# "White balance cannot be set" how to get a darker film border for setting white balance?
**URL:** https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761
**Category:** Lightroom 6
**Created:** [November 5, 2019, 4:20am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761 "2019-11-05T04:20:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cjgetty](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/cjgetty)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2019, 4:20am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/1 "2019-11-05T04:20:32Z")
I’ve had this issue occasionally where the border of the film is scanned in too bright/dense, where Lightroom can’t read it as a neutral area to set the white balance from. I’m scanning using an Epson v600 and using Vuescan for RAW negatives. Is there any thing to adjust in Lightroom or Vuescan to fix this?
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### Author:  [@Cardonafoto](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/Cardonafoto)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2019, 4:22am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/2 "2019-11-19T04:22:10Z")
Bump. Dealing with this as well!
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### Author:  [@jcrutchley](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/jcrutchley)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2019, 2:25am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/3 "2019-12-03T02:25:55Z")
Just downloaded 2.1, running into the same issue using the vuescan dng method. Not sure if auto white balance is creating an accurate representation of the scanned negative.
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### Author:  [@nate](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/nate)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/4 "2019-12-05T15:20:01Z")
Hi,
First, make sure are running the latest version of Negative Lab Pro (v2.1.2 as of posting). It improves the way that LR white balance is handled for the negative through the use of new dcp profiles with a dual-illuminant target.
If you run into this error, you can just change the white balance from “As Shot” to “Auto”.
Or, if you may find that the wb picker will work if you first change the profile from “embedded” to “Negative Lab” - this will make the photo appear darker (a truer representation) and should allow you to pick off the border in most situations. But again, nothing at all wrong with choosing “Auto” in this situation.
Cheers!
-Nate
Creator of Negative Lab Pro
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### Author:  [@jcrutchley](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/jcrutchley)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 1:50am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/5 "2019-12-07T01:50:59Z")
Wow, that new profile worked perfect. No longer having this issue with any color negative, and images are coming out with what seems to be richer and more real to life colors. Nice work! Thank you
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### Author:  [@Rockall\_8](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/Rockall_8)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2020, 7:33pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/6 "2020-01-13T19:33:35Z")
Hi Nate,
glad someone has my same issue! I understand that with “Auto” WB the result will be the same, however, I’m still not able to switch the profile from my standard one (“Colors”) to “Negative Lab”. I cannot find it! I even updated Vuescan/Silverfast DNGs as per instructions, but still does not work. Any suggestions?
Thank you very much!
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### Author:  [@Rockall\_8](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/Rockall_8)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/7 "2020-01-17T19:01:11Z")
Hi, any suggestion for this issue?
Thank you.
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### Author:  [@jcrutchley](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/jcrutchley)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2020, 5:42pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/8 "2020-01-20T17:42:49Z")
Is NLP listed and activated in your Plugin Manager?
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### Author:  [@Rockall\_8](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/Rockall_8)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/9 "2020-01-20T19:54:27Z")
NLP is activated in the Plugin Manager.
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### Author:  [@yeye](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/yeye)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/10 "2020-04-24T04:24:09Z")
I posted a new post and I have the same problem.At the beginning, the profile shows embedded or just nothing, and when I perform the update dng, LR prompts"profile missing"
the auto wb is just not work right.It gives a terrible result.
> [@Profile missing with vuescan](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/profile-missing-with-vuescan/1648):
>
> I followed the settings in every step, but after importing to LR, the RAW file showed “color”. When I used “update dngs”, it prompted me that the profile was missing. White balance is not working.When I click on the border with a straw,It prompts as follows:Cannot set the white balance here.Please click on a darker neutral area.So I cannot do the next conversion. When I use silverfast, everything works fine. I don’t understand why. flushed
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### Author:  [@yeye](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/yeye)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 4:29am UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/11 "2020-04-24T04:29:37Z")
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### Author:  [@RegNullify](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/u/RegNullify)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2021, 8:33pm UTC](https://forums.negativelabpro.com/t/white-balance-cannot-be-set-how-to-get-a-darker-film-border-for-setting-white-balance/761/12 "2021-01-18T20:33:23Z")
I’ve noticed as a workaround, that if I put my WB picker in an area that is in the border between the image and the film base, if I hunt around a bit I’ll get a pixel that is just dark enough to not trigger the error, yet give me a very nice WB. I do always select the NegativeLabPro profile before setting the WB though. I’ve used the above technique, and encountered the error, with both the Epson 550 and a Coolscan V ED.