Why do my night photos look fine on my Canon LCD but turn very dark in Lightroom or Photoshop?
Asked 10/5/2015
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I shoot long-exposure night photos on a Canon EOS Rebel T4i/650D. On the camera’s rear screen, the stars and landscape look bright and clear, but after importing into Lightroom or Photoshop the image looks nearly black and is hard to edit. I’ve already tried lowering the camera screen brightness, but the files still look much darker on the computer. What could cause this, and how can I check whether the problem is the file, Lightroom import settings, or my monitor?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
3
Is Lightroom doing some automatic adjustments on import? I have a preset to enhance contrast on every image as part of the import process. I wonder if you've got something like this which is reducing the exposure value? If you view a newly imported image in Develop view, and click 'reset' at the bottom of the editing panel, this will put the image back to its original state, from this you can see the original file as captured. If the stars then appear, then it's a preset on Import.
If this is the problem, you can change the settings on import by going to the Import screen, and in the 'Apply During Import' section, you've got 'Develop Settings'. You can manage presets from there I think, or set it to none
Originally by user24522. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user24522
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The camera LCD is not a reliable judge of exposure, especially for night images. First, check the file itself using the histogram rather than the camera screen.
A few likely causes:
- Lightroom may be applying an import/develop preset automatically. In Develop, click Reset and see whether the image returns to a normal baseline. Also check Import > Apply During Import > Develop Settings and set it to none if needed.
- Lightroom’s default camera profile may differ from your in-camera Picture Style, so the RAW file can look flatter or darker than the JPEG preview shown on the camera.
- Your monitor may be too dark or uncalibrated. A bad gamma/brightness setting can make usable shadow detail appear black.
Practical checks:
- In Lightroom, reset the image.
- Check the histogram to see whether shadow detail exists or is actually clipped.
- Zoom into shadow areas at 100% to confirm whether detail is present.
- Compare camera profile/rendering settings.
- Calibrate or at least verify your monitor brightness/gamma.
Most often, the camera preview is misleading, or Lightroom is applying settings on import.
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