Sneak Peek: NEGATIVE LAB PRO V3.1
New Color Processing, Support for Slide Film & Digital, Improved Batch Editing, and More…
Hi friends,
I’m so excited to finally be able to share this sneak peek with you of v3.1! This update has been in the works a LONG time, with powerful new features to enhance your workflow and expand your creative control over your film.
Also, a BIG “thank you” to you all for your patience and support these past few months… As some of you may know, we live in St. Petersburg Florida, and we were hit with two major hurricanes recently (Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton). The storms were pretty devastating and disorienting for not just our family, but for the entire community here. But we are thankful to all be safe and healthy, and that each day brings us a little closer to normal.
Despite theses challenges, I’m thrilled to finally share with you the sneak peek of Negative Lab Pro v3.1!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- New Color Process Options
- Positives and Slide Film Support
- UI Improvements to LUTs and Saturation Controls
- Batch Conversion and Performance Improvements
- Sync-Scene “Match” Feature
- Bug Fixes
- More on the way!
1. New Color Process Options (LRC 11+ Required)
Version 3.1 introduces a new ColorProcess setting in the “Advanced” settings tab, which offers two distinct options:
-
Classic (Default in v3.0 and earlier)
This is the same color process model delivers vibrant, dynamic colors with extended richness in shadows and highlights. It excels at creating dramatic color contrast, making small differences in hues more pronounced. It has a tendency to accentuate cool tones in shadows and warm tones in highlights, which can create more dramatic scenes, but could sacrifice some accuracy. -
Refined: (New in v3.1)
This is a new option that produces cleaner neutrals, smoother color transitions, and more accurate tonality. This options will produce a more polished, modern look, and will typically provide “truer-to-life” colors, especially on thin negatives or on negatives where heavy editing is required.
Examples
The new “Refined” color process option (right side) can help improve the accuracy of color rendering, especially in the shadows and highlights. Here, it helps remove the bit of blue/turquoise tinting, which is mostly evident in the shadows, and also slightly improves the accuracy of the sky.
(LEFT: “Classic” color process. RIGHT: “Refined” color process)
TIP: On all these photos, you can drag the slider to compare the before and after.
Below, you can see how the left side (using the “Classic” color process) produces lush, vibrant greens, which contrast nicely with the slightly saturated magenta in the skin tones. The right side (using the “Refined” color process) is more accurate to the scene and looks very clean, with pure singular colors. But this doesn’t always mean it’s better… Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which you prefer for your style!
One more example…
The differences you see will be subtle in most cases, with the refined option keeping the neutrals really clean and providing slightly better color accuracy (although, you may see major changes if the negative is thin).
Here, watch the deep shadows in the water, and the color of the fish fountain. The “refined” option just keeps everything more neutral.
How It Works
The Refined mode leverages the layer mask tool introduced in Lightroom Classic v11. By combining tone curves on both the main layer and masked layers, it gives me more control over how the colors are rendered.
Please note: this feature requires Lightroom Classic v11 or later, as it relies on features which were introduced with that version.
2. Positives and Slide Film Support
Now, you can use Negative Lab Pro will ALL your captures!
With v3.1, Negative Lab Pro now supports editing slide film and positive digital images. A new option in the Convert Tab lets you change the image type from Negative to Positive or Edit Only:
- Positive: Great for slide film. This mode offers exceptional control over dynamic range, ensuring natural highlight retention, color integrity, and pure neutrals. It uses the same powerful color correction engine as for negatives, while adjusting for tonal differences.
- Edit Only: Ideal for quick edits on digital shots, slide film, or previously converted negatives. This skips the image analysis and allows you to go straight to editing.
Why use Negative Lab Pro for Slide Film or Digital Images?
Of course, you do not need Negative Lab Pro to process positive images in Lightroom.
BUT, I have found that there are some clear advantages to using Negative Lab Pro with positive images.
1. Better Tonality Control & Highlight Retention
While Lightroom by default tends to push highlights (in a way that is virtually impossible to get back to neutral), the pipeline in Negative Lab Pro keeps the tonal response linear in the earliest stages, making it easier to get natural tones and maximum dynamic range.
2. A Purer, Simpler Color Pipeline
I’ve had to be very careful with the way I designed the pipeline in Negative Lab Pro, because any small mistakes become exaggerated when the negative is inverted and normalized to full dynamic range. I’ve found that the profiles that come with Lightroom by default are doing too much too early in the pipeline, which causes problems further down the road when you begin editing. By keeping the camera color profiles as simple and precise as possible, and being very careful about the order of operations, it’s able to produce fantastic results.
3. Access to NLP’s Unique Editing Controls
There are some editing controls that you really just can’t do directly in Lightroom (unless you have a lot of time and are really good at math). Things like the brightness slider (which is a precise gamma correction) are not directly possible in Lightroom. The same goes for many of the settings in Negative Lab Pro which work uniquely and would be difficult to do directly in Lightroom.
