Quality degrades while loading pictures?

Before I load anything into lightroom, I always go through my RAWs with Windows Gallery to delete duplicates and bad shots so I don't waste space on my computer. Something weird happens when I'm going through the photos however; in the brief half second while they're loading, they look rich (Like This) and once they're done loading, they look dull and grey Like This. What's happening here? Is it some weird glitch with Windows Gallery and raw files?

The pictures look like they're supposed to (like the first screenshot) once I have them in lightroom, but it would be nice to have them look right in Gallery so I can quickly sort the good from the bad.

My gut feeling is that at first you see the embedded JPEG preview, but then it somehow switches to rendering CR2 directly. I don't use Windows Gallery, I much prefer Faststone; see if that works for you.

Why not review and delete in LR? I import all then cull, why go through two seperate steps?

Agree with Ralff. LR is arguably the best workflow software. Take some time to get to know its importing functions and you will wonder why you were ever bringing your files into another program first.

I use FastPictureViewer to cull, much faster workflow that way IMHO. It creates XMP that work with Bridge/LR.

That's not two separate steps? The Import dialog in LR2 was useless for prejudging images, LR3 was improved and LR4/5 has an Import dialog that is very good for doing the initial run-through and deciding what to transfer to the hard drive or other permanent storage. It makes absolutely no sense to me to import everything on the card indiscriminately and then delete the losers (unless you are so good that you never shoot losers). On the Import page first uncheck all (at the bottom of the page), then select the first image and hit E (for loupe). Scroll through all the shots with the arrow keys; under each one is a check-box "Include in Import". Import only the ones you have checked.

Flynny2 wrote in post #16135846
....in the brief half second while they're loading, they look rich (Like This) and once they're done loading, they look dull and grey Like This. What's happening here? Is it some weird glitch with Windows Gallery and raw files?

The initial image you are seeing is the jpeg preview file embedded with the RAW file - the same image you see when you view the image on your camera LCD. This preview will have been processed by the camera using whatever setting you have set in the camera (monochrome, landscape, portrait, standard etc etc). Once the file is loaded the software will create a new preview image based on the unprocessed RAW file. Because it doesn't have the same in camera processing applied it looks less impressive. You will need to do post processing on to to bring out the best in the image.

tzalman wrote in post #16136799
On the Import page first uncheck all (at the bottom of the page), then select the first image and hit E (for loupe). Scroll through all the shots with the arrow keys; under each one is a check-box "Include in Import". Import only the ones you have checked.

+1 to this. I always use the Lightroom import screen to check for duds. Lr used to be bad/slow at this but the latest versions are vastly improved.

I will keep importing and deleting in LR, easier for me. I can look at them in full screen on my 27" iMac and delete as needed. Whatever floats you're boat!

I Import into LR first and then cull. I'm sure other apps are a bit faster, especially ones that just "see" the embedded jpeg. I don't know what's going on with the Windows viewer, I'd think it would only see the embedded jpeg, but Oh Well, who knows?

To me it's just more efficient to use the Lightroom tools to check and cull. Plus, I can always make quick moves to say the Develop module to check things while I'm going through the batch. The "Loading" slowdowns just aren't enough of a bother to prompt me to turn to separate software.