I think this is definitely an Adobe problem with the recent update because I found a number of people reporting the same message when trying to export images after the update, but I am unable to use NLP. Whenever I launch the plugin and hit the Convert Negative button, I get the error message “Specified folder is not writable.” I discovered the issue trying to convert a newly scanned image in my C;\Users…\Pictures folder, and then also tried to convert an existing image on my external photo library drive. I was testing out the new Flat Field Correction hoping to get better colors across my converted images.
Well that sucks! Yes, this is would impact Negative Lab Pro as well because under the hood it relies on being able to read and write to plugin folder (and have LR export images to it for internal analysis). Looks like the LR team is still trying to reproduce and find a solution. Can you go back to LR 8.2 until this gets resolved?
Yes, Adobe did give us the ability to install the previous version alongside the update, so I am again able to use NLP. The good news is the new Flat Field Correction works amazingly well for digitizing color film negatives. I was seeing a lot of falloff using a 30mm macro lens and was having to manually apply a lot of vignetting correction. The falloff was probably caused by my digitizing setup using a light pad rather than being a lens issue. Flat Field takes care of that completely, and I am now getting nice uniform colors across the frame. I’m going to write about it on my blog and provide some comparisons.