Lightroom - Initial Adjustments

[RogersDA]

What does Lightroom do when you initially import an image? For many RAW files I import the initial preview looks faded, and there are some pixels missing (that last part is fine - it happens to all digital sensors). However, after importing the missing pixels are replaced, and the colors are boosted (perhaps including a boost in contrast). Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I just wanted to know what is happening in the background.

Note that I did not set up Lightroom room to run any macros or other tweaks to the images when importing.

[arodney]

It doesn't do anything to the Raw. It does build a default preview (which you can always and often wish to alter). The initial preview is the embedded camera JPEG within the Raw. LR has to build its own, something you can control or ignore to do by using the defaults, after which you begin the steps of specifying the metadata instructions for the rendering of this image.