# nxMaking the move to Lightroom from ViewNX2 and feeling the pain...



## Sine Deviance (Mar 17, 2012)

*Making the move to Lightroom from ViewNX2 and feeling the pain...*

Hi all! As the thread title implies, I've just switched to Lightroom 3 from ViewNX2 and I am having some issues. Pictures speak louder than words, so I'll just show you guys and gals what I'm working with right up front.

ViewNX2 export after adjustments:








In contrast, Lightroom 3 export after Develop (this is as close as I can seem to get to ViewNX2's copy






I hope we can all agree that the ViewNX2 export looks much much better, and much less washed out. Also, there is a distinct lack of green tone in the Lightroom export. In addition, most of my imports come in on the purple side, which is very very annoying 

So what exactly am I doing wrong here? I've tried playing with just about every hue and saturation slider in Lightroom without getting anywhere close to the ViewNX result. Dropping exposure doesn't help the washout either. I have added all of my system details in my profile, and I've already tried resetting my monitor profile to sRGB with no dice.

Thanks for any ideas you may have 

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I'm shooting with a Nikon D5000 and Nikkor 18-55m VRII lens.


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## Mark Sirota (Mar 22, 2012)

Have you tried playing with the camera calibration profiles, visible in the Camera Calibration tab in Develop? I suspect that will address most of the difference you see here.


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## Sine Deviance (Mar 24, 2012)

Hi Mark! Yes, I have in fact done that with no change for the better.


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## sizzlingbadger (Mar 24, 2012)

How are you setting the white balance ?  If you can make the raw file available I can take a look myself.

Nice Les Paul Studio... I have a 60's SG tribute :razz:


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## Denis de Gannes (Mar 24, 2012)

Just my opinion, the ViewNX2 rendition has a severe green cast, try adjusting the LR rendition by using the recovery slider to correct for the overexposed hightlights.


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## Sine Deviance (Mar 25, 2012)

sizzlingbadger said:


> How are you setting the white balance ?  If you can make the raw file available I can take a look myself.



I'm using the white balance selector and selecting a grey, black or white target neutral for 99% of what I'm developing. I've also tried using the white balance slider to cast it on the green side, but that doesn't help much either; it's still just blue and red.

Here's a copy of the NEF if you want to check it out, thanks for taking a look!

http://nodanites.com/storage/DSC_0230.NEF



Denis de Gannes said:


> Just my opinion, the ViewNX2 rendition has a severe green cast, try adjusting the LR rendition by using the recovery slider to correct for the overexposed highlights.



The photo really should have a green cast though; there was green present in the original shot. I tried the recovery slider too. It helped a little, but everything is still way overexposed compared to the ViewNX2 version. I'm using the tattoo on his arm as my reference.


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## Hal P Anderson (Mar 25, 2012)

Any chance that you have "Apply auto tone adjustments" set in your preferences? If so, try turning it off.



Hal


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## sizzlingbadger (Mar 26, 2012)

I can help with the exposure problem (I think). You probably have Active D-Lighting enabled on the camera, this can only be interpreted by Capture NX so you need to switch that off when using 3rd part raw converters like Lightroom. Over exposure is a common issue with that switched on. I reduced exposure by -0.8 and Highlights by -40 and looked ok. (I used the Camera Default Calibration Profile)

The colour balance is harder to deal with, it s almost like there isn't enough WB correction available. I couldn't correct it in LR to match NX. I did try Aperture and that is better but you get more magenta in the blues. I did a WB selection on the front of the speaker cab to the right of stage, both apps set the green tint to max in the WB adjustment control. Setting a fixed WB instead of Auto in the camera (or vice versa) may help somewhat but not a lot I think.

I can only suggest you contact Eric Chan at Adobe and see if he can take look into it.

LR4


AP3


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## Sine Deviance (Mar 26, 2012)

This might come up as a double post; I had already replied to Hal's post but it hasn't been ok'd by an admin yet. Sorry for that.

EDIT: Holy crap, post #5! No more waiting for posts to be greenlit 




sizzlingbadger said:


> I can help with the exposure problem (I think). You probably have Active D-Lighting enabled on the camera, this can only be interpreted by Capture NX so you need to switch that off when using 3rd part raw converters like Lightroom. Over exposure is a common issue with that switched on. I reduced exposure by -0.8 and Highlights by -40 and looked ok. (I used the Camera Default Calibration Profile)



I don't shoot with D-Lighting enabled; I always applied it in post. Thanks for the suggestion though!




sizzlingbadger said:


> The colour balance is harder to deal with, it s almost like there isn't enough WB correction available. I couldn't correct it in LR to match NX. I did try Aperture and that is better but you get more magenta in the blues. I did a WB selection on the front of the speaker cab to the right of stage, both apps set the green tint to max in the WB adjustment control. Setting a fixed WB instead of Auto in the camera (or vice versa) may help somewhat but not a lot I think.



This is exactly what I'm seeing on my end; it's like the Tint slider cannot physically go far enough to the green side! I wish there was a way to remove the hardcoded +-150 limit on Tint adjustments.




sizzlingbadger said:


> I can only suggest you contact Eric Chan at Adobe and see if he can take look into it.
> 
> LR4View attachment 2056
> 
> AP3View attachment 2057



Might do that, and thanks for taking a look! Although I own a copy, I'm still kind of evaluating Lightroom to see what it can do for us. I also plan to try Aperture in the coming weeks, as I plan to purchase a 27" Core i7 iMac to be our primary photo workstation soon.

As it stands now, I'm learning to work around it because I do realize that Lightroom is probably the future for us despite this huge drawback. It's getting to the point where ViewNX2 is no longer economically viable due to time constraints, so honestly, we're going to be forced into using Lightroom (or some other product that can quickly post-process hundreds of photos) whether I like it or not.

EDIT: Also forgot to mention that I upgraded to LR 3.6 to take advantage of new camera and lens profiles that match my equipment. The problem persists.


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## Kiwigeoff (Mar 26, 2012)

I find the tones a bit green for my taste in your NX version, here's my look at it.


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 27, 2012)

For that kind of extreme lighting, try the DNG Profile Editor to create a custom profile or two.  That will allow you to push the white balance sliders way beyond its normal limits.  I used to keep a set of extreme WB profiles around - +/- 25 in each direction resulted in a few different combinations, and then saved them as presets so I could quickly pick the right one by just floating over the preset and watching the Navigator panel.  Works great.


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## Sine Deviance (Mar 29, 2012)

Kiwigeoff said:


> I find the tones a bit green for my taste in your NX version, here's my look at it.



Thanks for taking a look. That looks much better than my copy, but it did make the red more of a brown.



Victoria Bampton said:


> For that kind of extreme lighting, try the DNG Profile Editor to create a custom profile or two.  That will allow you to push the white balance sliders way beyond its normal limits.  I used to keep a set of extreme WB profiles around - +/- 25 in each direction resulted in a few different combinations, and then saved them as presets so I could quickly pick the right one by just floating over the preset and watching the Navigator panel.  Works great.



I'll definitely try that, thanks!

I think I'll grab a copy of The Missing FAQ as well. People swear by your work


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## Kiwigeoff (Mar 29, 2012)

Sine Deviance said:


> I think I'll grab a copy of The Missing FAQ as well. People swear by your work



I heard that rarely they even swear at her work!!!!:tape:


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 30, 2012)

Sine Deviance said:


> People swear by your work


Thanks!  Love to hear your comments when you've had time to read it.


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