Question for LR users who upload NEF/RAW

AudiSportB5S4

Senior Member
Hello there,

When I import NEF/RAW photos and go to edit them in Lightroom, I've noticed that when I go to "develop" that the initial load of the pic looks great, then a second later it seems all this noise is introduced into the image and degrades it. What is the deal? Anyone know what I'm talking about? This only happens as mentioned with NEF/RAW photos, not on JPGs.

Thanks!
 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
What you are seeing is it using Adobes standard profile, if you want it to be using a camera standard profile on import as I do follow this from Tony.

 

AudiSportB5S4

Senior Member
Thanks for sharing! It was exactly like that.. as if a terrible filter had been applied and I couldn't figure out how to undo it! Glad I wasn't losing it.. haha.. Thanks a lot for the help.
 

nickt

Senior Member
I think what you are seeing is the jpg version for an instant, then the raw renders which may look less good depending what, if any, filters are applied by LR. Depending on the speed of your computer, you might not even see this quick flash of a jpg. To test if this is the case, set your camera to B&W, take a pic and upload the raw. The B&W setting will not affect the raw, but it will affect the embedded jpg. I'm betting that you see a quick flash of the b&w embedded jpg before the raw loads. Since the jpg is b&w, it will be much more obvious that you are seeing the jpg for an instant.
 

AudiSportB5S4

Senior Member
I think what you are seeing is the jpg version for an instant, then the raw renders which may look less good depending what, if any, filters are applied by LR. Depending on the speed of your computer, you might not even see this quick flash of a jpg. To test if this is the case, set your camera to B&W, take a pic and upload the raw. The B&W setting will not affect the raw, but it will affect the embedded jpg. I'm betting that you see a quick flash of the b&w embedded jpg before the raw loads. Since the jpg is b&w, it will be much more obvious that you are seeing the jpg for an instant.
Ah okay makes sense.. Yeah as Scott mentioned above and in that video he linked, that is exactly what I'm seeing so when I'm in front of LR again follow the steps in that vid to remove that standard filter that Adobe puts on.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I think what you are seeing is the jpg version for an instant, then the raw renders which may look less good depending what, if any, filters are applied by LR. Depending on the speed of your computer, you might not even see this quick flash of a jpg. To test if this is the case, set your camera to B&W, take a pic and upload the raw. The B&W setting will not affect the raw, but it will affect the embedded jpg. I'm betting that you see a quick flash of the b&w embedded jpg before the raw loads. Since the jpg is b&w, it will be much more obvious that you are seeing the jpg for an instant.

This is exactly what's happening. You can fix this somewhat if you use a consistent camera profile by changing your default settings in Lightroom to apply that profile in import. That said, if you have other JPEG related stuff turned on (noise reduction, distortion control, Active D-Lighting, etc.) then there will still be a difference. The Adobe profile is also not provided by Nikon but it is derived by their engineers to be as close as possible. Some are better than others, some are just OK.
 
Top