Develop Mode Auto Adjustments

Question

Hello,
When I am loading RAW files in to LR, in the Develop mode they start off as a pretty flat image (as I shot them) but then LR slowly adjusts each photos as it loads which looks like it is bumping the saturation and contrast then lowering the exposure.
What are these auto adjustments and how can I turn them off? I would rather edit my images as shot in camera, not after LR makes its own adjustments without my help.

Answer 1

Ryan.Polei wrote:
This doesn't happen in Bridge
The difference: Lightroom is a raw editor, Bridge is not.
So, Bridge shows you what the camera did (if unedited raw file) instead of what it would look like with Lightroom edits. And Lightroom edits have to start somewhere, and that somewhere CAN'T be the same as the jpeg, or the same as another raw editing software (they use different settings, different software, different starting point..).
Don't get me wrong: I think Adobe should have better support for displaying embedded preview / sidecar jpegs (which is what Bridge does), and have an option to detect in camera profile setting and select a "nearest fit" Lightroom profile, but none of that will change the basic "deal" - different software, different settings, different starting point...
Note: this may seem odd to you now, but it's how all proprietary raw editors work, i.e. all those except the camera manufacturer's own (or those using the camera manufacturer's raw-rendering toolkit under the hood, instead of it's own), which emulates in-camera settings pretty-much exactly - no others can interpret a custom picture style, granted some may try to start with a somewhat closer look.
To review: all proprietary raw software does the same thing: interpret raw data according to invented algorithms and settings. That's what Lightroom software does, and that's what Capture NX2 does (and that's what your camera firmware does to come up with the jpegs), but they are different software, with different algorithms, which use different settings.
So your choices are:
* shoot jpeg
* use the camera manufacturer's software to process, or
* wean yourself from custom camera styles and learn to setup Lightroom processing instead.
PS - I recommend the later. Actually, you can use a plugin to somewhat translate camera settings to Lightroom settings, but I don't recommend doing it, because it tends to prolong your dependency on camera settings, rather than wean.
My advice? - Learn to use Lightroom (and get it set up optimally for your druthers) for post-production, and forget about camera settings whilst shooting (except for exposure and focusing etc., of course). Then, delete all the custom profiles you created in your camera, for therapeutic purposes .
Rob