I'm not sure why Lr can't just provide a setting which allows Lr to utilize the native Camera settings which unalter the appearance of the image when rendering the Raw image. Then I suggest you consider for a moment, what is happening when LR imports a Raw image, and why the image appearance changes. That has been well laid out higher up this thread, in a number of different ways. This is not something "extra" that the Adobe software is doing to the image, so it cannot just "stop" doing that. In order for the image NOT to change between viewing the initial JPG made by the camera, and viewing the initial Raw conversion made by Lightroom, it would be necessary for Lightroom to carry out a Raw conversion that worked the same in every particular. And it would need to do the same for every other camera model too, even though each camera model's internal Raw conversion is different. If this is what you are asking for, that's as ambitious, as asking a piano player to "pick up and continue" the music seamlessly, when a piece of recorded piano music is cut off in the middle - matching the performing style, musical expression, tone and tempo exactly, so that nobody realises. And to be able to do so not just for a particular recording, but for any music by a wide range of different recording artists. The image that is initially seen, is the recording which is FIXED. The image that replaces it, is a brand new "live performance" of the Raw file - which is VARIABLE. That is IMO the purpose of shooting Raw: it is meant to be like attending a live performance, not like listening to a CD. Someone who fidgets through a live performance constantly irritated that it is NOT identical to their favourinte CD, has wasted their money buying the ticket - the whole expectation with a live performance, is that the music will depart from how any prior recording might sound. If it did match a given recording exactly, that might be a very clever technical trick, but not a musically worthwhile one.. the audience would most likely feel short-changed. The time to edit the Raw image to look like the camera generated cannot be solved by creating a single preset, as each image would need to be edited in a custom manner to achieve its original intended appearance, if it is even possible. Quite. That is the situation that Lightroom finds itself in. Adobe should allow a preference to utilize the native camera settings for editing the Raw image, or use the JPEG created by the camera AS the preview (instead of ignoring the file at import). You can set Lightroom not to generate any previews straight away, but that is just putting off the moment when you start to engage with the actual (Raw) content of the image file. The point of importing a Raw file to LR, is in order to do something with that, and this requires a conversion to be done by Lightroom. For what it's worth, Aperture makes no change in the appearance of the Raw file, nor does Capture One. I think this is the same, as a statement that Aperture and C1 have got (in your particular case) default processing which is quite similar in its outcome, to how the camera is set up to do things; and that your Lightroom has currently got default processing, that is dissimilar in its outcome. This default processing is within your power to change, just as the in-camera settings are within your power to change. One camera model has different JPG controls, which operate in different ways, and produce different results, than another camera does. As you have acknowledged, there is an investment of effort that has gone into that. And the Raw conversion that Lightroom makes, cannot use the camera JPG settings directly, because it is not that particular camera... but, it is substituting that part of the role of the camera, in producing an image.
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