your picture image and reduce the resolution of the file slightly. In the vast majority of the pictures shot with many different lenses I prefer 0% Distortion correction as my default starting point.

- Chromatic Aberration correction using the LR Profile Correction setting at 100% works very well for all my lenses, with no redeeming visual side effects or need to change it on individual images.

- Vignetting varies greatly from lens to lens and by focal length, but I haven't found a single image that benefits from using a 100% Vignetting setting. You should also be aware that even the very best extreme wide angle lenses (24mm and less on full frame, 15mm and less on 1.6 crop) usually exhibit significant vignetting, and image softness in the corners due to uncorrected astigmatism, coma and field curvature. A 100% Vignetting setting will correct the vignetting at the expense of making the corner softness much more apparent. For all of my lenses and bodies I prefer a default Vignetting setting of 50% as a starting point. I only adjust those images that still have visible vignetting on an "as needed" basis.

Your mileage may vary!

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