Lightroom question - image consistency

03/02/2009 10:40:47 PM · #1

I've been working with Lightroom 2 (now 2.2) for several months now and have not encountered the following issue before, so throwing this out to see if anyone has trod this path before me.

Working on a calibrated monitor, I processed a photo in Lightroom just the way I like it - in this case, a somewhat extreme edit, dark and grungy - and then exported a copy as a tif file (ProPhotoRGB, 16 bits, 300 px). Same as I always do - but unlike every other time before, when I open this file in CS3 I get an image that looks radically different than what I saw in Lightroom (detail is lost, most subtleties of dark and light gone). I also tried opening directly as a smart object in CS3 with no difference in result. Ditto result in trying to save as a web-ready jpg directly from Lightroom, too.

Never had an image change appearance before, and this case doesn't seem to be down to either monitor calibration or color space issues (CS3 is opening the image in the same color space as how it was saved in Lightroom). Any ideas?

03/02/2009 11:00:39 PM · #2

Karen, I noticed that you have the new Canon 5DII, have you updated you camera raw support with adobe? probably not the fix but worth a quick check.

ETA:

I get this message from time to time but have never had an issue like yours but wonder if it could be related.

" This version of lightroom may require the Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in version 5.2 for full comatability."

Message edited by author 2009-03-02 23:03:09.

03/02/2009 11:03:19 PM · #3

Originally posted by trevytrev:

Karen, I noticed that you have the new Canon 5DII, have you updated you camera raw support with adobe? probably not the fix but worth a quick check.

Ah yes, I'm sorry, I forgot to add some details. The image in question is actually shot with my 350D, the one converted to infrared. I just did a simple b&w conversion in Lightroom, before grunging the image up in other ways. :) I do have the 5DII supported in Lightroom and have been opening processed tifs in CS3 with no problems, but the image in question is from an older cam and definitely supported.

03/02/2009 11:04:22 PM · #4

So you don't have this issue with your other camera, just your IR camera?

03/02/2009 11:08:01 PM · #5

Originally posted by trevytrev:

So you don't have this issue with your other camera, just your IR camera?

well, considering I've been processing images from this camera in Lightroom before now with no difficulty, I'd say none of my cameras has an issue with Lightroom, as a general point. I've only encountered the problem with this one shot - maybe the edit is too extreme?

03/02/2009 11:10:42 PM · #6

have you shut down lightroom and restarted it? I have had times where a certain shot refuses to take a particular preset, it simply will not change to the preset but will with others. I find shutting down and rebooting to fix the bug. worht a shot if you haven't tried it.

03/02/2009 11:28:13 PM · #7

Originally posted by trevytrev:

Nope - doesn't seem to make a difference. :(

And what's even odder - I imported the tif file I created from that RAW image back into the Lightroom catalogue and it shows in Lightroom exactly as it shows in CS3 - a murky pale imitation of the original rendering. So it's not like Lightroom is showing me the same file, but differently - the export seems to fail somehow and subsequently shows as such no matter what application I view it in. [I also tried exporting several times, in several different formats, to see if that mattered - no dice]. Then I thought one of the presets I used simply doesn't render well, so I grabbed another shot and slapped the preset on it and exported it out - it opened in CS3 just fine.

Crap - I really like my edit, too, and it looks like I will only ever get to admire it in Lightroom. Had a whole Brothers Quay vibe going for it. I'll sleep on it, see if I can't get my subconscious to figure it out while I get some zzzs.

Thanks for trying anyway, Trevor.

03/02/2009 11:29:53 PM · #8

Strange indeed! Let us know if you get it figured out!

03/03/2009 09:01:57 AM · #9

bump to see if anyone else might have an idea about it - I won't have time again to fiddle with the problem until this evening, myself, but I welcome any input.

03/03/2009 01:30:42 PM · #10

If you like you can save the settings you have applied to a preset and email it to me with the file and I'll try it on my machine. If it doesn't work on mine then there is something going on with the settings applied.