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ninjapimp
Inspiring
March 17, 2016
Question

Lightroom is converting black and white images to color for no reason, how to stop this.

  • March 17, 2016
  • 5 replies
  • 31754 views

I have a sony a7rm2, I took a bunch of pictures in black and white.

when I import them into Lightroom 6.4 on my imac 10.11.3 this images import as expected in black and white

but when I go to library module the preview boxes start to change from black and white to color?

it does this for every single image

I recently deleted my Preferences file because it was converting all images from color to black and white??? after deleting the Pref file this seemed to have stopped but now another bug has crept into. PHotos which were originally shot in black n white now convert ot color

there are zero develop preset on import set. my prefences has no options set to tone or convert.

is there a way to stop this or prevent LR from making these changes?

ever since i upgraded to 6.2 I have had a string on complicated bugs that come in all flavors, some new and some old. the new ones seem appear on a weekly basis.

      5 replies

      L
      Lucas25846411r4yn
      Participant
      August 28, 2022

      Yeah, the excuse that "it's because raw images are color" don't make any sense. CaptureOne will keep your choices and you still have the possibility to recover the color if you want to. And if Lightroom wasn't able to read those preferences, the images would not be shown as they were taken when imported. It seems like an easy solution. Photos are taken Black&White for a reason.

       

      TheDigitalDog
      TheDigitalDog
      Inspiring
      August 28, 2022
      @Lucas25846411r4yn wrote:

      Yeah, the excuse that "it's because raw images are color" don't make any sense. 

       

      Raw is raw. 

      This is raw:

      http://www.digitaldog.net/files/ThisIsRaw.jpg

      Makes perfect sense when you understand what raw really is.

      All very simple. 

      Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
      L
      lbreillat
      Participant
      September 17, 2022

      [Abusive language removed by moderator]

      The problem is when you shoot black and white with a mirrorless camera, so you can previsualize how the scene could look like in B&W, and compose accordingly. That doesn't mean you don't want to keep the raw file to have the ability to tweak how tonalities are mapped depending on the original colors.

      Remembering the very clear choice you did when shooting helps in editing afterwards, remembering on which photographs you intended to use black and white.

      This is a very simple idea that anyone shooting with intent should understand. Of course, it's more difficult when you're more interested in very technical aspects rather than things with actual use for expressing yourself better with photography 😉

      I
      idsquared2
      Participant
      April 18, 2016

      I agree with the original post.

      When I shoot with a black and white in-camera process, I want to both view the image in the library as I shot it AND have the RAW capture available for manipulation. BUT, I want to see what I was seeing when I took the picture in the library. That's critical to those of us who shoot in black and white.

      It's called "work flow."

        JP Hess
        JP Hess
        Inspiring
        April 18, 2016

        It's not going to happen, I'm afraid. Lightroom doesn't read in-camera settings, and that's what the black and white setting is when you set it in the camera. Lightroom has an excellent set of tools for converting your images to black-and-white. If, as you say, it is critical that you have black-and-white directly from the camera, then Lightroom isn't going to work for you.

        I
        idsquared2
        Participant
        April 19, 2016

        actually, Lightroom does display the in-camera profile briefly in grid view, but when I switch to a larger view like loupe, Lightroom then decides to roll back to raw. it's mandatory, no way to stop it.

        the annoying thing is, the roll back is one image at a time and it slows down the PC.

        I guess my fujifilm x-t10 stores the jpeg in the raw file, like trshaner said above, maybe that will change when I shoot jpeg+raw

          N
          ninjapimpAuthor
          Inspiring
          March 17, 2016

          ah ok bummer. i feared that would be the case.

          i specifically shot those images in B&W because they would be better suited in that format

          now that LR has made them all color....i have sort of lsot the frame of mind, meaning i dont quite now which were which.

          it just means I now need to spend time sorting thru those that are better in B&W

          really LR needs to detect this and elave em be but because its reading RAW it has no choice. again I feel this is failure on the part of Adobe and not adapting to a photography work flow.

          when I import images, I dump them from camera to hard drive - so i have no real way of knowing what or type of images. i go on trips and come back with gigs.

          my expectation is lightroom imports them so then I can name, sort and group them into stacks but all thats is a bit ruined when it auto converts and i dont have a way to prevent that.

          sure I could import with a preset, i find that cumbersome with hundreds of images, wadding thru them all.

          i work faster if i can just import them all as they are than work on the other things, provided they remain in their state shot.

          thx for the input.

            dj_paige
            dj_paige
            Legend
            March 17, 2016

            really LR needs to detect this and elave em be but because its reading RAW it has no choice. again I feel this is failure on the part of Adobe

            It's not a failure, it was a deliberate decision to not read the camera settings in the file that would indicate you took the photo in B&W and try to render the photo as the camera saw it.

            It was a deliberate decision to allow you to use the tools provided by Lightroom, instead of the tools provided by the camera, to modify your photo.

            If you want the camera's rendering (which would be B&W), you'd have to use the manufacturer's software.

            Rob_Cullen
            Community Expert
            Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            March 17, 2016

            Simple-

            Select all in Grid view

            Press 'V'

            Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
              dj_paige
              dj_paige
              Legend
              March 17, 2016

              If these are RAW photos, you cannot stop them from being shown in Lightroom as color. The momentary B&W is because Lightroom reads the embedded JPG preview in the RAW file, which is B&W, and then it goes ahead and renders the RAW photo, producing a color result.

              99jon
              99jon
              Legend
              March 17, 2016

              It may be best to establish your own import preset for B&W to give you a good starting point, otherwise the Adobe defaults will be applied.

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