Red vignetting in DSLR scans (especially low light shots)

Flatbed and Film Scanners
1

Hi!

I just started self-scanning and after a few rolls came to a recurring issue of red vignetting. This happens to be stronger the darker the shots are.

My setup:

Fuji X-T4
7artisans 60mm f2.8
Valoi easy35
NLP v3.0.2

Removing some reds from the shadows in my final Lightroom edit helps a little, but I would like to understand what is causing this vignetting and how to get rid of it earlier in the process.

NLP settings used for the sample shot:

LAB Soft
WB Auto-Mix
All other settings at default

Appreciate your feedback!

Cheers,
Moritz

20230816-_DSF3537
20230816-_DSF35375236Ă—3491 3.56 MB

2

Having a red, bright vignette after inversion means that there is regular (dark) vignetting in the digitization. When the negative is converted, the vignetting gets inverted and creates a tint (because of the negative mask).

A few things to try:

  • Make sure your aperture on your lens is high enough to avoid vignetting. This will vary a bit by lens, but I usually recommend f 8.0 or higher to avoid vignetting.
  • You can go into the “Lens Correction” section, go to “manual” and adjust the vignetting. Do this on the original RAW file (not on a copy) and when you get this right, it should correct not just the brightness, but also fix the redness. If you need more control over the shape of the vignetting, you can also play around with gradient masks, as shown here: Lightroom Tips & Tricks | Negative Lab Pro

Hope that helps!
-Nate

1 Like
3

Thanks Nate!

I already tried different f-stops from 5.6-11.

But I will go ahead trying to remove the vignetting in Lightroom (pre NLP processing).

Good tip :pray: