Previews of color DNG files are shown in Black and White in Lightroom Classic

[patrickb20259952]

Hello , I am using Lightroom Classic 14.4 on a Mac to manage my photos taken on an digital camera.

- I am importing each time  a DNG color picture and a black and white JPG version.

- I am copying the files from a network drive on a external SSD drive of my Mac Mini M4.

- When synchronizing the pictures, the previews of the DNG files are shown black and white.

- I need to create manually the previews with the menu the previews 1:1.

This had worked before and stopped working after I changed the camera for another one that takes 40MPixels pictures instead of 24 MPixels.

Does anyone has the same issue ? Thanks

[Sameer K]

Hey, @patrickb20259952. Welcome to the Lightroom Classic Community. I've moved your post to the discussions for now. 

Enable the option in Preferences > General > Treat JPEG files next to raw as separate Photos and check if this helps. 

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!

Sameer K!

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

[patrickb20259952]

Hi @Sameer K  thanks for yoru quick reply. I did the configuration change and imported 5 new photos. In LRC the colored DNG files appeared beside the JPG black and whiie pictures. For 2 of thems the colors appeared when displaying the picture on the screeen (a message apperead "loading" , for 3 of them the color did not appear. Please note I have also a Macbook Pro with LRC and don't have the issue. The difference is that I use the Import function from LRC insted of copying the files on the disk and doing a synchronisation. I tried the same procedure on the Desktop Mac (Mac Mini M4) but the pictures remained all black and white. So the issue is not resolved.

[patrickb20259952]

Hi @Sameer K  could it be that there is a perfomance issue with the SSD drive where the pictures are stored ? The DNG file are about 40 MB - 50 MB big.  The older camera produced file approximately  50 % smaller. Thanks.

[patrickb20259952]

Hi @Sameer K  I moved the Lightrooom folder from the SSD drive to the HDD of the Mac Mini and then deleted the preview file. The picture files remains on the SSD.

When I reopened LRC,  it updated the previews in color.

I just imported new pictures and unfortunately ut doesn't work again, the pictures are show in black & white. I need to manually create 1:1 previews. Any idea for a solution to fix this issue ? Thanks.

[patrickb20259952 · Accepted solution]

Finally I solved the issue:

• Before synchronization of pictures I checked the import dialog to be opened. 
• For the preview there was an option "Embedded and Sidecar" selected.
• According to the documentation this is "Display the largest possible preview available from the camera. This option may take longer than a Minimal preview but is still faster than rendering a standard-size preview."
• I changed the selection to  "1:1" and now the previews are created in color as expected.
• I noticed this takes more time than before,  but at least it works.

[richardplondon]

Until a preview gets created 'from scratch' within the Catalog, what you see in Library is extracted from the imported file and this has come about in response to in-camera menu settings. 

The preview shown by Lrc comes from inside the particular imported camera file (be it JPG, proprietary Raw or DNG). When it comes to a proprietary Raw or DNG, LrC is working only from that - and not making any use of a 'sidecar' camera JPG, if one is present.  

The moment this gets replaced by a LrC generated preview, what is seen hereafter depends on LrC settings and not on in-camera settings. But there is no way to get to this point except by a replacement preview being generated by LrC.

Of course, if the in-camera menu had not been set to a B&W mode, the in-camera preview would itself have been embedded in full colour accordingly.