Applying Lens Corrections Across Entire Import

[s_ross]

When I choose an image, one of the first things I always do is apply lens corrections. In 99% of the cases, I don't have to tweak these. I'm shooting with multiple camera bodies, and an import normally happens from hard disk, but it would be wonderful if during the import Lightroom could apply the lens corrections that correspond to the lens/camera body used for each image imported.

A preset seems like it would have to know or assume the camera body/lens combination in advance. That's why I've initially ruled presets out. Do I have this right or would a preset honor the camera/lens combinations from image to image?

Thanks,

Steve

[Lee_Jay-ZyZk56]

First of all, applying lens corrections all the time isn't always a good idea.  They have consequences and the consequences can be more negative than any positive benefits.

The way to do it is to select all pictures, turn on auto-sync, and click the enable checkbox.  Then turn off autosync.

[s_ross]

Is there any way to quantify "consequences can be more negative..."? I have had pretty close to zero consequences and I've processed thousands of images with the new process and lens correction on Canon 5DMII and 1Ds MIII with mostly L-Series lenses. Besides performance issues, what negative issues have you observed? How does this negatively affect healing?

[b_gossweiler]

I don't know of any other negative effects, except performance. Healing can be sluggish on weaker machines when lens corrections has been applied. Of course there could be unwanted (but not wrong) visual effects i.e. by the vignette correction.

Beat

[Lee_Jay-ZyZk56]

Correcting for distortion necessarily required interpoloation and loss of pixels, leading to a softer result, especially in the edges and corners.  Making a lens with a lot of barrel distortion rectilinear will mess up circles (faces) in the corners and edges by stretching them into an egg shape.  It's often nice to leave the natural vignetting there as it's quite nice sometimes.  That's why there's a tool to add vignetting.  I find myself adding vignetting about 100 times as often as I find myself removing it.  And then there are the performance consequences and the difficulties the spot removal tool can have near the edges when large corrections have been applied.

[s_ross]

While I understand that correcting distortion requires some pixel bending, that's applied to the RAW file and can be un-applied (if that's a term) by unchecking the box. If I were doing this, then stamping it into some other form like TIFF or JPEG for further use, I'll grant that it would be destructive. However, what I'm thinking about is more like doing a sensor-spot removal across an entire shoot. Sure, it won't work perfectly all the time, but if it works more than 60% of the time, you're doing great. In the case of lens corrections, my experience has been better. If I'm shooting wide angle, then of course, I will evaluate the image to see whether the correction has a desirable or undesirable effect.

I say all of this to clarify that I am not looking for a silver bullet that will give me license to never think about the impact of this setting again. I'm just looking to automate a commonly-performed action. And... I find myself adding vignetting rarely and when I do, I usually use Color Efex Pro (no particular reason -- Lightroom is just as good, that's just how I work).

Thanks for the great answers! I guess by marking your answers as useful I removed the option of marking them "correct." Bummer on that one, but they're both correct and useful.

Steve

[Todd Shaner]

I agree with everything stated here, but use a workflow that may work better for you. I reset my lens profile default settings to 0% Distortion, 100% C Aberration, and 50% Vignetting, and then select 'Lens Profile Corrections' as a part of each camera body's default Develop settings (Develop>Set Default Settings>Update To Current Settings).

Here's my rationale based on processing 1,000s of images in LR shot with numerous single focal length, wide angle zoom and telephoto zoom lenses:

- Distortion is normally only visible in pictures that contain distinct straight line objects. My Canon 17-40mm L lens has fairly high barrel distortion at 17mm on my full frame 5D MKII, but I rarely see it in critical architectural shots. When I do apply 100% distortion correction with this lens at 17mm, the objects near the frame edge and corners become noticeably stretched or elongated. In addition these "corrected areas will be cropped from the picture where they now extend outside the original frame. You will lose part of your picture image and reduce the resolution of the file slightly. In the vast majority of the pictures shot with many different lenses I prefer 0% Distortion correction as my default starting point.

- Chromatic Aberration correction using the LR Profile Correction setting at 100% works very well for all my lenses, with no redeeming visual side effects or need to change it on individual images.

