LR doesn't set White Balance temperature correctly on import

[sydneylow]

When I import a Canon RAW file with a manual white balance e.g. 5300K

Lightroom sets it as "As Shot 4650K"

Why does it do that, and why doesn't it set it to 5300K as specified in the image's EXIF data?

Attached is image showing the issue:"

- CR2 file imported into Canon DPP correctly with White Balance setting as per EXIF in the image file

- EXIF data showing manual white balance

- LR imports this and sets WB to 4650K

- EXIFTool app extracts the following info from the file (not shown):

White Balance                   : Manual Temperature (Kelvin)

Color Temperature            : 5300

[DdeGannes]

As a follow up the thing that I concentrate on getting in the ball park is focus, exposure, including ISO, f stop and shutter speed, the rest WB, saturation, noise reduction and sharpening can be adjusted in pp.

[Just Shoot Me]

sydneylow wrote:

I just want to be clear again in my question.

I'm not after matching or any other colour optimisation to targets etc.

All I want to do is import a RAW image and have LR do that and respect a WB Temp setting in Kelvin.

I would expect LR to do that if the option is "As Shot"

If anyone can help me do that it would be great.

Other have tried to express what LR is doing.

LR looks at the WB setting, K, you have set and then sets the Temp and Tint sliders to represent that setting.

Are all images shot with that K of 5300 coming in at the same Temp & Tint values?

[TheDigitalDog]

sydneylow wrote:

When I import a Canon RAW file with a manual white balance e.g. 5300K

Lightroom sets it as "As Shot 4650K"

Why does it do that, and why doesn't it set it to 5300K as specified in the image's EXIF data?

Because any CCT (Kelvin value) is a range of possible colors and every product can calculate the values differently. Further, a camera is absolutely not the device one should use to measure CCT values! A Spectrophotometer? Yes. Anywhere, this explains why a large range of possible numeric values are all acceptable to define a range of possible colors of white:

http://digitaldog.net/files/22Thecolorofwhite.pdf

[Luis708]

I had a similar issue.  Lightroom as changing the temperature of my raw images.  I shoot with a Nikon D750 and a Nikon D7100.  The D7100 Temp was always as shot.  The Nikon D750 was always different.  I set my Temp at 5000 because that is where i like it.  I found that i had to set the temp in camera at 4900 in order to have the temp at 5000 once i imported to lightroom.  I cant answer why lightroom does this, still searching for that answer myself,  if you every find it i would like to know too.  I had to just experiment by changing the temp in camera and happened to find i would get the result i wanted in lightroom.

[richardplondon]

There is another factor in play here: WB auto adjustments whether in-camera or after the fact, do not necessarily seek technical neutrality regardless of Kelvin. They are not linearly applied. When the light source is in absolute terms "warm" then we tend to like to SEE that warmth in our photos (the distinctive oranginess of sunset; the cosiness of candlelight). We usually wouldn't want that warmth completely neutralised away, and it is an aesthetic matter how much warmth we like to have left in.

Camera manufacturers compete to give people the photos they will like, and that includes on how different lighting conditions will be variously handled in practice.

You may be able to change settings in the camera as to what its own autoWB is trying to do. For example my K5 allows me to set either "Subtle" or "Strong" compensation relative to neutrality in its AutoWB interpretation of tungsten lighting or other equivalently warm lighting. But I cannot set it for technical AutoWB neutrality regardless of the lighting conditions. And a different camera will have its own, differently programmed WB responses to all these same lighting conditions. Or manually selecting the same absolute Kelvin WB in these two cameras may give different practical results from the same scene.

Otherwise (working best with Raw of course) you have the ability to use a WB sampler tool directly, and so to disregard all prior Temp and Tint information, perhaps with formal calibration too. This is normal e.g. for controlled studio circumstances.

But by telling LrC to respect the camera's WB "As-Shot", IMO this is not about matching a Kelvin number. It really means, AFAICT, that you want to see the same pictorial effect of whatever that particular camera's WB response amounted to - whether due to Auto or Manual settings inside the camera - as that outcome is translated into LrC adjustment terms.