I know that when I connect my SL2 or Q3-43 to the Leica Fotos app, there are profiles available for either camera available to download to the cameras (they differ by model), which are only baked into the image if shooting jpg format by selecting them in the camera profiles, or by opening the RAW file in the app and applying them there.
Some might say that the Leica "look" is the result of lens design and sensor/processor configuration to take advantage of that design in the DNG raw file. Many will say it's a figment of imagination - which may be true, but it hasn't deterred me from enjoying the images I get and the quality and craftsmanship of the cameras and lenses.
Are you a Fuji shooter by any chance? Fuji gives you a set of profiles that you can use in Lightroom. As far as I know you don't get such a thing from anyone else. You can go buy some profiles and presets from TAP, TCP, Cobalt etc. But that's it.
BTW I use The Classic Lab Presets and also have The Archetype Project ones too. I prefer the TCP ones to TAP. Though none of them really look my film photos, they're just an approximation and I just use them as a starting point and they sort of level the look even with phone pics.
Ask 10 Leica users to get 10 different answers in regard to the "Leica look". My opinion is that this term comes from older Leica times where certain lens characteristics (now called vintage lenses) made the look unique in the final photo for example showing some glow around the shapes. I don't expect to see this characteristic "Leica look" with any modern lens including the ones Leica makes (if it is not a revamped vintage lens like the steel-rim lens for example).
The Leica look runs through many decades of Leica’s history.
People talked about it in the film era, during the Mandler era, during the Karbe era, and even today. But the characteristics of all these lens generations are sometimes so different… and yet people keep referring to “the Leica look.” There are so many different Leica looks…
Someone once said the Leica look is the look your wife gives you when she finds out the price of your new Leica camera or lens 😁
Others say: subject in the center → Leica look
Both the pre-ASPH Summilux and the APO-Summicron are said to have the Leica look. Their rendering couldn’t be more different… 😌
In the film days, I actually tried Leica, Zeiss and Nikon cameras and lenses on the same film and found that Zeiss and Leica had a color and contrast rendering I preferred over the Nikon setup, but in digital I found that in the end it’s a wash. But to me, it would be what the camera produces without any processing.
Dave Herring thinks you see the difference when you adapt M lenses to other cameras - they look 'cloudier and flatter' if you mount them on Sony cameras - goodness me, that sounds like a bad move. They have got to be on an M, to give you the look you crave! 'punchier and sharper'. He kicks off his spiel around 7:00.
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philip_pj wrote:
Dave Herring thinks you see the difference when you adapt M lenses to other cameras - they look 'cloudier and flatter' if you mount them on Sony cameras - goodness me, that sounds like a bad move. They have got to be on an M, to give you the look you crave! 'punchier and sharper'. He kicks off his spiel around 7:00.
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He's such a Leica pusher, though. I used to subscribe to his channel, but it just became too much.
And he isn't the only one. Even pros who use Leica for just one part of their work, constantly talk about it, while actually using other brands for a lot of their real work.
524f44 wrote:
Just acquired a D-Lux 8 from a fellow FM member. Upon importing a first few test shots, I was surprised to see no camera profiles for the DL8 BW or Color. Then looking here https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html I see very few (almost none) Leica camera profiles.
So first question: What is that Leica Look. How is it defined? Attained?
2. Can it me attained with some hand crafted profiles in LR? Is there a recipe posted somewhere?
3. Are Cobalt's presets the way to go? Or do I just give up and shoot JPEG.
Hope to find a solution before throwing fistful of cash down a rabbit hole.
--
Rod -- tryin' to make it real compared to what... Les McCann & Eddie Harris --...Show more →
Congratulations on your new camera!
Are you asking about how to apply "Leica Looks" aka Leica's creative styles to your camera jpegs ?
If so, the Leica D-Lux 8 camera does not natively support Leica Looks in-camera. However, if you have an iPhone and Leica's FOTOS app, you may be able to apply Leica Looks presets to Leica D-Lux 8 files in the FOTOS app.
Nifty Fifty wrote:
Why would anyone want to achieve something they don't even know what it is? But in my opinion, this absurdity fits well with the Leicalook myth. 😇
Conway found his Shangri-La, Dorthy her OZ. Seek and you too many find one day.
Yeah, you know how YouTubers are. They'll buy some ridiculously expensive camera, make a 10-minute video pretending it's for the channel, and then brag about writing it off like they just outsmarted the IRS. It's basically shopping with extra steps.
And honestly, it kinda shows how influencers live in this weird space where their personal life is their business. Regular businesses separate work and personal life, but influencers blur that line so hard that every impulse buy turns into a performance.