- Vignetting varies greatly from lens to lens and by focal length, but I haven't found a single image that benefits from using a 100% Vignetting setting. You should also be aware that even the very best extreme wide angle lenses (24mm and less on full frame, 15mm and less on 1.6 crop) usually exhibit significant vignetting, and image softness in the corners due to uncorrected astigmatism, coma and field curvature. A 100% Vignetting setting will correct the vignetting at the expense of making the corner softness much more apparent. For all of my lenses and bodies I prefer a default Vignetting setting of 50% as a starting point. I only adjust those images that still have visible vignetting on an "as needed" basis.

Your mileage may vary!

[Todd Shaner]

One word about applying lens correction at import:

It is known that applying lens correction has a negative performance impact especially in spot removal. If your machine is fast, this may not affect you, but for this reason many people apply lens correction as one of the last steps in the develop workflow.

There is a simple work around for this issue, which I believe Beat pointed out in a prior post. If you experince performance issues with the Spot Removal tool, simply scroll down to the Lens Corrections tool and click on the switch symbol to OFF position. Just remember to turn it back ON when you are finished.

[b_gossweiler]

s.ross wrote:

... would a preset honor the camera/lens combinations from image to image?

Yes, it does. Make sure you only have "Lens Profile Corrections" checked to be part of the preset (if you don't want anything else).

An alternative way is to make Lens Profile Corrections part of your default settings. To do so, go to an image in Develop, click "Reset" on it and apply all the value you want to be part of the default. Then press Alt and click the set "Set Default" button. You will have to repeat this step for all camera models you are working with.

One word about applying lens correction at import:

It is known that applying lens correction has a negative performance impact especially in spot removal. If your machine is fast, this may not affect you, but for this reason many people apply lens correction as one of the last steps in the develop workflow.

Beat

[YunusEmre]

The problem with setting the default is that if you have already 'developed', i.e made modifications the lens correction is not applied unless you 'reset' in develop. I guess the only way to apply the lens correction to previously developed images is to use synchronize. Which is painful as I find myself wanting to do this to a lot of pictures.

[RichardFlack]

(Im fairly new to LR and digital image processing generally but learning a lot as i go ...)

Looking at this thread Im still a bit unclear as to what the best workflow is for me.  I think I get the basic trade-off.

My main concern is regarding my primary camera's stock lens Sony A6000 / PZ 16-50mm lens.

I seem to find that when zoomed there is very pronounced barrel distortion at edges / corners and I'm applying profile correction just about all the time.

Aside from the 'crop' effect of the correction I don't see any negatives (no, not a pun).

Before I make a final decision, I want to be clear on a couple of points.

- I'm not clear ow this interacts with other develop changes.  If I import (with profile correction), make other develop changes, can I then undo the profile just by unchecking the box?   I think YunusEmre is saying no, but its not clear to me.

- How significant is the loss of resolution cited by trshaner... relative to say using 90% of the image in an 8 x 10" print or a 23" 1920 x 1200 pixel monitor - is it only significant in more demanding situations?

- I will probably not want to apply profile correction automatically on the 55-210mm zoom that seems to produce relatively little distortion.

My main alternate camera is Nikon P340 (other cameras are Nikon D60, and Nikon S31 which really doesn't count here) but I haven't really looked at this issue with those cameras or the impact of their lens profiles.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

[Todd Shaner]

RichardFlack wrote:

Looking at this thread Im still a bit unclear as to what the best workflow is for me.  I think I get the basic trade-off.

My main concern is regarding my primary camera's stock lens Sony A6000 / PZ 16-50mm lens.

I seem to find that when zoomed there is very pronounced barrel distortion at edges / corners and I'm applying profile correction just about all the time.

Aside from the 'crop' effect of the correction I don't see any negatives (no, not a pun).

When Lens Profile distortion correction is applied in LR it effectively "stretches" the image and additional pixels must be created through "interpolation" to fill those stretched areas. In the case of barrel distortion the corners of the image are stretched. This is the area where most wide-angle zoom lenses tend to exhibit their worst performance and applying distortion correction may create visible softening of the image in the corners. Vignetting correction can cause similar issues since it applies the highest correction in the corners of the image. The primary issue is that it increases noise since it effectively raises the exposure in the corner area.  It also can make the image look "un-natural" since we are used to seeing pictures with varying degrees of vignetting. I set my lens profile default settings to 0 Distortion and 50 to 75% (depending on lens) Vignetting correction and only change the settings for images that require more correction. As I've been known to say, "There's no free lunch with lens corrections." It's a trade-off that only you can decide after reviewing its affects at different focal lengths, apertures, and ISO settings. If happy with the "overall" image quality with lens profile corrections turned on then you have your answer.

