How Create new Profile for Lightroom?

[DavePinMinn]

Windows 10 Pro, Current version of Lightroom CC Classic, current version of Bridge.  I’m creating a preset using a custom camera profile for Lightroom.  Yes, it's actually CREATED in ACR, but it's for use in Lightroom so the Bridge people are going to send me here...

To do this I created a profile by opening an image in Lightroom, doing the normal adjustments, then opening it in Photoshop.

I made the tone and color changes I wanted in Photoshop and saved the color lookup table as a .CUBE.

That all works.  I’ve got a LUT in a .CUBE file.

It does not appear I can create a new profile in Lightroom (if I CAN, can someone point me to how), so:

Opened Bridge, grabbed an image from the camera I want (Nikon D500), set the profile to Camera Standard (my standard profile), then clicked “Presets” and opened the New Profile popup by doing Alt/click on the icon next to the trashcan at the bottom.

Gave it a name, unclicked everything EXCEPT “Camera Profile”, which is Camera Neutral, left everything as-is, loaded the .CUBE file with the LUT, and saved it.  Worked FINE.

In ACR, I can go to the profile and the NEW profile shows up.  Works PERFECTLY.

Lightroom DOES NOT see it……..

On the OTHER hand, when in ACR, if I DON’T set the profile to ANYTHING OTHER THAN Adobe Color (I think Adobe Standard will work too) before creating the new profile, and go through exactly the same process, I get a profile Lightroom DOES see.  Except it’s NOT starting from the Camera Standard profile in ACR, so it looks crummy.

The ONLY difference I can SEE when I create the new Profile is that on the New Profile popup, if I use the Adobe profile to create my profile on the New Profile screen the Look Table is checked and says Adobe Color…  When I set the starting profile to Camera Neutral (or other), the Look Table is NOT checked and it wants me to load a .csv file (which, of course, I don’t have and which isn’t necessary for the profile to work in ACR).

So, ACR sees the created profile fine.  HOW do I get Lightroom to see the correct profile created in ACR using the settings I want?

[John R Ellis · Accepted solution]

"Opened Bridge, grabbed an image from the camera I want (Nikon D500), set the profile to Camera Standard (my standard profile), then clicked “Presets” and opened the New Profile popup by doing Alt/click on the icon next to the trashcan at the bottom. Gave it a name, unclicked everything EXCEPT “Camera Profile”, which is Camera Neutral, left everything as-is, loaded the .CUBE file with the LUT, and saved it.  Worked FINE. In ACR, I can go to the profile and the NEW profile shows up.  Works PERFECTLY. Lightroom DOES NOT see it…….."

Hmm, I'm not able to reproduce that in my LR 9.2.1 / ACR 12.2.1.  Starting with a Nikon D500 sample pic assigned profile Camera Neutral, I defined a new creative profile based on Camera Neutral that includes a LUT.  That profile then shows up in the profile browser of LR.  Here's a screen recording:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7qe7mrlqkjcqdvp/acr-camera-neutral-lut-profile.2020.04.19.mov?dl=0 

Double-check that 1) you're restarting LR after creating the profile in ACR, and 2) you're editing a photo from the same camera model in LR that was used to create the profile in ACR (e.g. Nikon D500).

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[DavePinMinn]

AHA!  I don't recall what I used to make the LUT originally (it was several days ago, but it MAY have been an image from the D850), so I opened a D500 image in Bridge, adjusted, set the profile to Camera Standard, sent it to PS, dragged the adjustment layers onto it, exported and got a new .CUBE

Went BACK to Bridge, used the SAME image, created the profile, exited, went back in and the new profile was there in ACR.

Opened Lightroom, opened the SAME RAW file in Lightroom (so everybody all the way through the process was the same camera and the same file, and the profile is there....

Stayed in Lightroom, grabbed a D850 image, went to Develop, and the profile is NOT there.  I DON'T have the LR Preferences set to be camera specific for presets, and I didn't think about the profile being mfr and model specific.  Doh!

Thanks for the quick fix!

[John R Ellis]

Right, the profile was based on Camera Neutral, which is specific to each particular camera model, and LR only shows you profiles that match the particular model.

But when you made a profile based on Adobe Color or Adobe Standard, it shows up for every photo, since Adobe Color / Standard are available for every camera.

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[DavePinMinn]

Yes, once you added the missing bit of info I realized that, of course, a created profile would be specific since the starting profile is specific.  Since we're all under house arrest these days I've been digging into learning how to make more use of some of the lesser-known things in Lightroom classic.  I'm finding little nuggets that'll make my image otpimization better and faster...

Thanks again.