It's a little funny, a little cringe, and very on-brand for the creator world.
johnvanr wrote:
He's such a Leica pusher, though. I used to subscribe to his channel, but it just became too much.
And he isn't the only one. Even pros who use Leica for just one part of their work, constantly talk about it, while actually using other brands for a lot of their real work.
panos.v wrote:
Are you a Fuji shooter by any chance? Fuji gives you a set of profiles that you can use in Lightroom. As far as I know you don't get such a thing from anyone else. You can go buy some profiles and presets from TAP, TCP, Cobalt etc. But that's it.
BTW I use The Classic Lab Presets and also have The Archetype Project ones too. I prefer the TCP ones to TAP. Though none of them really look my film photos, they're just an approximation and I just use them as a starting point and they sort of level the look even with phone pics....Show more →
I was a Fuji shooter, no longer. Not looking for a solution like film sims. Just trying to understand the intrinsics of what some call the Leica look. Then maybe I’ll look into processing-software to process images.
Are you asking about how to apply "Leica Looks" aka Leica's creative styles to your camera jpegs ?
No. I’m looking to understand the intrinsic nature of.of what is called the “Leica Look”.
If so, the Leica D-Lux 8 camera does not natively support Leica Looks in-camera. However, if you have an iPhone and Leica's FOTOS app, you may be able to apply Leica Looks presets to Leica D-Lux 8 files in the FOTOS app.
for me the Leica look is not a product of the camera, but rather of shooting certain Leica pre-asph, non coated/corrected vintage lenses. Those are looks that immensely appeal to me and I've not seen approximated by any other camera/lens combo whose images are generally sharp across the entire frame at the pixel level and are to me clinically modern and boring, lacking any real character. Even my 35 APO which is pretty sharp wide open across the frame is more charming and character filled than shooting, for example, my Sony 35/1.4 GM.
Of course than you add shooting the 35 APO as well as some vintage (or remake) Leica glass (such as my 35 steel rim reissue or summilux 50/1.4 pre-asph v2) wide open, and, again IMO on a M body with the absolute enjoyment of rangefinder focus, and voila, unparalleled enjoyment and magical images.
Not sure about the "classic" Leica look but to me the "modern" Leica look is a very clean high contrast transparent image from one of their latest APO lenses on a Leica sensor.
Leica Q3 43mm APO, Leica SL APOs, Leica 35mm APO-M, Leica 50mm APO-M. Some of the older Leica APO lenses like the 75mm APO still render cleanly but a little less detailed and has a bit more of a "film style" to it on a Leica sensor.
Where I think it gets muddled is when you mix and match Leica lenses with say Nikon cameras. The base color science on Nikon is very different than on Sony - the rendering feels different than the classic Leica look from the combination of Leica lenses and Nikon body. I tried using the Nikon ZF and it just isn't the same as using a M body or a SL body to adapt lenses from a color rendition perspective.
There are lots of opinions on this topic, one being, as mentioned above, that there is no such thing. I disagree but suggest a couple of ways to think about this.
The lenses: the more nostalgic “Leica Look” spanned different film types and therefore must have been derived from the lenses. Wider angled pre-ASPH lenses, like the 28 and 35 mm Cron and lux lenses had a characteristic falloff of focal plane to bokeh that shifted both sharpness/detail and saturation of colors. To try to achieve that these days, using one of those lenses and applying a profile that emulates colors of your favorite film stocks would be the route.
The colors: the coatings on Leica lenses gave some additional shifts, generally increasing purple/magenta and shifting greens a bit towards yellow orange. Blues tended to run a little paler. Dave Herring has a decent profile he generated to supposedly give Leica styled colors on Sony, but applying that profile to any camera and then tweaking a bit is not a bad route. I use the Cobalt Fuji Digital profile Nostalgic Negative a fair amount, and I believe that also yields a similar look. The trick though is that vintage Leica images had shifts in saturation and tonal depth with the falloff in focus. To try to emulate that, you would need to create a mask around your subject and objects in similar focal plane and then invert it, so that you are now selecting everything else. Reducing contrast and adjusting saturation will get you in the range.
All of this said, I think that most of the iconic photos one might associate with having a “Leica Look” were first and foremost really well composed and executed photos. They probably would have looked similar with the same photographer using other gear, or at least more so than other photographers using the same gear but shooting an entirely different scene. They also generally had a lot of work in the developing phase, by really savvy photographers. Most never originated simply from what we today might call SOOC, simple push of the shutter button…so assuming similar results could be obtained that way today is not possible.
