Lightroom settings (or presets) close to M9's in-camera B&W JPGs?

[knopfler1976]

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dear all,

 

This is probably not new to you, but I've spent some time on the web and fora searching for related infos and couldn't find it. Decided to bug your guys here again. Thanks for your patience.

 

A little background: I have used Nikon D300 and Nikon Capture NX for many years. Being the original manufacturer's software, Capture NX gives RAW shooters the full range of settings that match in-camera JPG settings. For example, one could start from the RAW, set the file to STANDARD rendering, and work on it. This is very crucial to my landscape works as Capture NX was the only software that could produce proper greens on D300 raw files. (Nikon kept the RAW juices to themselves, just like Canon. Lightroom was never able to recreate the D300 colors from the RAW files)

 

I believe many M9 users find the in-camera B&W JPG very pleasing at times and would like to reproduce the "looks" in Lightroom from the DNG files. But I found that there is close to no informations about this on the internet. As an engineer, I understand that the JPG engine (chip) inside M9 is entirely Leica's and would remain exclusive until Leica is willing to share the recipe with Adobe. However, many must have tried to recreate the effect by creating some presets, no? I wonder if you guys have some recommendations on this? I am willing to pay for the presets as long as they are close enough to the M9 in-camera rendering of B&W.

 

Thank you so much

 

Jerry

knopfler dans la rue 諾弗勒在街頭

[schmolinski]

A really good point! I was wondering the same when I worked with the dng plus bw jpg settings of my M9.

[wda]

Jerry, I don't have a direct answer because I only use DNG files processed in Lightroom. Have you tried using the existing Presets provided with LR? If you find one is nearly right for you, tweak it further in the Develop module and then save it as your Preset which joins the list shown on the left panel. There are infinite possibilities within LR, given the time to experiment.

 

Another thought: have you bought an authoritative book on LR like Martin Evening's? I frequently delve into my copy and invariably learn something new or a better way of working. Chapter 7 has about 25 pages with good advice and illustrations on 'The Art of Black and White'.

[algrove]

Jerry-Totally off base, but how do you find your 18mm. Sharp at the edges? Thanks.

[knopfler1976]

hi David,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I've been using LR for a couple years and have been resorting to high_contrast and low_contrast B&W presets all the time for my landscape works. I've also processed a fair amount of my M9 photos with the two presets and tweaked on top of it like you suggested. But the M9 in-camera rendering really has a special feel in it, especially in low-light condition. I published my street photos here:

knopfler dans la rue 諾弗勒在街頭

and I think it's easy to tell which are based on M9 JPGs and which are based on LR presets. In a nutshell, for photos intended to be more "humanistic", M9 in-camera JPG engine seems to have a very nice touch.

 

I believe one could achieve similar things with LR, just wondering if anyone has already done it before I embarked on the frustrating preset creating process myself.

 

Jerry

 

 

 

Jerry, I don't have a direct answer because I only use DNG files processed in Lightroom. Have you tried using the existing Presets provided with LR? If you find one is nearly right for you, tweak it further in the Develop module and then save it as your Preset which joins the list shown on the left panel. There are infinite possibilities within LR, given the time to experiment.

 

Another thought: have you bought an authoritative book on LR like Martin Evening's? I frequently delve into my copy and invariably learn something new or a better way of working. Chapter 7 has about 25 pages with good advice and illustrations on 'The Art of Black and White'.

[knopfler1976]

Jerry-Totally off base, but how do you find your 18mm. Sharp at the edges? Thanks.

 

Hahaha... very good question. I got all my three lenses brand new in a very stupid way -- refreshing the product webpages on B&H and Dale every now and then. With Dale you could actually have them put you on a waiting list (without deposit), but I got lucky and snatch the 35mm one day when refreshing the page. With B&H, don't expect to be notified by the system, just do the stupid refreshing thing. I got my 75mm and 18mm on B&H with this method.

 

I know not many people have a job that allows you to take a peek at shopping website every now and then. But sadly these days this seems to be the only way to get a new lens...

 

Good luck!!

 

Jerry

[algrove]

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Hahaha... very good question. I got all my three lenses brand new in a very stupid way -- refreshing the product webpages on B&H and Dale every now and then. With Dale you could actually have them put you on a waiting list (without deposit), but I got lucky and snatch the 35mm one day when refreshing the page. With B&H, don't expect to be notified by the system, just do the stupid refreshing thing. I got my 75mm and 18mm on B&H with this method.

 

I know not many people have a job that allows you to take a peek at shopping website every now and then. But sadly these days this seems to be the only way to get a new lens...

 

Good luck!!

 

Jerry

 

Does your 18mm Leica have sharpness in the corners of images taken with it? Can you print large 20x30 or bigger prints with it?

[jaapv]

Don't you worry- this a top echelon lens with an corner-to-corner quality that is rarely matched. I would say in this focal length the only other lens producing this type of quality is the Zeiss - forget about the rest. If you cannot print from these lenses to any width you care you don't know how to print:p The limitations are in the printing process - not in the lenses.

The MTF curves are on the Leica website.

 

http://en.leica-camera.com/assets/file/download.php?filename=file_4094.pdf