Where are you getting step #2? That is not correct.
I was following the VueScan Lock Exposure Guide after reading the NLP Guide about locking exposure. After running some tests, I couldn’t see a difference between selecting ONLY the film border or the whole image, as the exposure always chose to lock to around 3.07 gain, just before the red started clipping.
After the negative conversion, I can see black clipping and very little dynamic range in the 3.07 gain version compared to the one set to 1. I think what threw me off is the uninverted image looks extremely pale and not orange whatsoever, I assumed it should look at least a little orange like the film itself and the link to your comment below. I will use gain 1 going forward.
Is my understanding correct in that “Lock Exposure” sets the highest gain possible without clipping? Is the unexposed portion of the film considered pure white? Or is there more going on?
Is the current recommendation to still use “Color Negative” media mode as suggested here? That is giving me a much bigger difference.