Correct Lens Profile Not Available for Exported/Imported Image Files

Question

Any help with this would be appreciated.  I just noticed yesterday that when I have RAW (DNG) files in my LR5.2 library, I can select the correct lens profile to apply.  When I take three of those files and merge them together in Photomatix Pro they come back as a single TIFF file.  Now LR only has one lens profile available, and it is the wrong one.
This is happening with my Sony NEX-7 and Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR DI-III VC.  With the RAW files, I have a list of Tamron lenses from which to choose, and the correct one is available.  For the merged TIFF file, however, only a single Tamron lens is available for selection, and it is not the lens I used.
If anyone has any ideas about this and can get me past it, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
~Steve

Answer 1

Here's my workflow for this particular situation:  After importing the original RAW files, I apply lens correction using the correct profile.  I export to another application that creates a new (TIFF) file that comes back into LR.  Even though I already applied the correction to the original files, I can see that there is a difference in distortion between the original files and the new TIFF.
If your other application is opening the Raw file directly, it will likely be disregarding either most, or all, Lightroom adjustments even if they are somehow communicated to it. It will come down to whatever independent Raw support is built into the other application.
The other application would still need to (a) "understand" about Adobe lens profiles etc, (b) "know" where to find the appropriate Adobe profile on disk, and (c) be equipped to do the specific and proprietary processing that they refer to. The same applies for all the other Adobe-proprietary processing instructions. The only software I am aware of which can do all this reliably, in partnership with LR, is Adobe Camera Raw plus Photoshop.
I've trained myself that whenever a new file is created in an application outside of LR (including PS), I always re-apply lens correction upon first returning to LR.  If I'm interpreting   the above responses correctly, I shouldn't need to re-apply lens correction if I applied it to the original files.  But again, it's not my observation that this is the case.
If your particular workflow is failing to reflect the first application of lens corrections (as well as perhaps, other specific adjustments) - then what returns to LR will not have undergone those kinds of corrections yet.
I'm also hearing that I may need to download a lens profile for this lens for a TIFF file format.  I've never needed to do that before, so perhaps I'll give that a shot.
As I understand it, Photomatix can also accept converted TIFFs or JPGs from LR - instead of Raw fles. I am skeptical that you will realise any "clear water" advantage from sending Raws rather than TIFF (or even, high quality JPG in many cases) from LR into Photomatix  - assuming the LR conversion is already optimising the images for the required purpose. You would be doing that step in an interactive environment rather than blindly via a generic converter. Such intermediate bitmaps are in my experience perfectly good candidates for HDR processing, or for exposure fusion (which I prefer - though I don't use Photomatix in particular).
Any workflow which causes LR to in effect Export suitable bitmaps that incorporate all current adjustments, will embody lens corrections as part of that. By the way, the workflow into Photoshop HDR is similarly done by way of converted bitmaps - though in that case it is ACR rather than LR which achieves these converted bitmaps, and into memory rather than into separately saved files, but the outcome is effectively the same.
The only downside is the "cleanup" is to get rid of intermediate TIFFS or JPGs afterwards. I usually put the completed "merged" image at the top of a "stack" containing the component exposures, and collapse the stack down. But the (disposable) intermediates don't get imported to LR, and by setting these to occur in a subfolder or with a distinctive name suffix, they are easily found and deleted in due course.
RP