Why Your R6 Files Look UGLY (And How to Fix It!)

A little over a year ago we made a video about the Canon R6 RAW files. We noticed that a lot of our students were having issues viewing their R6 files in Lightroom, complaining that they looked dull, grey and lifeless. WELL we finally found the solution...hopefully! In this video we share the solution to make your files LOOK better in LR but also why that might NOT be the best for editing.

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0:00 Welcome!
1:33 The (Solution
04:23 Experimenting with both profiles
7:48 The "real" solution

[AprilHeatherPhotography]

Thanks so much for using my photo as the example for this demonstration! Very helpful info! For me, my preferences were set as adobe default, but my adobe default is "Adobe Color" which actually has more pop than "Adobe Standard".

[johnbunani]

Lightroom’s default color profile upon import is now Adobe Color. They replaced Adobe Standard years ago because of the exact issue your listing here. I take it you’re using an old version of LR and not the newest? Adobe Color is a much better general catch-all profile for most camera brands

[bofnvxf]

There is another camera profile that has been a GAME CHANGER and beyond for my R6 files - and it is Camera Faithful- the one that is camera matching ( not adobe faithful) it brings back a flush to the skin tones and magically transforms the colors in the image!! Looks sooo much like my old 5d mark iiiand iv files!

[jmc]

The truth is that this is really helpful thank you. You said at some point that you prefer Adobe Standard because you can do more with it. The truth is that some people just prefer to do more in camera and less in lightroom so when they take a photo and see it in a certain way on camera and then see it diferently it is a bit annoying. However, once again, thank you so much for sharing that with us.
PS: Lightroom's default color profile is Adobe Color not adobe standard

[nkflight]

This makes me feel good about having a old DSLR the Canon 6D wonderful Color science.

[Photoswithpaige]

Are you still shooting on just r6s for weddings x

[tom_k_d]

Another contributor for dull-looking images might be that the R6 tends to slightly underexpose in auto exposure, compared to R6II and R5. When I shoot in AV, I normally add around +0.8 stops in post (vs +0.4 stops on R5), using C1 ProStandard camera profiles. In regards to profiles, less contrasty is always a better starting point - fully agree.

[reginabowe]

Excellent explanation! As always, many thanks!!!

[estebansanchezoeconomo]

In the video from one year prior you actually said this problem was not linked with lightroom camera profiles, that the issue was to be explored elsewhere. This means that your verification of files led you to discover that it was the camera profiles all along ?

[kmpoel]

Not sure if this question is answered. But If the KJ edit is imported into LR, it gives the Profile: 02-golden warm with cooler greens profile. Do I need to keep it like that or change it to Adobe Standard?

[ChicCrazy]

Omg THIS!! I thought I was going crazy of how flat these r6 images are!

[stevemoore-vale]

I’ve been a victim of thinking my r6 raw files suck. I use camera standard in Lightroom and have played around with adobe color but I’m still not overly satisfied. Very interesting point you made about them being flat because of the higher dynamic range. Hasn’t considered that. Perhaps I’ll give adobe standard or faithful a go for future edits. Thanks for the video.

[whitneyphelps]

I have the opposite problem with my R6 raw files. Mine tend to be brighter and more green/yellow than I want to be. I have to slightly underexpose them to get them where I want them and they still seem to have harsh light and green/yellow undertones. Very difficult to edit. I have found a few others with this issue, but most say that theirs are dull and lifeless…I would take dull and lifeless to start any day! I’m going to play around with the profiles in Lightroom and see if that helps. I have already played with the in camera profiles and it helped some but didn’t solve the issue.

[lizahondros]

L O V E! You are always so thorough! Many do not know how to use LR. Add a preset on top of that, and they expect presets to do the heavy lifting for them. Do I know LR like I need to? Nope. But I chip at it more and more every session because I am desperate to know how to do it myself, what a preset can do.

[ihateunicorns]

Adobe Standard removes colours that only appear when you use the Canon profile. It's fine if you want to do a 'heavy' stylised edit like you did here, but if you want one that looks a lot cleaner (like a well-scanned medium format film shot, for example), the Adobe profile just don't have enough colour information in them. This is why I've moved to the Fujifilm GFX cameras.

Canon used to 'bake' the colour info into the raw file (5D mk3 and below). The 5D4 was a bit of a weird halfway house. But since the R, they've relied on the colour profile to do the heavy lifting. I don't know why. Maybe to do with making a sensor designed for LOG video. Not sure. But if you want the old Canon look, you have to go to Leica now.

The problem with relying on profiles is that commercial presets don't work well on the files. They look washed out and skin tones look too yellow. I've got a couple of R5s and an R8 for video work, but they're just not photography cameras anymore for me.

[jillschindel]

Camera Faithful for the win! Way closer in the direction of my actual editing style.

[jvonemolap]

help please, i just recently got my R6 and when i transfer the raw files to my pc all of the photos are just showing the lightroom logo no previews of the actual photos. i just see the photos when i imported them in lightroom.

[amandadaniels]

What if you don’t have camera standard? I don’t have that option? I did go & change in my preferences & still don’t have it?

[christinalaura]

I've switched my "Raw Defaults" in Lightroom to Camera Settings (rather than Adobe), as suggested in this video. However, whenever I apply the KJ Preset Process, it switches the image back to Adobe Standard. Are the KJ Presets pre-programed to only work with Adobe settings? Or is this something I can (and should) adjust?

[Itsmejess]

Yes I agree with you, I like the Adobe Standard one better. Trying to find correct skin tones in Lightroom with Canon r6 mark ii has been a headache to say the least. I'm also having an issue with blown out highlights or dark shadows, not much in between 😂 I've never had to do so much post processing before (sorry Canon).