Reverting to original

[Chumpchange27]

Hello,

I have a question about resetting develop settings and am wondering if anyone can help. I recently compared some of my Lightroom processed photos to the original raw files and felt like I over processed some, so I wanted to basically start over with the original file. However, when I reset the settings in LR it does not take me back to the original image. I tried to undo all changes and went as far back in the history as possible but the image is still not the same as the original.

I can easily delete and import the files again but I spent a lot of time manually adding metadata to the files and don't want to lose it. I read that if you applied a filter during import, it will only take you back to the imported file but I don't believe that is the case. Does anyone know if its possible to revert to the original develop settings or to re-import a file without overwriting the metadata? Thanks!

[JP Hess]

I don't know about any metadata that you have entered. I don't spend a lot of time with that. But every camera has a set of default settings. Initially, those default settings are set by Adobe. But you may find it necessary to change those settings to better adapt to your camera. I know I have done that for every camera that I have had. When the reset button is set on any image the settings will be reset to whatever the default settings are, whether they be at the Adobe settings or whether they be custom settings that you have created. I don't think that will override any metadata that you have entered, but I don't know that for sure. The best thing for you to do to find that out is to try it on one and see what the results bear out. Or, perhaps someone with more knowledge about metadata will comment.

[Chumpchange27]

switching to the camera profile seems to get the photo closer to the original but still not quite the same.  I don't want to lose the metadata bc I manually entered the approximate gps coordinates, tags, etc for all my pics for multiple trips to Europe over the last 4 years, so it was quite some work . Thanks for your help.

[ManiacJoe]

Walking backwards to the start of the edit history does stop at the end of the import. If you did apply a preset during the import then this preset result is the "starting" position.

That said, you should be able to reset all the sliders back to zero, and change the "calibration" to any starting profile you want.

[Chumpchange27]

Thanks for your response. When I first noticed my images looked over saturated, the first thing I did was set all the sliders to 0. i still thought something was off, but figured it might have been my old pc monitor. I recently got a new one and noticed they still looked off. I had already tried resetting by walking back through the history as you mentioned but same result. I have the Lightroom image (which was supposedly reset) right next to the RAW image and the color is really off (the bright blue sky in the photo makes it really obvious). I still don't really understand bc I thought that resetting any changes should give you the original image before any adjustments but it definitely does not in this case and I am fairly sure I never applied any filters upon import. Also, it was a while ago when I imported these photos but if I recall correctly I don't remember it looking this way even on import- I'm pretty sure I made the overadjustments myself.

I was able to get the image closer by using Jim's suggestion above and changing from adobe calibration to camera calibration but it would still be nice to work from the original. Thanks both for your help and suggestions.