The Leica Q3 Look
When Leica introduced the Leica Q3 in mid of 2023, they also introduced some sort of film presets, somewhat similar to what Fuji is doing with their film simulations. As you might know, I am not a jpg shooter because I love the ability that raw files give me. However, I wanted to give these Leica Looks a try and see what it is all about.
I was particularly interested in the two color looks, Leica Classic and Leica Contemporary. The other three available looks are black and white and didn’t spark my interest. So, after trying them out, I really liked the look they gave me but in very contrasty situations, they are not very useful since the jpgs don’t have much headroom for post production. That bothered me and I wished the looks would also be available for raw files.
So, the first few months, I was shooting RAW+JPG with switching between the looks. That helped me to emulate the look and to create a Lightroom presets that comes fairly close to the original Leica Looks. However, now I can use them even when shooting while having all the benefits of the dngs.
Just to give you an idea, here are a few examples:
Leica Classic
JPG out of camera
RAW + Lightroom preset
RAW export out of Lightroom untouched
JPG out of camera
RAW + Lightroom preset
RAW export out of Lightroom untouched
Leica Contemporary
JPG out of camera
RAW + Lightroom preset
RAW export out of Lightroom untouched
JPG out of camera
RAW + Lightroom preset
RAW export out of Lightroom untouched
I think, the results speak for themselves. Finally, I can use the Leica Looks and shoot raw only. And the cool part is, that these presets also work with other Leica cameras that don’t come with these Leica looks and also cameras from other brands as well.
If you want to use those Lightroom presents too, you can and it is absolutely free! Simple, subscribe to my brand new newsletter and I am going to send you the download link.
