Member Requested Tutorial, How Create & Apply A Preset During Tethered Capture In Lightroom

Today I want to share a tutorial I created upon request from one of our active members named Lorin. Lorin was kind enough to leave some feedback and request a tutorial, the least I can do is try to help. Lorin Ask’s, ” I want to tether, seeing the images in black and white. Just changing the camera setting to monochrome doesn’t do it. It comes in color. None of the presets which come with LR have a simple B&W preset. Could you do a piece on how to make a preset to use on import when tethering.”

So Lorin, it’s really simple. The reason Lightroom doesn’t show your mono chrome images after import into Lightroom is because they were shot in Raw. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony all safeguard their processing algorithms. Lightroom does not have access to the needed information to keep your files intact the same way as a EOS Utility does. Have you ever noticed how the thumbnail images look one way then quickly change to something different when you import in Lightroom. That initial thumbnail is a temporary jpeg preview, much like what you see on the LCD of your camera when shooting.

Raw files are just that, Raw. They have Zero adjustments applied to them. You need to develop them in post. They all need sharpening, contrast, saturation, ect, ect, ect. to be applied to create a final image. In general, Raw files are soft compared to jpegs. The reason is Jpegs files have all been processed in camera. They have been baked using proprietary algorithms of the various manufacturers. For example the blues from a Olympus Jpeg file are world-famous. It’s like a private Photoshop party going on in the camera and Lightroom is not invited! Imagine a jpeg as a file that has all of the post work done to it and a preset applied. This is why jpegs from Nikon, Canon and Olympus all have a distinctive look to them.

With all of that said, if you shoot Jpegs in camera and apply the in camera mono chromatic preset to them, the mono chromatic preset will be baked into the file. So, if you import those files into Lightroom, they will not change back to a color file. I for one wish Canon, Olympus, Nikon would just offer up the algorithms as open source. It seems they do not want to build a kick ass piece of software like Lightroom to work with raw files anyway. So why not offer the information to companies or people who do. It would be really nice if my imported files into Lightroom looked exactly like the previews in camera, but that is only a dream.

Take a peek at the video below where I show you how to create a B&W preset and apply it during import when using Lightroom.