What am I doing wrong? (Lightroom)

Shima

So I recently started shooting in RAW. I've been editing photos in Lightroom for a while now since it came out... but when I put my RAW pictures in and export them to JPEG, suddenly I'm missing vibrancy in my photos that the RAW's show...

And upon further investigation, when they're fresh imports, the vibrancy is already lost... as I sit here comparing the JPEGs (which look like what Lightroom shows them as) to the RAW's... JPEGs look like when I first import them in, they never import with the vibrancy of the original raw photos... what is going on here?

arodney

Make sure when you export the JPEGs they are in sRGB for web use or viewing in non color managed applications (most browsers). Check the export preset.

When you first import images into LR, you're seeing the low rez embedded JPEGs from the camera which are stored inside Raws. They are replaced with higher quality previews generated by LR based on the current default rendering preset. That's why they look one way then change as LR updates on import (also check your preferences for how large it builds these previews).

BradfordBenn

I also found that a quick White Balance did wonders... and I am a shotgun style shooter (I take lots of photos hoping to get one right)

Shima

Yeah but it's not the white balance that I have problems with in Raw. It's just that there's a huge drop in saturation, contrast, etc. I'm quickly realizing it's just that I see that stuff in the jpg and assume it should be there in the RAW, so should be feasible to fix.

arodney

Shima wrote:

Yeah but it's not the white balance that I have problems with in Raw. It's just that there's a huge drop in saturation, contrast, etc. I'm quickly realizing it's just that I see that stuff in the jpg and assume it should be there in the RAW, so should be feasible to fix.

You simply need to create and update a new camera Raw or LR default rendering for import. Raw data has no color, its your job to control the tone and color in the converter to express how you wish the image to appear. The controls are there. The initial default is just that, a default that probably isn't what you want. Up the Vibrance a bit, save a preset. Now use that on import. There's no right default answer. The right answer is the preset you like.

This PDF is really useful to give you an idea of what's going on with Raw and the power and flexibility it provides:

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/family/prophotographer/pdfs/pscs3_renderprint.pdf