Stop Lightroom adding color change to raw files while importing

[slaekke]

Hi.

I just found out that lightroom forcing a change to my pictures while importing. How to stop this from happening? I have taken all my pictures in raw with a flat "picture style" so I get the most dynamic range as possible (crop sensor, Canon 80D). I just want the picture to look as flat and unedited as possible when I start editing in lighroom, is that not possible ?

[JP Hess]

Lightroom has default settings for every camera that it supports. These default settings usually include the Adobe Color profile. If these settings are not suitable to your taste, set one of your newly imported images to look the way you want it to look when it is first imported and then said new defaults for your camera. Then those defaults will be applied when you import new images are when you click on the reset button.

[slaekke]

the raw data should determend how the image should look before any edits. Cant lightroom read information from raw files? Sorry, but I really dont understand this. I have read alot about the "picture style" in the canon 80d should be a flat one, clog forexample so that the camera dont prosses the colors before the post prosess, it limits your option you can do with picture. But when I suddenly fixed that problem, I found that also lightroom do some edits to the colors. 

[JP Hess]

You can't apply a picture style. That is an in-camera setting, and Lightroom will not read those settings. As I indicated in my first response, Adobe creates default settings for every camera that it supports. Those default settings may not be satisfactory for your situation. From what you describe, the default settings don't meet your needs. You can't change settings in the camera and expect Lightroom to read those settings because every camera manufacturer stores those settings differently. Consequently, Lightroom must ignore in-camera settings from every camera manufacturer. Create your own default settings that suit your needs, and it will speed up your processing tremendously.

[D Fosse]

In short, those camera settings don't apply to raw files. They only apply to camera jpeg processing.

A raw file is just the photons hitting the sensor. That's it. No less, no more.

[elie_dinur]

>> "the raw data should determend how the image should look before any edits."

That is only partially true. Without processing and basic editing being done to that Raw data there is no color image. There is no "image before edits". The camera processes it one way, LR processes it a different way. You have set your camera to not use the default Standard Picture Style, now you have to set LR to not use its standard defaults. Just changing the camera settings doesn't make LR change itself, you have to do that.

I also have an 80D. In the first days after I bought it I created a custom low contrast P.S. for it so that the displayed histogram (I mostly use the real-time histogram in Live View to set an exposure that puts the highlights just short of clipping) would be only minimally misleading. And then I studied Raw shots with Raw analyzing software to learn the correlation between the camera's histogram and the actual true Raw histogram. Finally, based on what I know about the way LR works "under the hood", I created a flat Adobe profile for the 80D and also changed LR's defaults to create a starting point that would retain DR and do basic sharpening and NR appropriate to the ISO.

I do this for all my cameras.

>> "I have taken all my pictures in raw with a flat "picture style" so I get the most dynamic range as possible..."

That doesn't change the amount of DR captured in the Raw which depends on three things: 1. Optimum exposure (Google ETTR).

2. The amount of noise produced by the sensor and sensor reading electronics.

3. The ISO.

The low contrast P.S. retains it in the camera's jpg processing, but now you need similar processing in LR; but be aware that low contrast is not very aesthetically pleasing and eventually you will need to sacrifice or at least compress some of that DR.

[LifeArtista]

Hi Elie, do you have a LUT or preset config for your import settings you could share?

[GoldingD]

Have you previously changed the Default settings. In LR, while in the Develop Module, In LR Menu, in the Develop Tab, have you clicked on Set Develop Settings....., and altered that? You might want to go ahead and do that but select Restore Adobe Default Settings

[slaekke]

What does this set defalt do? Does it effect the pictures already imported?

[GoldingD]

For example

Setting Custom Develop Defaults in Lightroom Classic « Julieanne Kost's Blog

and

https://petapixel.com/2017/05/10/tip-set-custom-develop-defaults-lightroom-hidden-feature/

Would not affect already imported images.

P.S. you can use the existing Adobe LR preset Zeroed, to put everything back to zero. In the Develop module, over on the left, in the Presets, Classic-General, Zeroed.

Be aware, that will affect the image, you might not like it, sort of like Reset on steroids. If it is missing, click on the + (right side of preset box) click on manage, and add the missing preset(s)

[JP Hess]

slaekke  wrote

What does this set defalt do? Does it effect the pictures already imported?

No. It only affects images imported from that point onward. Or, if you click on the reset button it will reset images to the new defaults that you choose to set. But it will not have any impact on other images that have already been imported and adjusted. The default settings are only "automatically" applied when the images are first imported.

[GoldingD]

Followup

A second possibility is in the Import module, Go and click on Import, inspect the items on the right, any presets being applied?

[ski2mch]

I have had this same issue. I shoot with my Nikon D3 and now my Z6 recording both RAW & JPEG. In-camera I often put the JPEG on the "vivid" setting or another "look". When I used to import both the RAW & JPEG's into my old Lightroom 3.6, Lightroom 3.6 would keep the RAW's flat as they should be and the JPEG's would import with the "vivid" look, exactly as I wanted and it should be. Now that I have upgraded to the new web based Lightroom Classic, this is all oposite now. The RAW's have the "look" applied and the JPEG's do not. It's driving me nuts.

Is there a way of fixing all of my images that have already been imported? Or is there only a way to fix this with images I import in the future? I don't want any "look" of any kind applied to my RAW images, otherwise what's the point of a RAW.

[DdeGannes]

The issue you are bringing up in this thread has no relation to things addressed in this thread. It would be better if you start a new thread so you can get some advice of Nikon Cameras users particularly the Z6.

A couple of issues, the latest version of Lightroom Classic 9.x was released a couple months ago and the latest version introduced significant changes to how default develop settings for raw files are applied at import. The procedures to apply changes is has been addressed in the forum.

The Nikon D3 was released in Aug 2007 and Lightroom 3.x was released June 2010, over the years there have been several changes to Camera Profiles in Lightroom including profiles for The D3.

The Nikon Z6 was released in late 2018 and there are now changes made in Feb 2020.

To wit there are significant changes from LR 3 to LR 9 which spans 9 years.

[acidtears]

5 years too late but all the other responses are too long or don't solve the issue: 

EDIT > PREFERENCES > PRESETS > RAW DEFAULTS > GLOBAL > SELECT "CAMERA SETTINGS" > HIT OK

This will stop Adobe from forcing their colour profile onto your RAW images. I was facing a similar issue when shooting with my Fujifilm - upon import the Adobe Colors are applied, nullifying the entire point of shooting RAW in film sim mode... 

Ideally, however, if you're a professional, you should develop presets that you can then apply in bulk to images directly upon import and then start from there 🙂 For enthusiasts, this will give you the "image-as-intended-by-its-creators".  

[TheDigitalDog]

5 years too late but all the other responses are too long or don't solve the issue: 

EDIT > PREFERENCES > PRESETS > RAW DEFAULTS > GLOBAL > SELECT "CAMERA SETTINGS" > HIT OK

This will stop Adobe from forcing their colour profile onto your RAW images.

By @acidtears

An Adobe camera profile is always being used, and a proprietary rendering for previews is always being produced. There is no way to disable this. The raw previews are JPEGs produced in the camera, which are proprietary to the camera. Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic much build their own. They may be close(er) to a JPEG with camera-matching profiles, but there has never been a guarantee of a match between the camera JPEG preview and anything Adobe or anyone but the camera manufacturer produce.