How can I keep my RAW images from having anything applied to them when I import them?

Question

Hi All,
I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark III and I use a picture profile in my camera that keeps all my images with low saturation, low sharpness etc... but whenever I import RAW pictures into Lightroom, I initially see the images the way I saw them in my camera, then, one by one, when I click on them, they change without me doing anything - like if some sort of preset was being applied, to every photo, one by one -
I don't want this. I want my photos to be as RAW as possible when I import them and I don't want anything to change. I like what I see in camera and Lightroom changes this after import - how do I stop this? I checked in my Preferences under Presets and NOTHING is checked -
Help...
Thanks

Answer 1

This is in the FAQ and is normal behavior. Picture profiles are not actually encoded in the raw image data but written as a metadata tag in the raw file. Lightroom cannot understand these metadata tags as they are Canon proprietary. So Lightroom will show its own default rendering for the raw data. What I would do in your case is to go on one of your images into develop, scroll down to Camera Calibration and select camera neutral (probably the picture style you were applying in camera). Then set this as the default for your camera (hit option and the reset button will change). Newly imported images will now use the camera neutral profile. This is probably close to what you are looking for. It is important to remember that any treatment you select in the camera such as the picture style, black and white, extra saturation, etc. has no effect whatsoever on the raw data. They only get written as metadata tags for canon software and are reflected in the jpeg that is embedded in the raw file. Lightroom takes the raw data (which is basically simply what the sensor actually saw) and apply its own default interpretation.
You should definitely check out the camera profiles in the calibration section. They tend to give more pleasing color than the "adobe standard" profile that is there by default.