# Dichro color head for light source
**URL:** https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/dichro-color-head-for-light-source/3076
**Category:** Digital Camera Scanning
**Created:** [December 27, 2020, 12:25am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/dichro-color-head-for-light-source/3076 "2020-12-27T00:25:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@davidS](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/davidS)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2020, 12:25am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/dichro-color-head-for-light-source/3076/1 "2020-12-27T00:25:33Z")
Is there an ideal light source for old emulsions. It seems like we should separate the density record in the film from the color of the (faded) dyes. Of course the camera has filters on the sensor for color separation. Has anyone experimented with a dichroic enlarging head to sharpen the cutoffs?
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### Author:  [@Digitizer](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/Digitizer)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2020, 2:24pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/dichro-color-head-for-light-source/3076/2 "2020-12-27T14:24:54Z")
> [@Let's see your DSLR film scanning setup!](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/lets-see-your-dslr-film-scanning-setup/27/35):
>
> This is what I use (with the lens cap off) with my negatives (24x36 and medium format) Canon EOS M6 (raw+jpg) with Canon EF 100 f/2.8 Macro, coupled to iPad as remote control Durst M605c enlarger I’ve been trying with several filter setups to compensate some of the orange of color negative film. Results seem to NOT justify bothering with such a setting, NLP handles almost everything nicely.
This was an early setup and I’ve abandoned it because dichro color mixing did not change results. Other than that, I found that the M605c did not give me even lighting of MF negatives. It was okay for 35mm film though.
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### Author:  [@davidS](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/davidS)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2020, 12:58am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/dichro-color-head-for-light-source/3076/3 "2020-12-29T00:58:16Z")
Thanks Digitizer. You saved me from buying an enlarging head on Ebay to experiment. I do get beautiful scans from modern films. But if 40+ years old the colors are hard to adjust. Sometimes you get an image that is too green and too magenta!!!.
You also inspired me to post my rig on “Let’s see your DSLR film scanning setup”— [My setup](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/lets-see-your-dslr-film-scanning-setup/27/115)
Thanks again!! You saved me a lot of time and some money too.
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### Author:  [@Digitizer](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/Digitizer)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2020, 10:05am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/dichro-color-head-for-light-source/3076/4 "2020-12-29T10:05:07Z")
> [@davidS](#):
>
> 40+ years old the colors are hard to adjust
I found that preprocessing difficult negatives can help. Amongst other things I tried, I let Lightroom auto-adjust the negative before converting with NLP, sometimes, it helps to move the black and white points of the combined RGB tone curve too.
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### Author:  [@davidS](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/davidS)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/dichro-color-head-for-light-source/3076/5 "2020-12-29T18:26:36Z")
Thanks Digitizer for the preprocessing idea. The auto-white balance in LR does seem to help. But I tried moving the black and white points and even though the negative view and the negative histogram radically changed in Lightroom the positive from NLP did not change at all. (I must assume that Nate is making the same adjustment within NLP).
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### Author:  [@Digitizer](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/Digitizer)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/dichro-color-head-for-light-source/3076/6 "2020-12-29T19:20:49Z")
If you look at the separate R, G and B tone curves, you’ll see one of the devices of how NLP works. There’s more to it than that though. Still, you can try all sorts of more or less crazy things for preprocessing like dents in the RGB tone curve (don’t limit yourself) and see what comes off it.
Even if it might not turn a frog into a princess, it might help to understand your tools…
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### Author:  [@livebeechocolatecake](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/livebeechocolatecake)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2021, 5:18pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/dichro-color-head-for-light-source/3076/8 "2021-01-09T17:18:20Z")
Funny you mention it… I have been working to convert this Super Chromega D head in order to take SoLux bulbs, which, as mentioned in [this post](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/suggested-backlight-sources-for-scanning-film-with-dslr/130/7) would possibly be the best light source we could imagine as a backlight. I still need help on finding a proper power supply… any clues here folks?
 