Hello! I am new into scanning my own film. I would appreciate any help! I live in Utah and have been trying to scan photos of red rock the photos, keep coming back extremely saturated. The red rock is cherry red and the sky is electric blue. It looks very unnatural and is very different than the scan my developer provides for me. I can’t seem to find the right settings or filters to make them appear natural
I’m currently using the free version of negative lap Pro is this just something that solves it itself with the paid version?
I am currently shooting on a Sony A7iv with a sigma 70 mm macro lens in a negative supply basic scanning light. I was previously shooting on a Canon 800D with a kit lens and a random Kodak light from Amazon and switched to this new Sony camera negative supply light set up because I thought that was my issue but the over saturation has still continued although the quality is twice as good!
It seems to be any photo I convert is oversaturated or needs heavy editing to look normal but with red rock photos, it is a lot worse and a lot harder to fix.
I followed a YouTube tutorial and have been shooting in aperture priority because that’s what they recommended to use with negative lab pro with my camera
Welcome to the forum @Marshmilo
Looks of converted images depend on what’s in the image. If there’s only (the negative version of) red and blue, NLP can struggle. NLP gets better when hues and tonalities vary abundantly.
Moreover, the things one sets on the first tab of NLP can change looks and it pays to play around with settings and, occasionally, it pays to try things other than what the GUIDE recommends.
If you post a link to a share with an example RAW file or two, we can have a look and see what we can do about your saturation issue.
Which versions of NLP and macOS or Windows are you working with?
I suppose that your developer adjusts images in whatever system is used.
thanks for the response! I’ve found that on the monument valley photos a combo of Portia airy, LAB soft, and WB none. Gives a better color result. But that doesn’t work on every red rock blue sky scene. I have tried adjusting the pre-saturation to high before converting and it helps a little but not a whole lot here is one of the negatives I’m having issues with
I’m using NLP version 3 and macOS Monterey 12.7.6
Tried your image and got this:
From left: Pre-saturation set to 1, 3 and 5 respectively.
NLP 1st tab: conversion setting:
NLP 2nd tab: my default preset settings:
All of the above with NLP 3.1.1, LrC 14.5.2 on macOS 15.7.4 in 2019 5k iMac.
How does your conversion look? (share an exported jpeg in your dropbox)
Looks are a matter of personal preference and I’d probably use the first conversion. Pre-saturation at 3 is the limit what I’d like, but it can be worked on for less obtrusive appearances. Others might like the pre-sat 5 image though.
My preset subdues looks in order to provide mor room for adjustments with structure etc. sliders. You can easily rebuild the preset from what you see above, if the preset can’t be saved, search for solutions in the forum. Spoilers: Adjusting access rights usually fixes this issue.
I white balanced from the rebate and cropped off all things not being part of the captured landscape.
I just added my conversions to the dropbox link and they worked great! I feel a lot more knowledgeable about the whiteclip and blackclip settings. I was even able to apply that knowledge to converting a negative with the sprocket holes, that had been giving me a tough time! I really appreciate the help I’m excited to convert all my negatives now that I can easily achieve the natural look I am wanting! Thank you!
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Best way to proceed: WB from film base, crop off everything outside of the image, convert, un-crop.
(Sprocket holes tend to be overexposed and to derail colours in the conversion)
Good. And check out what other things can do - with wanted or unwanted results.
Left: Cropped off a lot of similar colour areas and converted without changing the WB.
