# Nikon D7500 - Changing "Set Picture Control" - All pictures look the same in LR



## ScofieldKJV (Nov 15, 2017)

I took several pictures, all in RAW, of the same object with my Nikon D7500, only changing the Picture Control each time, switching between Standard, Neutral, Auto, Flat and Monochrome.  Viewing the pictures on the camera I can see the differences.  Viewing the RAW files on my computer using IrFanView I can see the differences.  When I import them into LightRoom they all look the same, even the monochrome switches to in color.  I selected all the pictures and simply exported them to create .jpeg versions and they all look the same.

It appears LR ignores this setting to the file if the file is RAW; am I assuming correctly?

I attached a screenshot of a page from the manual where for "Flat" it talks about editing the photo after the fact, I assume they must mean a .jpeg version and/or other utilities do not ignore this setting such as LR for RAW files.

Operating System: Mac
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):  6.13


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## Hal P Anderson (Nov 15, 2017)

Yep. LR ignores that setting (and almost all of the others). White balance is about the only exception. Irfanview is probably showing you the JPEG that is embedded in the NEF, which is why what it shows you matches what you see on the back of the camera.

Note that you can set camera profiles in the Camera Calibration panel that will approximate the various Picture Controls from your camera.


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## ScofieldKJV (Nov 15, 2017)

Thank you Hal, I greatly appreciate your reply.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Nov 15, 2017)

To expound just a big, the JPG preview (which is affected) is also what you see on the camera LCD, so even if you shoot raw and use lightroom, the picture controls are handy for adjusting what you see there.  For example, I put sharpening WAY up (way too far up) so that the in-focus areas stand out more on the LCD, but this is not visible in Lightroom as it is ignored.


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## ScofieldKJV (Nov 15, 2017)

Very interesting Ferguson, I will keep such technique in mind.  

I noticed on a particular shot when I first got the camera, set to RAW + jpeg (fine), I really liked the jpeg version and struggled to get my LR version to my liking as much.  (I have used LR for years with my prior D5100.)  Generally that is not case, but I may do some more shooting with both and comparing.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Nov 15, 2017)

It's a long standing issue that LR doesn't default out of the box anywhere near the camera settings.  Using the Camera Standard is better usually than Adobe Standard on the calibration profile, but most people end up creating a development preset or default that has a bit more contrast (personally I like more shadow and black point rather than contrast slide) and often a bit of saturation or vibrance thrown in. Get what you like, and you can set it up to apply in LR automatically.  But I would recommend starting with Camera Standard vs Adobe Standard (I think the latter is the default).


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## ScofieldKJV (Nov 15, 2017)

I have never used Camera Calibration stuff before Ferguson, I had to go looking to find it.  This is interesting and something I will have to play with more to see what I like.  One thing I wonder is, the Camera Calibration options for "Camera...", whether Standard, Flat, etc., is that taken from the camera or LR settings? I assume LR settings to mimic my camera.

I just realized Hal also mentioned these settings.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Nov 15, 2017)

The LR Camera Calibration settings are from Adobe, and are unaffected by the camera or settings there.  They represent decisions on how to do the raw -> image conversion.  The original Adobe settings (e.g. Adobe Standard) were to most people's mind very flat; to Adobe's mind (I think) they were "real" to allow you to do what you wanted later.  Again, opinion, but my impression is Adobe tool so much flack for the boring defaults they came out with "Camera Standard" (and some related ones) which were intended to more mimic the defaults for a given camera, and by and large they had more contrast and color.

So I always suggest starting there.

You can also make your own profiles.  This is handy, and pretty easy; it is not exactly the same issue, but it is about adjusting for your specific sensor's idiosyncrasies (not your camera type, but that specific one), and also you can make profiles for unusual lighting conditions like mercury vapor or neon or such, which will help true up the colors (this is not about white balance, that's a separate thing).  

But that's more of a fine tuning detail. I would find a profile from the existing set you like and start with that as a basis, then find out what other adjustments you like as a default, and save them, and apply them to all photos as a starting point, then edit individually from there.  Getting the right default will help a lot to make Lightroom more automated for you.


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## ScofieldKJV (Nov 15, 2017)

This has been a very enlightening discussion.  I also found an online article that discusses this:  Using Lightroom camera profiles (and why Adobe Standard is a liability)


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## johncee (Nov 16, 2017)

Ferguson said:


> The LR Camera Calibration settings are from Adobe, and are unaffected by the camera or settings there.  They represent decisions on how to do the raw -> image conversion.  The original Adobe settings (e.g. Adobe Standard) were to most people's mind very flat; to Adobe's mind (I think) they were "real" to allow you to do what you wanted later.  Again, opinion, but my impression is Adobe tool so much flack for the boring defaults they came out with "Camera Standard" (and some related ones) which were intended to more mimic the defaults for a given camera, and by and large they had more contrast and color.
> 
> So I always suggest starting there.
> 
> ...



I have a question related to this. I made bunch of profiles to play around with and test. I now want to remove them but I can’t find a way to do so. Any help would be appreciated.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Nov 16, 2017)

johncee said:


> I have a question related to this. I made bunch of profiles to play around with and test. I now want to remove them but I can’t find a way to do so. Any help would be appreciated.


The profiles go on your system in a file (here's a good general reference that lists that and much more).  You can exit lightroom, delete the profile, and restart lightroom.

Profiles are very different from presets by the way.  A preset is applied, and thenit's over -- the results are baked into your settings inside develop.  So you can change or delete a preset and have no impact on prior images.

With profiles, if you delete the profile, you break the link, and Lightroom reverts to some other default, so if you use a profile, leave that profile attached to the image, then later delete it -- the appearance of that image will change even though you did no other edits.  So as a general case, if you use a profile, you must commit to keeping it around forever (and move it from old to new computers).
Note i have no idea how such profiles will impact going to LR CC, another quirk there.

I also have a suggestion that departs from current usage if you have more than two cameras. Create your profile WITHOUT the camera in the name, then rename the FILE to include it.  So you can then have two profiles like "ICE RINK D800" and "ICE RINK D300", but internally they are both called "ICE RINK" (from their initial creation).  Then when used, you see only "ICE RINK" in Lightroom, and Lightroom figures out the camera version to use.  In this way you can apply profiles in presets without regard to camera; if the profile is named with the camera, you then need the preset to be different for each camera.


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## ScofieldKJV (Nov 20, 2017)

I wanted to again thank those that replied.  I had never used the calibration tool before and I have since created my own User Preset, based on Camera Flat with Tint +10 and Blue Primary-Hue -15.


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