Matching SL Colors on SL2

[Jean-Michel]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

All you need to do is cycle through the basic profiles provided by in Lightroom or CameraRaw, or whatever other raw converter you use, to see that the so-called output out of any camera is totally variable. You can use any of the profiles to use as a base form your eventual "output". Are you outputting for a cellphone screen, tablet, laptop, monitor. light jet print, inkjet print with a specific inkjet and paper, a cmyk reproduction…? Is your screen calibrated?, If not, talking colour is meaningless. 

If you need to faithfully reproduce colours, such as in documenting artworks, you do need figure out a system to achieve that. Using a ColorChecker or such is a start. 

If you want to modify colours to your own tastes, then the digital toolset is incredibly malleable!

You should also know the difference between a profile and a preset.

If you just want to show images to friends, just about anything is good enough.

And, getting upon my soapbox, if you do not print it, it does not and will never exist.  

Edited September 23 by Jean-Michel
typo

[Stuart Richardson]

I think a lot of you are missing the point. The problem is not equalizing the output to a common standard (like in ColorChecker), the challenge would be taking the specific color palette of the SL and mapping it onto the SL2. That is not something that is as easily done. You may rightly say that no camera has a definitive "correct" look, but certainly different camera and raw processor combos have different baselines, and those baselines can be more or less to one's taste. For example, I much preferred the baseline on import color of the S006 in Lightroom to that of the S3. Some of that is the sensor, some of that is the factory tuning, and some of that is the Adobe profile. But ultimately, all of that is irrelevant if the base color you like is the S006 and it consistently achieves it with little effort, while the S3 can only achieve it with time-consuming editing. That is what the OP is talking about, and it is not a question of changing the SL colors to a color chart standard and then changing the SL2 colors to the same standard. That just leaves you at a third color palette that may or may not be to taste.

 

The reason that I suggested Cobalt Image is more just that I think they do a very good job with their profiles, and they have a few different versions. I found that, for the S3 at least, I much preferred their profile to the Adobe version. I am not sure it will be any closer to the SL than the SL2S default is, but at least there is a shot. If nothing else, I think it will probably make the colors a bit more neutral than the Adobe version. I also have a color checker passport and I found that Cobalt Image profiles had better shadow gradation and gamut behavior than what I was able to make with the color checker passport and a dual illuminant profile. There was less magenta contamination in deep and lifted shadows than Xrite, and better saturation in the shadows than Adobe and more lifelike reds and oranges as compared to Adobe and Xrite, such as in bright traffic cones or sunsets. So my conclusion was that those people know what they are doing. I have a full lab setup with Profoto flashes, full spectrum solux lighting and a fresh Macbeth chart, and still Cobalt's profiles were a lot better than what I could make myself. 

 

Edited September 23 by Stuart Richardson

[LBJ2]

On 3/15/2021 at 8:46 PM, photonc said:

I really enjoy my SL2 but sometimes miss the colors and overall look of the original Leica SL RAW files. Does anyone else feel the same and are there any Lightroom suggestions to get the files to look similar?  

Have you tried applying DXO PhotoLab Elite SL (TYP 601) camera rendering to your SL2 DNG files? If you don't already own this app, here is a link to a free 30 day trial. If you do try this, I would be interested to know your opinion of the results. 

https://www.dxo.com/dxo-photolab/download/

"To change the camera rendering in DxO PhotoLab 9, navigate to the Color Rendering tool under the Color tab, then select Camera Body in the Category dropdown and choose your desired camera rendering from the Rendering list to emulate the colors of another camera body."