Examples
Here’s a perfect example of the color and tonality improvements with Negative Lab Pro, on a camera scan of a Fuji Provia slide.
LEFT: Original Camera Scan in Lightroom. RIGHT: Processed with Negative Lab Pro
On the left side, the initial Lightroom interpretation has blown out a lot of the rich color, texture and details of this Fuji Provia slide. This is happening so early in the pipeline that it is really impossible to get it back exactly as it should be. Look at the missing details in the brightest section of the wall, the tops of the umbrella, and the missing color and details in the blue shirt of the gentleman on the left side. Using the “highlight” slider, you can try to get this back, but it will not be exactly as it should. You may also notice some subtle “hue shifts” in the hue of the yellow wall in the brightest section and darkest section. This is happening because of hue twists in the color profile itself. This is impossible to undo directly.
On the right side, this is processing it through Negative Lab Pro… in this case, it basically looks like I’m looking directly at the slide on the light table. The dynamic range is perfect. The hues are pure and simple with no shifting. All the color and details are there from the start. Move the slider to the left and see how the rich detail and color are there, exactly as they should be.
Here’s another film slide example:
LEFT: Original Camera Scan in Lightroom. RIGHT: Processed with Negative Lab Pro
On the left side, just opening it up in Lightroom has gotten this pretty close, but there are still a few issues. First, there is a slightly green tint to the whole image (which is visible on the slide). While it is possible to use the White Balance tool in Lightroom to correct for this, that is not the ideal way, as the dual-illuminant profiles will also try to adjust the colors and not just address the tint. And second, there is some loss of fine detail in the shadows. While it is possible to bring some back, you are losing some of the naturalness of the image (because the internal curve causing the loss of the shadow detail is different from the tool being used to try to bring some back).
On the right side, Negative Lab Pro has dealt with this very naturally. It corrects the green tint (without throwing off any other colors), and does a better job of maintaining the shadow details and colors. They are small details, but they do add up and make a difference!
Ok, let’s look at a few digital image examples.
LEFT: Original Digital Photo Import into Lightroom. RIGHT: Processed with Negative Lab Pro
I find on brighter skin, Lightroom (left) tends to wash out the skin and cause some unnatural highlights. The differences here are subtle, but I find the colors and details here through the Negative Lab Pro pipeline (right) to just take everything up a notch.
One last example, just to show how dramatically this method can improve highlight detail in digital files…
On the left, Lightroom has really massacred the fine detail and color and in the highlights of the flower. And there is no way you can get this back properly using Lightroom’s controls! The muddying of these details happens at a very early stage in Lightroom’s normal pipeline. When you use the “highlight” slider in Lightroom here, you are just making this muddiness less bright.
On the right, Negative Lab Pro has brought out the intricate colors and details as they were meant to be.
3. Enhanced LUTs and Saturation Controls
I’ve never been happy with the previous implementation of the HSL LUTs and Saturation control. The new UI makes it so much easier to control the intensity of the LUT you are applying, as well as the saturation.
- Adjust HSL correction intensity with a simple slider.
- Control saturation levels without navigating dropdown menus.
Easy-peasy!
4. Batch Conversion and Performance Improvements
Faster and More Stable Batch Processing
With significant under-the-hood memory optimizations, you can now convert hundreds—or even thousands—of images in one go.
There will still be some limits just based on your specs, but for example, on my 2019 MacBook Pro, I can now process over 500 images in one go with no issues.
5. Match Feature
Bringing Back “Sync Scene” as “Match”
The much-missed Sync Scene feature has returned, now renamed Match. Match takes the settings and image analysis from one negative and applies them directly to the rest of your selection—perfect for ensuring consistency across a batch of images.
6. Bug Fixes
General Bug Fixes
- Resolved Windows licensing issues causing frequent drops.
- Fixed syncing and copying errors that caused settings to fail.
- Updated camera calibrations to match Lightroom Classic’s latest release.
Ongoing Issues
- I’m still working on an issue affecting Intel Mac users running the latest Lightroom Classic and macOS versions. Until resolved, I recommend using Lightroom Classic 13.5 for stability.
6. More Improvements Coming Soon
A key feature I’ve been developing is auto-cropping for negatives, which will now be released in v3.2. I was really hoping to have it all done by now, but recovering from the hurricanes has really set me back on time.
Stay tuned for further updates and improvements!
How to Try the Beta Version
I was hoping to have a generally available beta version in time for Black Friday, but the ongoing build-back from the Hurricanes has really been draining, and I don’t think I’m going to make it… once it is ready, I will post it here, and on the regular download page!
Whew, that’s a lot of updates! Let me know what you’re most excited about in the comments below. Thank you for your support, and happy editing! 
