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UNDEREXPOSED IMAGES WHEN IMPORTED

Community Beginner ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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Hi all

My images are all underexposed by at least 2 stops when imported into Lightroom.They look fine on the LCD screen of the camera, I'm using a Sony RX100 shooting Raw +JPEG with PP7. Is this normal or do I need to change something in camera or Lightroom.?

Thanks

Sean

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

https://forums.adobe.com/people/sean+flynn+79  wrote

I'm using a Sony RX100 shooting Raw +JPEG with PP7. Is this normal or do I need to change something in camera or Lightroom.?

I'm not familiar with Sony cameras, but PP7 seems to be a camera profile/setting, intended for video.

Any camera settings (except for shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance) in raw files will not be read by Lightroom, which ignores (and doesn't understand) proprietary camera settings.

So I suggest that you turn off a

...

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LEGEND ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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You may be accidentally applying a develop preset when you import.

Look in the History panel of the Develop Module. If the bottom record there says Import/Preset Name followed by the date and time, then this is the problem. If the bottom record there says Import followed by the date and time, then you are not having this problem.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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Hi I don't think this is the issue as there doesn't seem to be a preset attached.Screenshot 2019-01-02 05.19.43.png

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LEGEND ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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Images on the LCD can be deceiving, how do the histograms look in camera?

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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True but this is night and day difference

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LEGEND ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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1 of 2

if you still have the image on your SD card, look at it in your camera, how different is the histogram?

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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The histogram on the camera looks good, a much better exposureIMG_5363.JPG

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LEGEND ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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But it still seems quite biased to the dark side. You might have the brightness on your camera LCD adjusted too bright.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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The brightness is set to zero so I don't think its that, I think it must be the picture profile setting I am using. I was using PP7 with is for video it must be that you need to change this setting each time you switch from still to video.It is saying Slog 2 assist as there is also a gamma display assist setting which I must have had on slog2.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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https://forums.adobe.com/people/sean+flynn+79  wrote

The histogram on the camera looks good, a much better exposure

The histogram does not look good, as in Lightroom, it indicates underexposure by several stops.

And the image itself is overexposed, with apparently blown highlights.

Jim may be right in that you have the brightness of the LCD too high.

It also says S-Log2 above the histogram, which appears to be another setting for video.

Turn off/zero out/neutralize any special setting on the camera (picture styles, "profiles", etc.)

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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It was shot in slog7 which is for video but there is also a gamma assist display setting I had set to slog2 both of these setting may be causing the problem. I will switch both and see how I get on. Thanks for the help

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LEGEND ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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So, the Histogram is showing underexposed, not quite clipped, The lightroom preview is not that far off.

The image you see on the back of a digital camera, or for that matter thru the viewfinder, when you pixel peep, is or can be, biased to show you what it could look like.

If you were in manual exposure, you probably have a manual exposure preview option, probably based on WB and Exposure, or just WB, or just Exposure, That will give you false info, it will try to display a nice pretty picture so you can see the composition, but if you ignore the histogram you will have a false feeling of correct exposure.

If you are in some auto exposure mode, then you probably have some preview options that can also give you a false view, making the display nice and pretty for composition, but falsely showing overall exposure balance, especially if you apply some exposure compensation.

Each camera mfg, and to some extent model has these issues. You need to play with it and learn how the camera behaves.

But mostly, PAY ATTENTION TO THE HSTOGRAM

Incidentally, shooting RAW + JPEG. good, I concur. Now, I am not familiar with your camera, so I have no idea how you select what image you are looking at, the JPEG or the JPEG embedded in the RAW. Remember that the RAW file is not directly displayed on the LCD or in the viewfinder, instead a very itty bitty JPEG that gets embedded in the RAW file data is displayed, looking at that image is problematic as it is missing info, looking at the much larger JPEG is normally better (the actual JPEG, yes the RAW data is much bigger, but that embedded JPEG in the RAW file is much much smaller) and you can get false info (especially as to clipping)  (note, clipping in actual RAW file will be less than in actual JPEG)

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LEGEND ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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bring up your import screen, double check that apply during import has nothing in it.

also, for the current image in LR, apply the preset Lightroom/general/zeroed, this should undo anything and everything that LR might have adjusted, except, I think whatever profile you have applied and whatever that profile does (and, no, they do not underexpose by that many stops). If this changes the image drastically, then something’s being done, a preset at import, or some altered camera specific custom defaults ((user involvement required)

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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Thanks for this ill check these setting on next import, much appreciated.

Sean

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Community Expert ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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Looking at your screen-clip: there has to be something wrong with your install of Lightroom.

The Presets panel is in the 'expanded' state, yet nothing is visible in that panel, not even the "Favorites" or "User Presets"

ScreenShot170.jpg

I suggest you un-install Lightroom from the CC Desktop App, and re-install v8.1

Also reset the Preferences as you re-open Lightroom. How to set Lightroom Classic CC preferences

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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Good catch, also the right side panels are odd. No basic panel, and curve panel partially hiding

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LEGEND ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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Community Expert ,
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 01, 2019

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https://forums.adobe.com/people/sean+flynn+79  wrote

I'm using a Sony RX100 shooting Raw +JPEG with PP7. Is this normal or do I need to change something in camera or Lightroom.?

