# Certain negatives way too contrasty in NLP - why?

**URL:** <https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/certain-negatives-way-too-contrasty-in-nlp-why/10253>\
**Category:** Digital Camera Scanning\
**Created:** [June 14, 2026, 7:22pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/certain-negatives-way-too-contrasty-in-nlp-why/10253 "2026-06-14T19:22:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cmcintoshphoto](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forums.negativelabpro.com/cmcintoshphoto/32/6341_2.png) [@cmcintoshphoto](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/cmcintoshphoto)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2026, 7:22pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/certain-negatives-way-too-contrasty-in-nlp-why/10253/1 "2026-06-14T19:22:25Z")

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NLP doesn’t seem like some negatives? This negative is full and dense, & white balanced for the frame. NLP’s immediate scan loses all shadow detail, blows out all highlights, with no way to recover them with the sliders (note contrast all the way down). Bottom image was easily done with cinestill’s basic conversion preset that comes with the CS light (which usually does a mediocre job, which is why I bought NLP). The colors still aren’t perfect but they’re workable.

Other images from this roll came out nice and normal from NLP, landscapes & stuff.

Anyone know what could cause this?

 ![Screenshot 2026-06-12 at 4.22.00 PM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/negativelabpro/original/2X/e/e67539346e2cfab62cb2c0ab5d5e03b7079d76fe.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![cmcintoshphoto](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forums.negativelabpro.com/cmcintoshphoto/32/6341_2.png) [@cmcintoshphoto](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/cmcintoshphoto)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2026, 7:23pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/certain-negatives-way-too-contrasty-in-nlp-why/10253/2 "2026-06-14T19:23:19Z")

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wouldn’t let me post more than one image in my post. here is the negative scan.

 ![Screenshot 2026-06-12 at 4.22.17 PM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/negativelabpro/original/2X/e/ea8ff8a6249bb25f8bd7dd5e05250dda6460f717.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![graveladvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2bfe46/32.png) [@graveladvisory](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/graveladvisory)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:02pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/certain-negatives-way-too-contrasty-in-nlp-why/10253/3 "2026-06-15T17:02:11Z")

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I’m sure others who are actually experts will weigh in, and I don’t know if this is a factor, but based on that screenshot I personally would expose that negative more. Looks pretty dense.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cmcintoshphoto](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forums.negativelabpro.com/cmcintoshphoto/32/6341_2.png) [@cmcintoshphoto](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/cmcintoshphoto)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 7:22pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/certain-negatives-way-too-contrasty-in-nlp-why/10253/4 "2026-06-15T19:22:09Z")

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Like brighten the scan? The negative exposure itself feels very balanced, lots of detail in highlights and shadows. changing exposure in either direction before applying NLP makes the conversion practically entirely black with no detail whatsoever.