[DavePinMinn]

I just figured out I have a follow-on issue........  I now have a camera model specific profile for the D500 and one for the D850.  They work fine.  They show up for images from the assigned camera.  I have put them in presets so I have ISO-specific presets for each camera - makes it much quicker if you shoot at different ISOs.

BUT, when I go into Preferences to set a default preset at import for each camera, I can't see the preset that has the profile I created.  I can see the user profiles that use camera standard or camera neutral.  I can assign those to Lightroom in the preferences.  But not the ones with the custom profile.

I took one of the existing presets that used camera standard and updated the preset using the D500 profile I created, and it disappeared from the list of user presets available for assigning as the default import profile for the D500...

Same thing happened when I tried the D850...

So I can create the profile, I can create the preset, I can use the preset on as many images as I'd like (as far as I can tell), but I CAN'T assign the preset in preferences to be a camera-model-specific default import preset.  I don't SEE anything in the Lightroom information that says I CAN'T do this, but it appears I can't.

[John R Ellis]

[This post contains embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser to see the images.]

"I can create the profile, I can create the preset, I can use the preset on as many images as I'd like (as far as I can tell), but I CAN'T assign the preset in preferences to be a camera-model-specific default import preset.  I don't SEE anything in the Lightroom information that says I CAN'T do this, but it appears I can't."

When I first tried this just now, I too couldn't see the preset with the camera-specific profile in the Default drop-down menu in Preferences. So I went to file a bug report, but now I can't reproduce the behavior, after 20 minutes of trying. There were multiple restarts of LR throughout this, so maybe there's a glitch that goes away after restart (not uncommon for LR).  For good measure, try rebooting your computer.

If you can reliably reproduce the problem, make a screen recording from start to finish of making the profile in ACR, creating the preset in LR, then seeing that preset not appear in Preferences.  That will provide all the necessary details for an actionable bug report. (I'm afraid that without the screen recording, Adobe developers won't be able to reproduce the problem).

When I first experienced the bug, I did notice a workaround.  Create a default setting for the camera with Adobe Default. Then click the dropdown menu on the right-end of the default -- when I did that, the camera-specific preset magically appeared:

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[DavePinMinn]

Thanks for the reply...

I just tried what you did and got the same result.  Didn't work.  Closed and re-opened LR.  Changed to Adobe default.  Didn't work trying to find (couldn't see) my preset.  Closed and re-opened LR.  D500 now had Adobe default.  Tried the dropdown under where you put the camera - right above the "Update Default" button, nothing.  Went to the OTHER drop down to the right of the camera model and it WAS there.  And once it WAS there in that dropdown it showed up in the OTHER dropdown...  I'm not sure if it was the MULTIPLE restarts, the computer reboot didn't do anything, or just me getting up and doing the Hokey Pokey and turning myself around, but at the MOMENT the preset I created is visible.  Now I'll try creating the REAL one again and see if I can get THAT one in as the default...

[DavePinMinn]

This process has been a series of "two steps forward, one step back".  BUT, so far, eventually things have worked. Whether they'll work reliably is in question, but at the moment...

I recognized I'm likely to have several presets for RAW imports.  And decided I should create a group for them.  So, I created a "test" preset, using the camera-specific profile, just like previously, and created a "RAW Import" group for it.

Group doesn't show up.  Preset doesn't show up.  The FOLDER is there on the disk next to User Presets, the preset is in the folder.  LR doesn't see it.

Restarted Lightroom - repeatedly.

Created a second preset to see if quantity would induce visibility.  It didn't.

LR is NOT, absolutely NOT set to store the presets with the catalog.

I went into Manage Presets and the group doesn't appear there either...

I imported a new image just in case that would magically make the new group appear.

I read a half dozen discussions and they all were either solved by turning OFF Store presets with catalog, or they weren't solved at all.

FINALLY, I created a preset using Adobe Color, and VOILA the RAW Import group shows up.  With the Adobe color preset but NEITHER of the ones created with the camera specific profile...

It's not a big deal since the import presets can just sit there with the others, but it seems like this process is really inconsistent and haphazard.  I don't know if it's buggy or just difficult and painful, but if I wasn't under house arrest with LOTS of time on my hands to play, I think I'd have given up on this several hours ago.

[scot.hacker]

This process is so much easier than described here. You don't need Bridge, or anything else - you can do it with Lightroom and a text editor. Here are my instructions to self:

• Export a preset as an .xmp file
• Open in a text editor like Notepad or VSCode
• Find and change these two lines:

crs:PresetType="Normal" to crs:PresetType="Look"
crs:SupportsAmount="False" to crs:SupportsAmount="True"

Save, then in LR go to Profiles and Import the updated file.
The new Profile will show up in the User Profiles section.