X5R DNG in Lightroom

[Øystein Iversen]

Hi.

When i'm importing the DNGs into Lightroom the image changes after some seconds, both in library and when develop. Brightness, contrast, saturation etc in the picture changes rapidly, just like i'm viewing an autotuned picture or a jpeg.

How can i keep my flat dng file to start from scratch? I have searched everywhere, most people say Lightroom shows a jpeg saved in the dng file, and is supposed to show a rendered version of the dng when processed. But i dont want a processed preview/jpeg file to work with, i want a untouched file to create my own look.

 

[InterMurph]

This is standard Lightroom behavior.

And there is really no such thing as "an untouched file". A raw photo consists of the bits recorded by the sensor, plus the metadata that records the camera and lens settings. All raw converters, including Lightroom, use that metadata (color temperature, camera photo style, etc.) to generate the preview it shows to you.

The "changes rapidly" is due to the fact that Lightroom first displays the embedded JPG image, which is highly processed, while it is calculating its version of the raw conversion. Once it is done with that conversion, it displays its version of the raw image.

But in order to do this, it simply has to apply a white balance (Temp and Tint in the Basic panel). It defaults to As Shot, meaning that it uses the values the camera calculated. You can change to another preset (Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, etc.), ask Lightroom to guess (Auto), or specify your own values (Custom).

Lightroom also applies a default sharpening value of 25 (in the Detail panel). Again, you can change this as you see fit.

You can reset all of these adjustments to the defaults by clicking the Reset button at the lower-right of the develop panels. This tells Lightroom "show me your default version of this image". But you just can't tell Lightroom, "show me the raw image with no adjustments", because that simply doesn't make sense.

So which version of the image do you want to see? The saturated-and-contrasted version that shows up for a few seconds? You have to add the saturation and adjustment yourself.

I must ask: are you editing photos or video?

 

[Øystein Iversen]

This is standard Lightroom behavior.

And there is really no such thing as "an untouched file". A raw photo consists of the bits recorded by the sensor, plus the metadata that records the camera and lens settings. All raw converters, including Lightroom, use that metadata (color temperature, camera photo style, etc.) to generate the preview it shows to you.

The "changes rapidly" is due to the fact that Lightroom first displays the embedded JPG image, which is highly processed, while it is calculating its version of the raw conversion. Once it is done with that conversion, it displays its version of the raw image.

But in order to do this, it simply has to apply a white balance (Temp and Tint in the Basic panel). It defaults to As Shot, meaning that it uses the values the camera calculated. You can change to another preset (Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, etc.), ask Lightroom to guess (Auto), or specify your own values (Custom).

Lightroom also applies a default sharpening value of 25 (in the Detail panel). Again, you can change this as you see fit.

You can reset all of these adjustments to the defaults by clicking the Reset button at the lower-right of the develop panels. This tells Lightroom "show me your default version of this image". But you just can't tell Lightroom, "show me the raw image with no adjustments", because that simply doesn't make sense.

So which version of the image do you want to see? The saturated-and-contrasted version that shows up for a few seconds? You have to add the saturation and adjustment yourself.

I must ask: are you editing photos or video?

Thanks for reply.
Well, i am editing mostly video. So i'm starting with lightroom now. For me it does'nt make sense that the software can't show me a flat image. When you're editing video in lets say premiere you can enable/disable you're grade or LUT, but you have the possibility to choose.
It's a massive difference in the flat DNG file from the X5R when you're shooting, and what Lightroom shows you. So it's not possible to just start from scratch? I want to work from there, not the other way around. I have to desaturate and turn the contrast down allot, it's to much.

 

[InterMurph]

Lightroom is not the right place to edit X5R raw video. Premiere Pro is the easiest (especially with the new proxy workflow; look it up). But if you are a perfectionist, and you want to use the Adobe Camera Raw converter that Lightroom has, you actually want to use After Effects, which I describe here:

A simple After Effects work flow

 

[InterMurph]

So it's not possible to just start from scratch?

What values does Lightroom show for Vibrance and Saturation on the basic panel?

And try clicking the Reset button to the lower-right of these panels.

 

[Øystein Iversen]

What values does Lightroom show for Vibrance and Saturation on the basic panel?

And try clicking the Reset button to the lower-right of these panels.

That's the thing i find strange. Because the values is 0, but the image is highly saturated and the contrast is hard. It's not just WB, sharpness and ting that is adjusted, but the overall image. For me 0 would be the flat raw image without adjustments, but now 0 is a finished picture when it comes to saturation.

 

[Øystein Iversen]

Lightroom is not the right place to edit X5R raw video. Premiere Pro is the easiest (especially with the new proxy workflow; look it up). But if you are a perfectionist, and you want to use the Adobe Camera Raw converter that Lightroom has, you actually want to use After Effects, which I describe here:

A simple After Effects work flow

Thanks for reply. This case is about stills, not video. But i will look into the link you posted

 

[Øystein Iversen]

So which version of the image do you want to see? The saturated-and-contrasted version that shows up for a few seconds? You have to add the saturation and adjustment yourself.

I must ask: are you editing photos or video?

I explained myself a bit bad. I'm editing photos in this particular case. I want to see the flat image. But LR is adding much saturation and contrast also, in the preview image.

 

[Jonathan Ross]

You might get some help from this article explaining the difference between Raw and Log I had the same questions when we pulled up our first footage, we expected flat like LOG but that is not the case. You have tons of data there but it should not appear like a LOG file, if you start working your sliders you will see there is all the info you could possible need. I hope this helps a bit. Understanding the Difference Between Raw, Log, and Uncompressed Footage

Cheers,
J

 

[Kilrah]

Thanks for reply.
For me it does'nt make sense that the software can't show me a flat image. When you're editing video in lets say premiere you can enable/disable you're grade or LUT, but you have the possibility to choose.

As said there is no such thing as a "flat image" from a RAW, or it would be a "kinda grayscale" image from each sensor dot without even taking the color filters into account... everything from there needs processing.
Same in Premiere, even when you disable the LUT there is also some default processing that's applied. The 2 are different because "good starting points" are different for photo and video. The fact that some sliders have a value or not is irrelevant, everything is recalculated from the source on the fly anyway.

Note that you can set the default processing to your liking in LR.