Lightroom Problem . . .

OK, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I am trying Lightroom and, until now, have used DPP for my RAW conversions and have been quite happy with it. Still, I am curious about expanding my options, so . . . I watched a few tutorials and am messing around with Lightroom and I have converted a few photos and every single one of them is under-exposed in the conversion! They are much darker as jpegs than what I see in LR. Any clues as to what is going on here? Whatever I develop in DPP looks the same after I convert and save.

are you viewing the exported version of the photo in lightroom or somewhere else?

The reason I ask is that lightroom has a black background. Other programs use a light or white background. A brighter background can give the photo the illusion of being darker when in fact it is not.

Interesting . . . I download and view them in Windows "My Pictures" and it does have a white background as opposed to LR black. I never thought about the illusion. Also, DPP has a light grey, so another reason they might look better in Windows. The downloads are, at least, 2 shades darker, though, and I wonder if the difference could be THAT much. I'll have to think about how to view these differently so I can fix the problem. I have to SEE the final product correctly for printing.

Well, it's hard to say really what is going on -- maybe if you post a Raw file through something like YouSendIt.com we could check things out.

YankeeMom wrote in post #11646653
Interesting . . . I download and view them in Windows "My Pictures" and it does have a white background as opposed to LR black. I never thought about the illusion. Also, DPP has a light grey, so another reason they might look better in Windows. The downloads are, at least, 2 shades darker, though, and I wonder if the difference could be THAT much. I'll have to think about how to view these differently so I can fix the problem. I have to SEE the final product correctly for printing.

So, how do the jpegs look if you re-import them into Lightroom?

Here are photos that look pretty much the same to me on both DPP and Lightroom (in RAW) after processing. The DPP shot converted to jpeg and looks right. The Lightroom converion is under-exposed. That is not how it looked in the LR screen however:

DPP:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

tonylong wrote in post #11646864
So, how do the jpegs look if you re-import them into Lightroom?

When I re-upload them as jpegs to LR, they look fine. Again, I view them after downloaded in Windows Picture Viewer. They look the same from DPP and under-exposed from Lightroom. When I order prints after processing them from DPP, they are exposed correctly (no matter where I order them), so I don't think the problem is Windows -- when I upload my DPP conversions in Flickr, they look correct, too.

Well, the Lightroom image you posted above doesn't look underexposed, and I'm assuming it's a jpeg converted by LR that you see a problem with?

If you take an image converted in LR and open it in DPP how does it look?

There are a number of variables involved -- the viewing program and the actual adjustments made in LR and DPP are factors.

One thing you can do is take a jpeg you've converted in DPP and import/open it in LR and compare with doing the processing in LR on the identical image and the relative brightness. That way you can tell if you are doing things differently, maybe because of the different interface colors or whatever.

Of the two pix posted, the DPP image actually looks a bit washed out to me, especially her hat and scarf. The histogram for the DPP one is hard against the right with a spike at the very right side. The LR image has better looking, more saturated colors to me. For the LR image, selecting any of the brightest white spots and setting that as the white point brightens the image, but it still looks better and more saturated.

Rimmer wrote in post #11648150
Of the two pix posted, the DPP image actually looks a bit washed out to me, especially her hat and scarf. The histogram for the DPP one is hard against the right with a spike at the very right side. The LR image has better looking, more saturated colors to me. For the LR image, selecting any of the brightest white spots and setting that as the white point brightens the image, but it still looks better and more saturated.

That's the way I see it too.

The LR shot has more saturation but the exposure looks identical.

Not sure why your exported jpegs might appear darker in another program. You can't compare an image edited independently in DPP and LR as the edits may be different. Have you tried opening the LR edited image in DPP to see what it looks like? What colour space are you selecting when you export?

The comment about the background colour is valid and you can easily test that by changing LR to a white background (right-click mouse on background).

The LR version is slightly more saturated but much less contrasty. Compare the coat, it is lighter and with more visible detail from LR, and compare the hair, darker in LR. The two edits are quite different so comparing them proves nothing. You say that the jpg imported into LR looks the same as the RAW preview (by the way, is that the Library preview or the Develop preview?), but the same file when viewed outside LR looks different. So show us a screen capture of that situation; LR alongside of another color managed application.
BTW, of the two versions posted above, the DPP has no embedded profile and so its colors will be treated randomly by most browsers, but the LR image has an sRGB profile and will therefore be remapped to my monitor space by my Safari browser.

Oh, my head is spinning a little . . . OK, I did edit them a little differently in both programs, so maybe comparing them directly doesn't make sense. (For example, I DID increase the saturation in the LR photo; I was playing with it more in LR, trying new things.)

So, my big complaint is that when I was done editing the image in LR, it looked pretty good, but when I converted it to a jpeg (what you see in this thread), it's much darker. I didn't like that. I need to know that what I see in my edit is going to look the same in the conversion or the program is no good for me. What I see in DPP is what I get when I convert.

I'm not sure how to post a screen-shot -- I see the "prt scr" button, but not sure where to paste it? Or turn it into a photo I can upload?

I should probably try this again with a new photos -- before and after. So far, it's happened with every photo I've edited. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong and maybe it is the black background. I didn't know I could change it, so thanks, Lindsey, I'll try that and see if that fixes things for me.

I notice that the EXIF data is erased (in Flickr) when I convert in DPP, but not in Lightroom. I have no idea why.

I will also try to open the LR converstion in DPP and see how it looks. Good idea.

It's interesting that Marc sees the exposure as identical -- the LR one looks darker to me. I guess some of you are saying that might just be from saturation? But, again, it doesn't look that dark until I convert. (Oh, and I am talking about what I see in "Develop." Not sure if it looked different in "Library.")

So much to think about -- I want to like Lightroom, but it's imperative that I solve this problem first! I know I'm still learning, so willing to do what it takes.

Thanks so much for all the helpful feedback!

It's important to note that once you uploaded them to Flickr, the LR shot does not look underexposed, at least to us. Are you saying that the photos you posted at the beginning of this thread do show this problem, and that you see it on Flickr and in this thread?

Also, what do you see when you open the LR jpegs in DPP? Same problem?

If so, please do post screen shots showing the problem!


Here is a thread with a tutorial on opening and saving screen shots in Win7 using Paint if you don't have an actual image editor. But, please in the the later posts of page two a "quick and easy" way to do a simple screen shot.

I don't know which OS you have, but If you are running Windows 7 then go to:

Start > All Programs > Accessories >Snipping Tool

That will bring up a screen capture utility that will let you capture the full screen, a window, or any rectangular area you select. Then you can save it directly to a file (JPG, GIF, PNG, or HTML) without having to first paste it into another program. Very easy and handy. I keep Snipping Tool pinned to my task bar so it is always available with one click no matter what I am doing.

YankeeMom wrote in post #11649000
It's interesting that Marc sees the exposure as identical -- the LR one looks darker to me.

Are you saying that you see a difference in exposure when viewing the 2 images here on potn? If so I think the difference in saturation might be playing tricks on you. Try concentrating solely on the girl's face and I think you will see there is virtually no difference in the exposure.