Hello
I just bought a Sony A7R IV and when importing photos into Lightroom, I noticed they are underexposed. 1 or at least 2 stops. Correcting them means I am adding grain/noise to the photo so that is annoying.
This did not happen with my previous camera A7R II
I only shoot RAW, I have no colour profiles set up on the camera (all standard), no profiles on LR when importing, LCD screen brightness is fine (i.e. changing will not make a difference), Monitors fully calibrated (one is ASUS ProArt), and no other tweaks or settings on either side (Camera or LR). I tried importing with Adobe standard and Camera Standard profiles but no changes either
The difference is huge.
The histograms are different. Better on the camera (brighter).
Also, it all happens when the import is finished. When importing the preview during the ongoing process looks like it will be ok, but when finishing the last bit to complete the import, LR does apply or does something to the photos that all of them go underexposed. That is in the last part, say last minute.
See below (the difference is actually much more, iPhone must be compensating via HDR between photos)
1 Correct answer
After further testing I came to the conclusion that DRO is not translated into LR
By @DanyLaP
That's what everybody's been trying to say all along. No need to test. It's ignored, end of.
And to re-emphasize another important point that also has been mentioned above: a raw file is a blind data dump from the camera sensor. The only things that affect exposure are shutter speed, aperture and ISO setting (amplifying sensor signal performed by the camera circuitry).
So you need to understan
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13
Replies
As @dj_paige mentioned, Sony's version of d-lighting is called DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization). It increases the dynamic range of JPEGs and the JPEG previews of the RAW files.
I found this on a blog post:
Turning it off fixes this issue. This setting is found in the 1st Camera Tab under the page “Color/WB/Img. Processing1” page (12/15).
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To summarize, it's very likely that @DanyLaP has Dynamic Range Optimization enabled. This affects the JPEG preview displayed on the camera screen and embedded in the raw (which LR displays initially when it first imports the photo), but it has no effect on the captured raw image. We can't say definitively without a sample image from DanyLaP.
As a concrete example, I shot this photo with my Sony RX100 VII, Raw + JPEG, Dynamic Range Optimization: 5 (the highest level). The raw is on the left, the JPEG on the right; notice the JPEG is noticeably lighter:
And here's the JPEG preview embedded in the raw (extracted by Exiftool), which is identical to the JPEG above:
When LR first imports the photo, it displays the embedded JPEG as the Library preview, but very soon after replaces it with its (darker) rendering of the raw.
To demonstrate that the Dynamic Range Optimization setting isn't affecting the raw images, here's a bracket of three raws, with DRO: 1, DRO: 3, and DRO: 5
They are all rendered identically, and Rawdigger shows identical histograms:
After further testing I came to the conclusion that DRO is not translated into LR
By @DanyLaP
That's what everybody's been trying to say all along. No need to test. It's ignored, end of.
And to re-emphasize another important point that also has been mentioned above: a raw file is a blind data dump from the camera sensor. The only things that affect exposure are shutter speed, aperture and ISO setting (amplifying sensor signal performed by the camera circuitry).
So you need to understand that the Lightroom version doesn't actually have less exposure. It's just that Lightroom's default settings are conservative. It's the same data!
Camera manufacturers will always try to squeeze as much out of the data as possible. That's a selling point in the store.
I use a pair of a7r III's, and I've learned through experience that I can push exposure a little more than the camera LCD indicates.
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