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[Closed] Convert a color film negative to positive digital image

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 9:20 pm
by DeweyV
Looking for a simple process or feature to convert an image of color film negative to a digital positive .

I have a way to directly copy 35mm color slides (positives) as very high quality digital images using a DSLR camera and Nikkor macros lens . Works great. It's so good you can improve the image like it was an original real world scene... adjust color , exposure value , even use the camera's built in HDR to balance shadows and highlights better than original slide film could expose for. So my positive-to- positive film to digital method works very well. I can do 200 - 300 slides in an afternoon , ten to twenty times faster than scanning them

Now I want to rephotograph 35mm Color Negatives in large quantites as well. Of course you end up with a " positive" image of a color negative, which is orange... orange... orange. That's how color negative film works. I would like a one-click Filter (or something )in Graphic Converter that will remove the orange mask and invert the values to restore the image to a generic positive image , for further editing. Just like printing it in a darkroom.

Even better would be a way to do a finer conversion based on the brand or characteristics of the emulsion that was being photographed... the orange mask of Kodak Gold ( consumer) , Kodak Ektacolor (pro) , Fujicolor , Agfacolor etc were all slightly different. A filtration setting for a particular film emulsion to invert the image more precisely would be a godsend. I have tens of thousands of color negatives , and scanning a color neg is a royal pain and very time consuming.

I think direct conversion would be very useful.

Re: Convert a color film negative to positive digital image

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 8:43 am
by forum_adm
Did you try the invert/negative function?

Re: Convert a color film negative to positive digital image

Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 10:23 pm
by DeweyV
Thanks. I had no idea that the Invert feature had been expanded to work with Color Negative values .

The last time I used it years ago it was still just a straight reversal of luminance values . That's what I get for not paying attention to the new feature documentation. Looks like that Invert---> Color Negative appeared in version 9.6 but the documentation barely mentioned it. I missed the update tip.

Initial tests using the Invert---> Color Negative and the 4 Variants are promising ( except Variant # 3 produced a totally white image with no visible image detail at all )

Re: Convert a color film negative to positive digital image

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 7:04 am
by forum_adm
Please forwards some negatives for testing to support@lemkesoft.de

Please e-mail the files zipped to avoid any scale down by Mail.