Leica M-Looks Pro presets for Lightroom – replacement (and improvement) for VSCO

[Guest Nowhereman]

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For color images, I've been often using a VSCO preset as a starting point. I now find that the Leica M-Looks Pro presets give me a better starting point and usually produce better skin tones, and also require little or no use of the LR  Structure slider. That is good because the Structure slider can easily result in "haloes". Someone told me that the M-Looks presets were originally made to give an M9-look to M240 images, although I don't know if that's true. In any case, they work well with M10 files.

The M-Look presets work somewhat differently from VSCO presets, which apply changes on top of the settings you've already made in LR;  M-Looks presets revert to the original DNG and apply changes to that. That means, for example, if you've already adjusted the White Balance, when you apply an M-Looks preset the WB revers to its As Shot setting.

For B&W, I've been using Silver Efex; but, now I find that with the M-Looks presets I can get a look that is often as good as what I get with Silver Efex; not always, but better than I can do in just using LR with VSCO.

Actually, I've only been using two of the M-Looks presets: Real Film (Typ 4) and Real Film (Typ 5) B&W. The Real Film presets can be bought for $15, while the whole Leica M-Looks Pro package costs $40. But I don't recall whether the smaller Real Film package is sold on the rawpresets.com site, or if you have to go to the original developer's site, whose name you can find on the rawpresets.com site. 

If you try M-Looks please let me know what you think.

[Guest Nowhereman]

No one interested in trying these presets?

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[robert blu]

I'm reasonably satisfied with SEP for my B&W works from the M10 DNG files. For colors I only use LR. Btu I'll investigate on Leica M-Looks Pro preset ion the next days.

robert

[Guest Nowhereman]

Thanks, Robert. I was curious to hear how others view these presets because they seem to take quite a different approach from that of VSCO and the others.

[samlee.hk]

On 3/2/2019 at 10:22 AM, Nowhereman said:

For color images, I've been often using a VSCO preset as a starting point. I now find that the Leica M-Looks Pro presets give me a better starting point and usually produce better skin tones, and also require little or no use of the LR  Structure slider. That is good because the Structure slider can easily result in "haloes". Someone told me that the M-Looks presets were originally made to give an M9-look to M240 images, although I don't know if that's true. In any case, they work well with M10 files.

The M-Look presets work somewhat differently from VSCO presets, which apply changes on top of the settings you've already made in LR;  M-Looks presets revert to the original DNG and apply changes to that. That means, for example, if you've already adjusted the White Balance, when you apply an M-Looks preset the WB revers to its As Shot setting.

For B&W, I've been using Silver Efex; but, now I find that with the M-Looks presets I can get a look that is often as good as what I get with Silver Efex; not always, but better than I can do in just using LR with VSCO.

Actually, I've only been using two of the M-Looks presets: Real Film (Typ 4) and Real Film (Typ 5) B&W. The Real Film presets can be bought for $15, while the whole Leica M-Looks Pro package costs $40. But I don't recall whether the smaller Real Film package is sold on the rawpresets.com site, or if you have to go to the original developer's site, whose name you can find on the rawpresets.com site. 

If you try M-Looks please let me know what you think.

I already used Mlook more than years with M9 preset for sony A7R2/3 and A73 , which can provide M9 looks. 

 

[justbananas]

I own all of these presets, and I use them VERY often.

The only thing I am not positive about is the sharpening.  Each of these presets hammers the sharpening slider, and I never know if I should turn it back down, or leave it...

if you crop at all, it must be turned down, masking up, radius and detail down, and usually lowering from 70 to 40 or 50.  Otherwise, I use these presets extensively.

Like you, I really like real film 4 and B&w... also real film 3 is nice, and m9 typ1 and typ5, and I have a second version I saved with the sharpening turned down.

Edited April 25, 2019 by justbananas

[Guest Nowhereman]

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@justbananas - Sorry, I missed seeing your post until now. Yes, I've also been looking at the heavy sharpening. Most of the time it's not an issue — and I haven't cropped anything — but several times I've had to pull it back. I haven't been able to determine the circumstances under which the sharpening becomes too heavy. I find that, for color, generally it's easier to get good skin tones than with other methods — looks like the M-Looks presets accomplish this all with tone curve adjustments, as the other only settings that it changes is the sharpening. 

 

[Cronilux]

Am 2.3.2019 um 03:22 schrieb Nowhereman:

For color images, I've been often using a VSCO preset as a starting point. I now find that the Leica M-Looks Pro presets give me a better starting point and usually produce better skin tones, and also require little or no use of the LR  Structure slider. That is good because the Structure slider can easily result in "haloes". Someone told me that the M-Looks presets were originally made to give an M9-look to M240 images, although I don't know if that's true. In any case, they work well with M10 files.

The M-Look presets work somewhat differently from VSCO presets, which apply changes on top of the settings you've already made in LR;  M-Looks presets revert to the original DNG and apply changes to that. That means, for example, if you've already adjusted the White Balance, when you apply an M-Looks preset the WB revers to its As Shot setting.

For B&W, I've been using Silver Efex; but, now I find that with the M-Looks presets I can get a look that is often as good as what I get with Silver Efex; not always, but better than I can do in just using LR with VSCO.

Actually, I've only been using two of the M-Looks presets: Real Film (Typ 4) and Real Film (Typ 5) B&W. The Real Film presets can be bought for $15, while the whole Leica M-Looks Pro package costs $40. But I don't recall whether the smaller Real Film package is sold on the rawpresets.com site, or if you have to go to the original developer's site, whose name you can find on the rawpresets.com site. 

If you try M-Looks please let me know what you think.

That those presets have the white balance saved into them is more a big red flag for poor development. 

[iambrianjoseph]

just tried purchasing m-looks , did it take a while to receive the download link ? I paid but it still says pending payment.