Hi friends,
I’ve put together some common questions on the new roll analysis feature in V3. This may answer some questions you have, or if you have new questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I will try to address.
“Can I use Roll Analysis with negative I’ve already converted?”
Yep! As someone with a large catalog of previous work, one thing I wanted to consider was making it easy to go back and use Roll Analysis on previous conversions you have made with Negative Lab Pro. And, in fact, you don’t even have to reconvert any of your previous photos to use Roll Analysis on them.
To use Roll Analysis on previous conversions, simply:
- Select a group of your already converted images (preferably a single roll)
- Open Negative Lab Pro
- Go to the Roll tab and click Create New Roll
- Give your roll a name, and add it to a group if you’d like to organize it
Important caveats using roll analysis on previous conversions:
- All of the advice on digitization and setup that I previously described still apply. For instance, using the same exposure settings and white balance settings, only selecting from the same roll, etc. Your output will only be as consistent as your input. So if you didn’t digitize consistently, your output may be off.
- Any adjustments you made previously (based on the single image analysis) may no longer be needed. For instance, let’s say you had to manually adjust the color balance on your single-image analysis to make your skin tones look OK. Well, those same adjustments may be unnecessary (and actually throw off) the result once you are using the roll analysis. So, you may actually want to go back and “reset” your editing settings after you add the Roll Analysis and try editing it fresh from there.
- If you’ve previously used “Sync Scene” on the roll, then you will need to unconvert (go to the Convert tab and select “unconvert”) and then reconvert. The reason for this is that “Sync Scene” in previous versions would overwrite the individual analyses (which the Roll Analysis needs to access to calculate rolls on prior conversions).
So… if you try to add a roll analysis to a previous conversion, and something seems off, first see if reconverting the images improves the roll analysis. If something is still off, it might be worth seeing if a rescan helps!
“Can I use the analysis from one roll onto another roll?”
While it is generally a good idea to use the roll analysis that is specific to a roll, in some cases, you might want to use an existing roll analysis on a different roll than it was created for.
For instance, you could use the roll analysis from a regular stock film (say, Kodak Portra) on a specialty film (like Redrum or Lomochrome Purple) with interesting effect.
But generally you should not expect the roll analysis of one roll of Kodak Portra to apply perfectly to all future Kodak Portra that you shoot, unless you’ve kept very strict control of all the variables mentioned earlier. For instance, even small changes in the Lightroom white balance will create big difference, so in this case you would need to make sure that you used the same Lightroom white balance settings across rolls of the same film stock.
“What if I’ve shot a calibration chart in my negative? Can i use that?”
Yep! If you included a color calibration chart in any of your photos, you can use that to make a single frame calibration. Simply crop in to just include the calibration chart, then after conversion, go to the Rolls tab, select Create New Roll, and then select Single Frame as the source. This will create a single frame calibration you can use on the rest of your roll.
The “single frame” calibration can also be useful if you find that a particular shot has converted well on its own, and you want to bring that calibration over to other shots.
“What happened to ‘Sync Scene?’ Is there a way for me to replicate this behavior?”
In v3, you can create “single frame calibrations” and use that calibration on other images.
This has a number of advantages over Sync Scene. 1) It’s non-destructive, meaning that it won’t overwrite any of the original conversion calibrations, 2) It’s adaptive, meaning it can automatically adjust for dynamic range differences between frames.
To create a single frame calibration, go to the Rolls tab, select Create New Roll, and then select Single Frame as the source.
“Where is the roll analysis stored? Can I transfer it?”
The roll analysis is saved in two places.
First, any roll currently applied to a photo is saved directly to the LR metadata of that photo. So if you ever move catalogs in LR, all that data will transfer. Second, your roll calibrations are saved to a rolls.json file in the following folders:
On Mac: / Users / { username} / Library / Application Support / Negative Lab Pro / Rolls / rolls.json
On Windows: C: \ Users \ [username] \ AppData \ Roaming \ Negative Lab Pro \ Rolls \ rolls.json
“Is Roll Analysis always be better than single image analysis?”
Not always. While the Roll Analysis will usually be a truer representation of the film, there are situations where you may prefer the look of the single-image analysis, or when it may be closer to your vision.
“Do I have to use Roll Analysis?”
Nope. You can continue using Negative Lab Pro with just single-image analysis if that’s what you’d like, and you’ll still take advantage of all the other new features in V3.
“Does Roll Analysis work with B+W Images?”
Not really, although feel free to experiment. If anything, you could experiment with the “Darkroom Paper” setting, and that will basically give you a better feel of the un-optimized dynamic range of each shot.
"How do you recommend I edit my roll?*?
The consistency that Roll Analysis provides makes it so much easier to batch edit than with single-image analysis! Even if your initial roll analysis result is a bit off, you should find that syncing your edits will now work a whole lot better.
Here’s how I edit an entire roll in about 2 minutes:
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After roll analysis edit the color balance and tones of your first image. I usually try “auto-neutral,” “auto-mix” or “auto-warm.” If none of those look quite right, I’ll just edit the temp and tint slider by hand.
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When you’re happy with that single edit, click “sync.” Make sure the appropriate settings are selected, and click “sync settings.” This will bring these settings to all the images in your roll.
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Now, navigate through your roll and make any necessary individual adjustments. The most common tonal adjustment I make between shots is “brightness.”
Bingo-bango, you’re done!
More questions?
Let me know below!