RichardFlack wrote:

Before I make a final decision, I want to be clear on a couple of points.

- I'm not clear ow this interacts with other develop changes.  If I import (with profile correction), make other develop changes, can I then undo the profile just by unchecking the box?   I think YunusEmre is saying no, but its not clear to me.

Lens Profile Distortion correction has no affect on the other settings other than a slight cropping of the image. Vignetting correction on the other hand can have a dramatic affect on the "overall" image brightness, not just in the corners and edges. That's why I tend to set it to 50 to 75 rather than 100 depending on the lens performance. Lenses with low vignetting and low distortion can normally be set to 100 for both, since very little correction is applied anyhow.

Either way I wouldn't get overly concerned about the Lens Profile settings you use since they are easily changed at a later date. As an FYI there are some lens profiles that apply "incorrect" corrections. Trust your eyes and adjust the settings to what you like...not what the 100/100 Lens Profile setting dictates. You can change the default values using 'Save New Lens Profile Defaults' as shown below.

Lightroom/Camera Raw: Canon EF16-35mm f/4L IS Lens Profile Distortion Control Incorrect

[RichardFlack]

Thanks, I guess Im going to have to do some experimenting!   I do seem to have a lot of photos with both people and straight edges.   One slight drawback with doing the profile correction image by image is that the lens correction part of the develop tab is towards the bottom so I'm scrolling the tab up and down each time.   (Makes me sound lazy ...)

[Todd Shaner]

RichardFlack wrote:

Thanks, I guess Im going to have to do some experimenting!   I do seem to have a lot of photos with both people and straight edges.   One slight drawback with doing the profile correction image by image is that the lens correction part of the develop tab is towards the bottom so I'm scrolling the tab up and down each time.   (Makes me sound lazy ...)

I'm a big champion of saving time and your concern doesn't sound lazy to me.

LR has many great time-saving tools to speed image processing. I suggest setting your Lens Profile corrections with the settings of your choice (100/100, 0/100, 0/75 or whatever). When you import a new set of image files of a specific subject(s) review them quickly to see if the Lens Profile corrections are as desired. If not change the settings for one of the images and then use the Develop module 'Sync' or Copy & Paste function with just 'Lens Profile Corrections' checked to apply the new settings to all other related images. As ssprengel mentioned subjects with lots of straight-line detail like buildings will look best with full (100) distortion correction. Just about everything else will look better with Distortion set to 0 such as landscapes, portraits, and group shots.

[ssprengel]

Enable Profile Corrections is a checkbox that can be set on or off by default or turned on or off with an import preset, but it’s always changeable afterwards, so there’s no harm in setting it one way during Import based on the contents of the majority of your photos during import, and then changing the setting for individual photos that look better the other way.

My rule of thumb is that architecture and other man-made objects with straight lines look better with lens corrections turned on, but photos of people and perfectly circular objects, especially near the corners, look worse due to the stretching of the corners that occurs to correct distortion.

So if you are photographing people or natural landscapes without straight lines then lens corrections are less important, than if you’re photographing buildings and such.

Lens usually have sharpness issues near the corners and stretching the corners to correct for barrel distortion will increase this lack of sharpness.

It depends less on what cameras you use than what sorts of lenses you use and how much distortion they have and how sharp they are otherwise. You mention several cameras, and should be able to determine from your own experiments how much distortion the lenses have and whether it is enough to worry about, both in terms of subject distortion and lack of sharpness.

Zooms typically have more distortion and less sharpness because the optical design cannot be optimized for the entire zoom range; whereas primes (non-zooms) are typically sharper because the optics can be optimized. Of course more expensive lenses are also typically sharper.

The bottom line is that whether or not to have lens corrections enabled for your photos depends on the subject matter and the quality of your lenses, and only you can determine how important the various factors are.

[RichardFlack]

Thanks also.  My comment to trshane applies here too!