Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

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jason folt
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Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by jason folt »

I shoot with Nikon D200, raw images. I have been using the lightroom 3 beta for a while now, and while I love the work flow and speed I feel it is consistently low on the blacks and contrast, producing "dull" images. This is something which I never noticed when using Nikon CaptureNX2. I need to decide which to end up purchasing, and while all the Nikon D300s and such come with Capture, I bought mine before they adopted this practice. I was just seeing if other Nikon users noticed similar difficulties?

Jason
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jason folt
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Re: Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by jason folt »

Examples of what I am talking about... I did find some "camera profiles" for Nikon, none of which seem to be perfect.

all are uncropped images, basic raw file, using a certain image profile, resized for web.

1. Nikon View/Capture
Image

2. Lightroom Adobe Standard
Image

3. Lightroom D2X I preset
Image

4. lightroom D2X II preset
Image

5. Lightroom D2X III preset
Image

I found a user created D200 profile which I am trying to set up. If anyone has any luck or a certain profile they like I would love to see it.

Jason
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jason folt
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Re: Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by jason folt »

For the record, I shoot in Color Mode III. Here are some images with the user created presets.

Again the original NikonView/Capture image

Image

User preset Color Mode III
Image

And another user preset color mode III
Image

What a pain... I don't know what I like best. They are all blending together but I think there are subtle differences. I think some of the new presets are much better matched that the lightroom adobe settings though.

So if you use a D200 and lightroom, make sure you download appropriate camera calibration settings.

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VAS
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Re: Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by VAS »

Jason,

Can you download the raw image into on of the online photo editing programs to see they can make a difference? I guess I don't know enough to0 know what I don't know to help you any but I am interested in finding out what kind of different results your after. :D

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jason folt
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Re: Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by jason folt »

Scott,

What online RAW editors are there? I guess my biggest problem is I feel the Nikon RAW editors do the best job with the nikon image, but lightroom has far superior workflow and speed. Lightroom unfortunately doesn't handle the raw file as well. I feel better after finding a few of the user created profiles, but it still isn't perfect. I was just wondering if other nikon lightroom users have noticed the same here?

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Re: Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by VAS »

I didn't notice you mentioned "RAW" sorry for the confusion.

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chrish
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Re: Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by chrish »

I don't do Nikon, but I have had similar problems with Sony RAW in lightroom. I tried a few user profiles I found online but never found one I really liked. I think the issue is that no two people's monitors or tastes are exactly alike and finding a profile that matches what you want is mostly trial and error.
Of course, it also varies with lenses. I have some lenses that produce significantly more contrast than others so I gave up trying to find a preset that worked and just went back to manual tweaking.
jamesmilner228
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Re: Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by jamesmilner228 »

Good afternoon.
Many thanks to the author of this great topic.
bgorum
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Re: Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by bgorum »

When you use Nikon's own software it is going to apply presets to the image and give you pretty much the same look you would get if you had shot them in jpeg. Lightroom, being designed to work with multiple cameras from multiple manufactures is not going to do this, or at least not as well. However, part of the appeal of shooting raw files is the ability you have to achieve exactly the look you want in post processing. This is not an automatic process. Raw files tend to be flat and lack color saturation. It is then up to the photographer to adjust exposure, contrast, etc on a case by case basis. Lightroom excels at letting you do precisely this. If you are not interested in post processing, then a solution might be to shoot raw plus jpeg. That way you'll have jpegs that match the picture controls you have set in camera and which will require little or no post-processing on your part ,as well as raw backups that you can use in the future if you do decide you want to tweak your images. Even though I think Capture NX handles certain things, (like color balance), better in Nikon files than Lightroom does, I still almost never use Capture NX. Lightroom in addition to being an image editor is also a digital asset management tool, something Capture NX certainly is not. I like having my basic image editor and image manager all in one program. Lightroom also communicates very well with Photoshop and many independent plug-ins that are not supported in Capture NX. I would strongly encourage you to learn how to post-process your images. It's really not all that difficult, especially in Lightroom, and there are tons of videos on Youtube showing you the basics of image processing in Lightroom. I think I would also advise you to update your Lightroom. Version 3 is pretty old. For only $10/month you can get a subscription to both Lightroom and Photoshop. Well worth the money in my view!
jamesmilner228
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Re: Any Nikon Users using lightroom?

Post by jamesmilner228 »

Thank you so much for great topic.
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