I'm not familiar with Sony cameras, but PP7 seems to be a camera profile/setting, intended for video.

Any camera settings (except for shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance) in raw files will not be read by Lightroom, which ignores (and doesn't understand) proprietary camera settings.

So I suggest that you turn off any special camera settings, which should make the image in Lightroom match what you see on the back of the camera more closely.

What does the jpg of the same image look like?

The image is clearly severely underexposed, which is confirmed by the histogram. And there is no preset applied on import, the History panel only contains the Import step. It is strange that the Presets panel is empty, but there is a box saying Add new presets at the top of the screen, never seen that before.

The right side panels look normal. The Basic panel is scrolled out of sight, and the Tone curve panel is partially scrolled out of sight.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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Hi Per

This sounds it could be the issue, ill change up the picture profile setting and see how it goes. Thanks for the help here much appreciated.

Sean

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 03, 2019 Jan 03, 2019

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Hi all

Thanks for all your help and replys. I canned the Picture profile to PP2 which is for still images and this seems to have sorted the problem. This histogram looks much better and the lcd screen much more closely matches the uploaded image.

Many thanks for all you help.

Sean

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New Here ,
Nov 29, 2019 Nov 29, 2019

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Hi Sean,

Thanks for this thread. I'm having the same issue and can't understand what exactly you changed to fix your issue.

 

I have imported all 2300 images from the Sony Rx10iv that I had rented, into LR and have severe underexposure issues on many of them. What can I do from this point to fix my LR catalog and continue editing?

Deleting the Photoshop preferences file and restarting LR did nothing.

Please advise, thank you for your time!

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New Here ,
Mar 26, 2021 Mar 26, 2021

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I too am having the same issue and would love to know what's going on. Never had this problem with my canon. Soemthing with Sony i'm missing. 

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New Here ,
May 11, 2021 May 11, 2021

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I had the same issue and found a work around. I also have not yet tried to implement the advice from this thread and that may be an even better solution. Like the others having this problem, my RAW photos from my Sony A7SIII look fine in camera and in Apple's Quicktime player but when imported to any Adobe app (I've tried Lightroom, Bridge, Camera Raw, and Photoshop) they end up being underexposed by at least 2, maybe 3 stops.

 

One thing to note is that when I try to edit the underexposed images in Lightroom or Camera Raw, the result is extremely grainy once properly exposed, as you would expect from a truly underexposed photo. This leads me to believe that it is not an issue of Lightroom presets. I also know that becuase the JPEG previews displayed in camera and Quicktime are not grainy, which leads me to believe that the information is there somewhere, it is just lost when imported into Adobe apps. Here are my suggestions:

 

1. The workaround that I am using is too import the raw files with Sony Imaging Edge (an app for Mac / Windows) and this seems to solve my underexposure issue. Imaging Edge is not quite as good as Lightroom or Camera Raw in my opinion, but it allows for a fairly good editing experience of the raw files.

 

2. After reading this thread, I suspect (but have not confirmed) that the reason the files look okay in Imaging Edge but not Lightroom is due to some proprietary settings used in camera that only Sony software is capable of reading. I assume it is this information that is lost upon import into Lightroom. I am mainly a video shooter and am realizing that some of my video settings have carried over into the photo mode on my A7SIII which I now believe are the culprits. These are namely the SLOG3 color profile that I use for video and the S-Gamut3 color assist which makes for more pleasing colors on the camera LCD. I haven't had a chance to turn these settings off and see if that fixes the issue but I suspect it will. Whatever data that the SLOG3 color profile carries is being lost in Adobe applications. I will update when I have a chance to test this theory.

 

I will also note that the histograms look perfectly fine in camera and when editing in Sony Imaging Edge.

 

This is the gear that I am using in case that is relevant:

 

Camera: Sony A7SIII

Lens: Sigma Art 24mm-70mm f/2.8

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LEGEND ,
May 11, 2021 May 11, 2021

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There really isn't anyting in Lightroom Classic or any Adobe product that tells you about the actual exposure of your raws; the Histograms are not raw Histograms. The JPEG previews are a mile off from optimal raw exposure too. 

 

Articles on exposing for raw:
http://www.onezone.photos
http://schewephoto.com/ETTR/
https://luminous-landscape.com/the-optimum-digital-exposure/
http://digitaldog.net/files/ExposeForRaw.pdf
https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/mystic-exposure-triangle
https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/red_flowers_photography_to-see-the-real-picture
https://www.rawdigger.com/howtouse/exposure-for-raw-or-for-jpegs
https://www.rawdigger.com/howtouse/beware-histogram
https://www.rawdigger.com/howtouse/calibrate-exposure-meter-to-improve-dynamic-range

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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New Here ,
May 12, 2021 May 12, 2021

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LATEST

****UPDATE****

I can confirm that after turning off the SLOG3 picture profile (I assume this issue would happen with other picture profiles intended for video), the issue is solved and raws are exposed well in Lightroom. I definitely recommend doing this instead of using Sony Imaging Edge because Lightroom is much better and I really shouldn't have been using SLOG3 while taking stills. I do find it slightly annoying that the A7SIII even allows you to use a picture profile intended for video while shooting stills but it is what it is. From now on I'll just have to remember to turn it off everytime I switch from video to stills.

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