Good day All,
Fellow NLP fam, i’m new to NLP and am having trouble understanding the correct/effective process to get the best out of my negatives. if you are well versed in NLP and possibly VueScan and have a solid consistent workflow system- consisting of certains settings perhaps or just trick you’ve learned/picked up along the way I would be greatly appreciative for any and all suggestions.
I’ve typed out the process that I follow but not sure if correct, if I’m doing something wrong, or if there’s something/information I’m missing/need.
INTRO:
From what I’ve gathered, the most important VueScan tabs are, Input & Output. Is that correct? Also heard that since I’m scanning a RAW file, the Color Tab settings won’t matter since it’s a RAW scan. Is that also correct?
running on NLP v2.2.0 , VueScan software 9 x64 (9.7.47), Lightroom v10.0,
macOS Big Sur v11.2.1 &,
if that matters.
THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE! 
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hit preview for a quick scan of the negative.
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crop image from the preview negative scan, not containing any film borders. check ‘lock exposure’ box.
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now recrop preview negative scan to include some of the film borders.
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hit Scan.
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import scan into Lightroom.
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now in Library, go to File, Plug-in Extras, Update VueScan/Silverfast DNGs. then follow the instructions. (go to Photo>Read Metadata From File) ( make sure Profile says Negative Lab v2.1) if I understood this step correctly, you needed to do this metadata-process for each new import you make to Lightroom? if I’m off please correct me.
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use Eye Drop tool to white balance from film border. ******************i follow these steps to the letter and my profile shows NegativeLab v2.1, like it’s supposed to. but for some reason when I select my eye drop tool to white balance off the border, it gives the the ‘ cannot set the white balance here…’ message. can someone help me figure this out?*******************************i know some will suggest just doing an ‘auto white balance’ or white balancing inside the negative image but I’ve found that gives you a different result than manually using the eye drop tool off the border. I just want to make sure I’m white balancing this correctly with the steps Nate has on his site to ensure that I’m not jeopardizing the color outcomes that the NLP profile edit tools provide. Maybe I’m reaching…
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considering last step went smooth, next, crop image with no visible film border. just the image itself. even the slightest of film border will throw off the NLP scan conversion. from what I’ve read online, is that correct?
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hit cntrl+N to bring up NLP.
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set the setting to the following-
Source: VueScan/SF DNG,
Color Model: Frontier (to my knowledge you can chose any setting here based on your liking. Is that correct? Or do you need to stick to frontier?),
Pre Saturation: 3-Default,
Border Buffer: Optional. -
hit Convert Negatives. now inside NLP, edit image(s) to liking.