I’ve recently switched my negative scanning workflow from Silverfast (including negative conversion) to Vuescan DNG-scanning and negative conversion with Negative Lab Pro in Lightroom. I really like the results I’m getting out of it but unfortunately It is currently not a non-destructive workflow as some steps are not working correctly in the plugin.
My configuration is
iMac (24", M1, 2021) running macOS Big Sur 11.5.2
Lightroom Classic v10.4
NLP plugin v2.2
First steps are working as expected: Update Vuescan/Silverfast DNGs, read metadata from file, color balance picker on film border, crop negative.
Then I start NLP with ^N, select my conversion settings and click “Convert Negatives”.
Problem #1: The preview of my picture still shows the negative until I change one of the settings in the “Edit” tab
Problem #2: When I click “Apply”, Lightroom shows “Saving NLP Settings…” for about 10-15 seconds and my RAW file stays converted. But obviously the settings are not stored in the metadata.
If I reopen NLP it again shows me the “Convert” tab. I cannot refine my edits or un-convert.
Problem #3: Positive copies are created in the original file-system folder but neither re-imported into my Lightroom catalogue nor stacked with the original RAW file. This behaviour is the same for the “Make copy” option in the NLP dialogue or the NLP Export profile. Here Lightroom shows a “Processing one photo” status for at least 20-30 seconds or even longer with nothing happening
I always have to re-sync my folder to import the TIFs into the catalogue.
What scanner are you using with Vuescan? You may be able to skip the “Update Vuescan/Silverfast DNG” step if it is a scanner I already have natively supported.
This usually means there is a compatibility issue with your graphics processor. In Lightroom, go to “Lightroom > Preferences > Performance” and turn off GPU acceleration. See if that solves this.
I suspect these two are relate and that there is something corrupt with your Lightroom metadata.
After you reset Lightroom preferences, you will want to re-run the Negative Lab Pro installer, and then follow the steps to re-add Negative Lab Pro into the plugin manager.
If that doesn’t work, please select an image that is giving you trouble and go to “File > Export as Catalog” . Be sure to check “Export Selected Photos Only” and “Export Negative Files”. Then email that catalog to me at nate@natephotographic.com. This will allow me to look at the full metadata of the file (including metadata stored only in Lightroom’s catalog) to get a better sense of what is wrong.
It is also worth testing on completely new imports into Lightroom which have not been modified or converted previously.
thanks for helping. After trying everything suggested in your reply, testing with the sample raw scans from your website and nothing working at all, I’ve realized that another Plugin (Excire Search) was also not working.
So after testing with some older backup copies of my catalogue again with negative results, I’ve started with a fresh empty catalogue, imported your sample raw files and tested again. This time everything worked and also Excire Search is working again. Obviously something got corrupted with my LR catalogue.
I’m currently importing my work from the old catalogue into the new one which may take a while and I hope everything works as expected afterwards (Fingers crossed).
