UPDATED: Automatically Apply a Lens Correction To Your Imported Images
Here’s how to set up Lightroom so it will automatically, by default, apply a lens profile correction and chromatic aberration fixes to your Raw photos when you use a particular camera and lens.
STEP ONE: Open a RAW photo using the camera and lens you want to have Lightroom auto-correct (in my case, it’s RF-mount 24-240mm f/4-f/6.3 lens). Make sure all your sliders are set to their default positions (in other words, don’t make any changes or edits to the RAW file you opened).
NOTE: For many of the new Mirrorless cameras (Canon and Nikon for sure), the latest version of Lightroom turns on these lens corrections for you automatically, but not for DSLRs or DSLR lenses, so folks not shooting the latest mirrorless will still need to do this (or anyone whose mirrorless doesn’t automatically apply a lens correction).
STEP TWO: Go to the Lens Correction panel and turn on the checkbox to ‘Enable Profile Corrections’ and turn on the ‘Remove Chromatic Aberration’ checkbox, as well (as shown above). You can see it applied the profile correction for my 24-240mm lens from Lightroom’s built-in database of lens corrections.
STEP THREE: Go to the Presets panel and choose “New Preset.” When the New Develop Preset window appears (shown above), click the “Check None” button at the bottom left to uncheck all the functions you could possibly include in this preset, and then only turn on the checkboxes to the left of ‘Remove Chromatic Aberration’ and ‘Enable Profile Corrections’ (as seen above). Now click the ‘Create’ button to save that preset which only does one thing – it applies a Lens Correction.
STEP FOUR: Go to Lightroom’s Preferences, and click on the Presets tab up top. Where it says ‘Raw Defaults’ click on the pop-up menu next to Global and choose ‘Preset,’ and then from the preset pop-up menu that appears navigate to the Lens Correction preset you just created (as shown above). That’s it – now when you import a Raw image, it will automatically apply a Lens Correction profile (provided of course, that a lens profile exists in Lightroom for your particular lens).
For more info on setting custom defaults check out Rob’s article right here.
Hope you found that helpful, and here’s wishing you a fantastic Monday! 🙂
-Scott
Is there a way to turn OFF “Enable Profile Corrections” when importing images into Lightroom? I can’t seem to create an import preset with the lens corrections unchecked. Thanks!
Adobe should have made this MUCH easier!
What am I missing? I’ve created one lens correction preset for one lens. Applying that on import would correct all images for that lens. What if I’ve used a different lens?
LrC uses the photo’s metadata to apply the correct lens profile each time.
Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case. I just followed these steps to the tee. I took 2 photos one with my Canon R5 and a Canon lens and the other with the same Canon R5 and a Samyang lens. The Samyang lens has a profile in Lightroom Classic but it does not get applied during import. So I followed these steps and it does work. But the photo that was taken with the Canon lens also gets the same Samyang lens profile applied.
This is not an issue if all photos being imported are the Samyang lens. Because instead of applying these steps globally in preference you can select Apply during import and further select a specific develop settings. Which would be the lens profile. Catch here is to remember to choose the profile during import. But again what if you have an import that has mixed photos from different lenses.
So LrC does not seem to use metadata to apply the correct lens profile each time.
I have just put my toe into the Lightroom sea, and your Lightroom Classic book is making it nearly straightforward.
Thank you
A couple of points.
1. In the book, you kindly provided a white balance card. Lacking a spectophotometer or colorimeter, I am unable to check what balance it is reflecting. Using my eye comparing with various colour calibration swatches, it is something near Lab 65, 0.6 0.2, i.e. not a normal 50% reflection grey card. But what is the colour value(s) of this calibration card?
2. I am using an OM-D E-M1ii, with the 60 and 30 mm macros. According to the Lightroom lens profile page, these MFT lenses have been corrected. But my two lenses appear to have slightly different colour profiles, noticable when comparing the same object photographed under identical lighting using these two lenses. Is there a way to work out and apply the appropriate colour correction?
I love this feature. I use it all the time.
Why oh why has Adobe never added profile corrections for Tilt/Shift lenses? My Canon 24 especially.