Monday, July 13, 2009

Quick Hit Monday: Lightroom 2.4 Issues?; Wish List For Canon 580EXIII; and Much More

Good Morning Everybody,

Hall of MirrorsWow - What a weekend! My team and I photographed a fabulous wedding on Saturday at one of my favorite venues - the Netherland Hilton Hall of Mirrors.  Both the ceremony and reception took place at one of the most beautiful places in Cincy for a wedding.

We had a gorgeous couple to photograph and their families were both charming and gracious as well as beautiful.  I have to tell you, all things came together for a absolutely beautiful wedding and reception. I've got all the images loaded up in Lightroom and they look great! I'll continue to post a few more images this week from the event.

Anyway, time to get on with this week's Quick Hit Monday - lots of stuff on deck for today.  Here we go...

Lightroom 2.4 Issues With Canon 5D Mark II

Frustrated - iStock_000006538917XSmallOK, this one has me a bit concerned.  I received an email last week from one of our DPT readers saying he was having some troubled with Lightroom's latest version (ver2.4) giving him underexposed looking previews after importing them. He pointed me to a post at DWF where some one else was experiencing the same problem. 

Here is that post:

"My issue is that when LR previews my 5D II files, I (usually) get 5 seconds of beautiful imagery then as it renders the image, it goes  about 1-2 stops darker. This only happens with the Mark II, the original 5Ds and 40D files don't do this and I understand LR is just processing the camera's RAW file which is different to how the JPEG preview appears on the LCD."

Anyone else seeing anything like this?  If been all over the the Internet looking for more info on the subject but to no avail.  Our DPT reader told me last week that he could "fix" the problem in Lightroom by hitting Edit->Catalogue Settings->Relaunch and Optimize.  Sounds like a mystery to me.  If any of our readers have been having similar issues and have discovered any other solutions, let us know in the comment section below.

580 EX III Flash Wish List

Syl Arena 580Wait, wait - I'm not trying to start any new rumors.  I received an email from blogging buddy, Syl Arena, over at PixSylated.com pointing me towards his Canon Speed-lite wish list.  Here is the link.  Syl has 17 wishes listed - how do they compare to yours.  Looks like somebody may need a magic lamp here and hope the Canon genie pops out;~)

Make Your Lighting Exciting!

Hey gang, KPPA has Tim and Bev Walden, two of the best portrait photographers in the country, and I doing day long programs in Lexington on August 16 & 17, 2009.  Walden picThe main topics for both of us will be on lighting.  Tim and Bev will be covering the portrait side of things and I'll cover the on-location wedding situations wrapping my program with a little Lightroom magic.  Ziser -picHere is the link for all the info. It should be fun. Hope to see you there.

And A Few More Quick Hits For The Road

 Versace DVDsMaster digital artist and Photoshop guru, Vincent Versace, has extended his DVD offer till July 22 - Scott Kelby had a thorough description of the DVD's content right here.

"10 Things You Can Do Right Now For Your Photography Business" over at Lighting Essentials is a great piece of business building advice which we should all take to heart in today's economical climate.  A very good read necessitating all of us giving ourselves a kick in the "you know where" to get the job done.  Here is the link.

Twitter picAnd just one more……..Tweeting more and enjoying it less.  Here is a great link right here showing how to get the most out of the social media sites for promoting your small business - good stuff.

Hey gang, that's it for me today. Tomorrow I'm trying something  different with my Technique Tuesday episode.  I had Nicholas, my assistant, do some live video of me shooting the wedding on Saturday.  I'll see what we captured so stay tuned - it might be interesting.   See ya' tomorrow,  -David

10 comments:

  1. I just got a 5D Mark II last week. And I had previously upgraded to lighroom 2.4. I also noticed that the files in lightroom appear to be 1-2 stops underexposed than compared to the LCD on my 5D. I also notice that my LCD appears to render the images with a big bump in contrast (I shoot in neutral picture style and RAW). and sometimes it appears that the WB is different in the LCD than it is when I download. So I don't know if the issue is lightroom or my Mark II LCD. I did not have this issue with my 40D. I have started shooting using the histogram more and that has helped. I don't see anywhere in the manual where I can set the LCD rendering parameters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have the same issue with my 5dii. seems every photo now needs 1-2 stops of exposure added. I thought it was me doing something wrong...what a relief (sorry) others have the same issue

    Vista Business
    LR 2.4 (2.3 seemed to work fine)
    Shooting RAW only

    -Richard

    ReplyDelete
  3. The 5DII-problem with Lightroom looks to me being a problem of your camera settings.
    When Lightroom imports a RAW image, the first preview you get is the JPG which is embedded in your RAW file. This is the same JPG as your camera uses to display. When you give Lightroom a few seconds, it generates a new JPG from the RAW file. And this is a different one than the embedded one.
    The embedded JPG is created according to your camera settings. Your RAW ofcourse not. So I would suggest that you check your camera settings.

    To make it visual: create an image in RAW, with setting grayscale in your camera. The display in your camera shows a grayscale. The import in Lightroom shows a grayscale. After a few seconds, it shows a color image.

    Relaunch & Optimize doesn't change that. But it seems different because you don't see the embedded JPG.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have the same problem with my nikon D70S files,I always wondered why my previews all of sudden turn dark. hope that would be a fix, and thanks David for being concerned, your blog is like my morning coffee can't start the day without it!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The problem always shows up with Nikon nef (raw) files and seems to be this : your monitor preview is based on the embedded .jpg - even if you are shooting raw only.
    Shooting raw + .jpg or using the Instant Jpg From Raw (IJFR) software and then importing both versions into LR will demonstrate what I'm saying. IF you watch carefully you can usually see the same thing (darkening and dull) happen in Bridge once you click on a raw file. All newer cameras have the .jpg embedded in any raw file you shoot. What we seem to be seeing is the raw file in it's real form.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Need to clarify - Monitor in the first line of my previous comment is referring to the one on your camera.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Michael Gauthier12:35 PM, July 14, 2009

    I understand the Lightroom import switch from embedded jpg to calculated jpg from raw, but this underexposure problem certainly seems to be new to LR 2.4. I have a new Nikon D5000 and I just noticed this behaviour this past weekend. It was so obvious that I figured I had screwed up something on 150 shots. They were all outdoor shots, using available light, and they were all 1-2 stops darker than the camera light meter indicated. Strange. Mike Gauthier

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've been using LR2.3 and now 2.4 with the mk2, routing raw->dng. I have allowed LR to do the catalog optimization a once or twice over the past months, so perhaps that has prevented the issue from arising. I have not seen this issue, though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Michael gauthier1:51 PM, July 27, 2009

    There is a thread on this problem over at the Adobe support forum:
    http://forums.adobe.com/thread/465198?tstart=90

    I haven't had a chance to test it yet (my new D5000 has been recalled!) but one user reported that it did the trick. Mike G

    ReplyDelete
  10. I bumped into a post somewhere else online by an Adobe employee (I've since lost the location, sorry) where he explained that this can happen when you have the Auto Lighting Optimizer option turned on (C.FnII-4). Essentially this performs brightness & exposure adjustments in-camera to the JPG. When you import the RAW file to Lightroom, you see the embedded JPG for a few seconds before LR builds it's own preview from the actual RAW data, and then you see a drop in brightness. Disable the setting in your camera to see accurate data through the entire chain.

    ReplyDelete