Could Someone Give me Advice on Optimal Workflow for Converting Large Batch of 35mm Negatives

Guides and How-Tos
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Hello there,

I am new to Negative Lab Pro; and I am seeking some guidance on the best workflow for converting a large batch of 35mm film negatives. I have recently completed scanning a few hundred frames using a DSLR setup; and while I am excited to dive into the conversion process,

What are the best practices for batch processing large numbers of negatives? :thinking: I have read through some of the guides, but I am curious if anyone has tips or tricks for speeding up the process without compromising quality.

I am struggling a bit with maintaining consistent color across different rolls of film. Any advice on how to handle variations in film stock or lighting conditions that might affect the final output? :thinking:

Also, I have gone through this post; https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/questions-about-camera-scanning-a-large-archive-tableau/ which definitely helped me out a lot.

After conversion in NLP, do you have any recommendations for additional steps in Lightroom or other software to fine-tune the results? :thinking: For example; is there a preferred approach to sharpening or noise reduction?

Thanks in advance for your help and assistance. :innocent:

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Welcome to the forum @Padrickk

Negative Lab Pro converts images adaptively, i.e. depending on their content, exposure, colour balance, tonality etc.

One way to reduce variations due to the above is to convert with “Roll Analysis” (RA) switched on. In order for RA to work correctly, all “scans” must be taken with the same lighting and exposure settings. If this is the case, RA can produce conversions with colours that can often better match (my) expectations.

That being said, and considering that you might want to convert hundreds of takes in one go, unexpected variations creep up because equivalent exposure while scanning several films has probably not been done. Due to the adaptive nature of the conversion procedure, colours will vary too. For illustration, have a look at the following:

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Upper row: Thin negative scanned with bracketing in 1/3 EV steps
Middle row: Conversion without RA, but with white balance taken from film rebate
Lower row: Conversion without RA, and without white balance

As we can see, NLP is fairly tolerant to exposure even though differences can clearly be seen in Lightroom. Here, NLP also does a fairly decent job with images that have not been white balanced at all. Seen in Lightroom, the “unbalanced” series delivers a better starting point for refinement.

As differences exist with exactly one negative that has been processed differently, differences will also exist with different film types, development etc. My expectation is that NLP can provide decent starting points and that I have to tweak colours and tonality of the converted captures I want to print. This is based on the fact that my negatives were shot a long time ago, developed by different labs, were kept (for a while) in variable environments etc. I do not expect NLP to deliver “truth” or “good consistency” etc.

Short:

  • don’t expect miracles
  • convert, with RA, negatives of one film - or batch process, without RA, any number of negatives
  • re-convert images if necessary, playing with the crop or border buffer can make a difference…which is hard to anticipate
  • find your mix of image quality vs. effort it takes to get there (20-80-rule)
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I use a Nikon ES-2 copy adapter with my Nikon mirrorless cameras. I prefer a high resolution camera (46MP) because I find most of my old film shots need cropping. This device fits on the front of a macro/micro lens meaning you do not have to worry about alignment of the camera with the negatives. Here are a few tips:
1.I shoot the negatives loose so the film edge show in the digital image. That is so I can white balance on the clear (orange for color) border.
2. I make the copy exposures with the camera set to Aperture mode, lowest possible ISO setting.
3. White balance every roll of color. Different film types and processing makes the orange mask a different shade of orange for each roll, affecting the white balance.
4. I normally copy 5 or 6 rolls at a time, Take a couple of blank frames between rolls so you can tell where one roll ends and another begins. I import them in Lightroom Classic all into one folder on the computer called “Film Scans”.
5. In Lightroom Classic, I pick the first image of a roll, white balance on the film edge, then crop down to only the image. Then Select all the rest of the photos in that roll and Syncronize Settings picking only White Balance and Crop to sync.
6. I have been using Lightroom/Lightroom Classic since V2 and I find it hard to work with the NLP converted images with the sliders in reverse. So, I always create raw .tifs of each image.
7. Once I have converted all the images on a roll or multiple rolls of a specific event, I create a new folder in Lightroom Classic and move all those images to that new folder. My folder and photo naming convention is “1996-05-29-Camdens High School Graduation” Then do what ever processing I need to on the .tifs . Once I am sure I got .tifs from the original raw copies, I delete the raws from the new folder.
8. Process the film copies just like you would any digital image… Adjust to taste :slight_smile:

The quality of the original negatives is very important to how good the final converted photos will look. Underexposed color and b&w originals will just look bad and grainy.

1 Like
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I’ve got the same hardware setup as you. Your step-by-step workflow is really helpful in improving my process. Thanks for taking the effort to write this up.

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Hi Sam,

You are welcome. I’m glad it was helpful. Hopefully to others on the forum, too.

I have tried a lot of digitizing methods starting with a dedicated scanner, etc. This is the fastest and best quality that I have found. :blush:

Ken

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This is interesting, how come your unconverted negatives are green? Are you using a trichromatic light source?

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They appear green, because I hat taken the photos with my camera set to UniWB.

Read about UniWB, e.g. here or on any other site that writes about it.
I made my first UniWB steps with this site.