Does anyone have any experience with the scanning and conversion with NLP V3 of Kodak BW 400 CN? I have several rolls of this film to be scanned with my DSRL and to be converted with LRCC and NLP V3. Any help is welcome. Thanks,
Welcome to the forum @Alberto_2024
Negative Lab Pro converts anything that Lightroom Classic can display, no matter if the image was captured with Kodak, Ilford, Fuji or any other film brand. There is not much to observe with B&W film, be it traditionally developed or in a C41 process. Simply make sure to select B&W on NLP’s first tab, or the images can get some duo-tone-like appearance.
Please note that “Scanned” should be read as “Converted” in the screen below.
While the slight colouring might be hard to see in the screen capture above, we can see a difference in tonality and how colours are rendered.
Thanks for your prompt response. I’ll go ahead and process the images following this instructions.
Hi,
I did the BW 400 CN film neg convertion using Neg Lab Pro V3 and use the NLP-Standard B&W. Use Linear, WB 0-0, slight adjustment to Brightness and Contrast in order to get a very flat image with details in the shadows and highlights, Lab glow=7, Lab fade=7. I had the converted image in LRCC and then edited in Photoshop CC and process it with Nik Silver Effects and applied the Fine Art preset and made some slight adjustment with contrast and brightness. I finally get a very rich B&W image with rich blacks and details in the shadows and very good separation and contrast in the highlights. I’m quite satisfied with the end results. It was very easy and quick to move through that workflow. Using the Nik Silver Effects helps to eliminate any tint of colors in the image. Then later you can use the split toning or add any other color to the image.
The initial image was very flat, everything gray but it has all the information in the shadows and in the highlights. It reminds me when I made my contact prints with a Grade 1 filter in order to see everything in the negative. Then I added contrast in order to make the interpretation of the printed image. Sometimes I used split contrast grade printing techniques in order to handle the contrast and details and textures in the shadows and highlights.
The information provided in the Forum was very helpful and I’m very happy with the results, thanks!
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Good to hear.
In order for others to learn something, some more detail about what you did in the several steps/apps could be helpful. Can you write a few words and maybe a screen capture per step and add them here?
Hi,
I’m working on a new image and I’m taking screenshots of every step in order to share it with the community. I hope to share it soon.
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I’ve not found a chromogenic B&W film that didn’t work. Even 40-year old Ilford XP-1 negs camera scanned and converted perfectly. I used B&W with a Linear tonal curve to start in NLP.
…and I just tried converting .psd (Photoshop native) and .png (Screenshot), none of which was refused by NLP. My assumption is, that as long as Lightroom can show an image, NLP can convert it.
Hi,
I’ll like to share this exercise about the conversion of a film neg B&W400CN Kodak to a digital positive using the following equipment and software. Hope that it can be of help to the community. I’m showing you my approach to this film negative and it is only a point of departure. I know that there are diverse possibilities for the interpretation of every image.
Equipment and software:
Film B&W 400 CN; Camera: Sony a7r; ISO 80; Lens: Canon 100 macro 2.8 EF; Adapter: 7Artisans EF-SE; Valoi Easy 35; Lightroom Classic; Photoshop 2024 25.6.0 Release; Nik Silver Effects 6 Version 6.10; Topaz Photo AI 3 version 3.0.1.
Here a step by step neg film, Kodak B&W400CN, conversion using Neg Lab Pro V3, using B&W and Linear preset.
1- Original film neg scanned with a Sony a7r
2- applied the White Balance in LRC
3- applied the Neg Lab Pro V3 B&W
4- Convert Negative Linear and some slight adjustments to get a low contrast image
5- Converted negative to positive in LRC to be edited in PS
6-PS duplicate background layer and edited with NIK Silver Efex
7- NIK Silver Efex: 015 Full Dynamic (harsh) convert to smart object
8- Back to PS, NIK Silver Efex is a smart object layer
9- PS, Topaz Photo AI to manage the noise in the dark areas in the back of the shirt
10- Back to PS
11- PS levels adjustments
12- Comparison initial image
13- Comparison Final image in PS after clean up spots layer
14- Back to LRC and slight adjustments to shadow and clarity
15- Final image from LRC
I learned a lot while doing this exercise. It seems that it takes a lot of time but once you nail down your style, then you create the presets in LRC and the actions in PS and everything run smoothly and quickly.
Thanks to everyone,
Alberto
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Interesting workflow, @Alberto_2024 - and a lot of different software involved too.
I wonder about the lavender touch your image gets from NLP.
Strange, but in the end, everything looks fine.
I noticed the lavender tint in the image after the NLP conversion and then I decided to use Nik Silver Efex to convert the image to B&W without any color tint. Also, I wanted to increase the contrast and tonal separations in the shadows and highlights. Another venue to deal with the color tint is to process the image in PS and make a color cast correction and then increase the contrast and all the nuances to obtain details in the shadows and highlights. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Hi @Alberto_2024,
You should not see any tint in the black and white conversion with Negative Lab Pro, so something has gone wrong here.
(And in general, you should be able to get as good or better editing results using the editing tools in Negative Lab Pro rather than exporting and making destructive changes in 3rd party programs)
It could be a couple of things going on, but here is what I would try if you notice any tint after the conversion:
1 - In Negative Lab Pro, after conversion, hit the “Reset” button (next to Copy/Paste)
2 - If that doesn’t fix the tint, go to the “Roll” tab and make sure that “Single Image Analysis” is set.
3 - Once you have found settings you like (and with no tint), you can click the “settings” dropdown and select “Create a New Preset.” Then after creating the preset, click the settings dropdown again and select “Make Default Preset” and that will be the default preset applied to new black and white conversions.
Thanks, I’ll try it next time I use NLP.
Hi,
I hit the Reset in NLP after conversion and the tint disappeared. Voila! Everything works out beautiful straight from NLP.
Thanks,
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Thanks a lot for sharing with so much detail!