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Negative Lab Pro. C41 Digital Conversion in Lightroom


Stealth3kpl

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This looks very promising indeed (but these thing always do). I wonder if anyone has tried this Lightroom Plugin. I think it's designed for processing a digital RAW file of a photo of your C41 negative, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with a Vuescan DNG file from a C41 scan with the scanner in Transparency scanning mode.

https://www.negativelabpro.com

Pete

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To be honest, it doesn't look remotely similar. That looks like a crappy app which will be limiting, and has nothing to do with Lightroom.

So, back on topic,  this looks very promising indeed (but these thing always do). I wonder if anyone has tried this Lightroom Plugin. I think it's designed for processing a digital RAW file of a photo of your C41 negative, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with a Vuescan DNG file from a C41 scan with the scanner in Transparency scanning mode.

https://www.negativelabpro.com

Pete

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Looks very interesting. I scan with Epson V700 which outputs in .tiff so according to the video this is not an ideal starting point. Would be good to read feedback from anyone who has tried it with a flatbed-scanned file.  (Hopefully later this week I might find some time to try it with the demo version).

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Using ColorPerfect (plugin for PhotoShop and PhotoLine) with my scans from SilverFast in HDR-format, I get very good results for my colour negatives. In most cases (albeit not all) I prefer the outcome over the SilverFast NegaFix results. Maybe the results can also be achieved by tweaking curves and settings in PS, but with ColorPerfect these results come directly without extra effort.

Edited by Jossie
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Yes, it's a shame about the clunky User Interface of ColorPerfect. For that reason, I think I've taken it off my system (where do I find it again?)
A guy who's been trying the plugin offered to work on a Vuescan "RAW" file for me. This was the outcome with "automatic"

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This is the straight inversion then curves then levels and sliding the red slider in colour levels in Photoshop

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Edited by Stealth3kpl
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3 hours ago, Stealth3kpl said:

This is the straight inversion then curves then levels and sliding the red slider in colour levels in Photoshop

 

You can do much, much better in the second image by adding some contrast and simply pressing 'Auto Color' in Photoshop, honest, I've just tried it.

But I think I must be missing something, 'Invert Image' and a couple of tweaks has always been the only thing necessary in Photoshop. I appreciate the app is for Lightroom, so can't the same thing be done in that instead of making a palaver out of a simple process?

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10 hours ago, Stealth3kpl said:

This is the straight inversion then curves then levels and sliding the red slider in colour levels in Photoshop

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Both attempts are showing a cyan/blue cast, I assume this is due to the orange mask.  I’ve not looked at the plugin, but can you create profiles to give a more accurate ‘auto’ conversion? 

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9 hours ago, 250swb said:

You can do much, much better in the second image by adding some contrast and simply pressing 'Auto Color' in Photoshop, honest, I've just tried it.

But I think I must be missing something, 'Invert Image' and a couple of tweaks has always been the only thing necessary in Photoshop. I appreciate the app is for Lightroom, so can't the same thing be done in that instead of making a palaver out of a simple process?

Like this?

It still looks a bit "Cinestill 800" rather than Portra 400, although I quite like it.
 

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1 hour ago, Ouroboros said:

Both attempts are showing a cyan/blue cast, I assume this is due to the orange mask.  I’ve not looked at the plugin, but can you create profiles to give a more accurate ‘auto’ conversion? 

I'm not good at this sort of thing, this is why I'd be interested in a decent plugin. I'm lucky in that I bought a Pakon 135+ before the prices increased to ridiculous levels, so I'd only use the plugin for the occasional medium format shot. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what comes of it. Nate, the developer, is keen for input and to develop it further.

Pete

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If you don't mind me taking the liberty, from your original image this was -10 Cyan for shadows, mids, and highlights in Photoshop and finished with 'White Neutralizer' in Color Efex, which dealt with the colour then a bit more contrast to taste. It could be refined better with a larger file because you can see more colour detail but essentially when you get used to how a particular film scan you can almost do alterations in your sleep.

 

 

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Edited by 250swb
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1 hour ago, 250swb said:

If you don't mind me taking the liberty, from your original image this was -10 Cyan for shadows, mids, and highlights in Photoshop and finished with 'White Neutralizer' in Color Efex, which dealt with the colour then a bit more contrast to taste. It could be refined better with a larger file because you can see more colour detail but essentially when you get used to how a particular film scan you can almost do alterations in your sleep.

 

 

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Too red for my taste, but I'd be correcting a 16-bit tiff anyway and I agree with you that working with a low res file is not ideal for this sort of thing.

I must say I've never been impressed with any plug-in that promises a one-click fix for anything let alone be tempted to change my (over 3 decades long) Photoshop workflow, so I'm a bit sceptical at this point. 

Always open to new ideas, though.

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