You achieve nice results, but here's the dilemma: you say "retain true film colors" as if this is objective and inherent to the film (which does have particular color properties), but also "this is all personal preference, so just go with your eye and what you think looks good" when adjusting the color balance. My point is that each film will capture each scene a bit differently, but this always has to be corrected, so the end results when editing color negative will always be subjective, based on what you think looks good. It's both the enigma and fun of working with color negative film!
Same. I am studying how to digitize photographic heritage objectively and scientifically and this is a completely subjective approach. What we do, for example, is exchange in Capture One the beginning of the black dot for the beginning of the white dot, making an X with the sliders, in order to develop the negative. Then we adjust the black point (pure black) and the white point (pure white) just like he does in the tutorial. Finally, a white balance. That's all.
@Pete Melon there is really no such thing as “the colors of Portra” or any color negative film. Whether you’re scanning or printing in the darkroom, the end result is completely subjective and depends on the person doing it. If you want objective film colors, you have to shoot slides.
@Pete Melon of course there are slight spectral sensitivity differences between negative films, but unlike a slide a negative is not an image. The image only exists after it’s been processed in scanning or darkroom printing, and there’s no way to do that objectively. This is one reason commercial photographers for magazines and advertising back in the film days all shot positive film, without exception.
@Pete Melon “properly correct for that...” Ah, there’s the whole problem. What is a “proper” correction? You act like you can simply set the sliders in Photoshop a certain way and every negative scan will pop out the other end with “true film colors”. That’s simply not the case. It seems obvious that you didn’t grow up during the film era. We had something called a One Hour Photo Lab that used an automated process like what you’re suggesting to give you a pack of prints in an hour. I can tell you first hand that the results from such a process went from passable to complete garbage, all in the same roll of film. Normies didn’t care, they weren’t photographers and had no concern for color correction.
Works the same with a levels adjustment too. I was going to buy NLP, but at $99 that's just ridiculous. I'm already paying for photoshop and lightroom, so I don't need more expenses. I'm pleased with the results I get from using a levels adj on the red, green, and blue.
I have a kinda similar method but with capture one, and I think it delivers a better start point than this photoshop method. In C1, it's about adjusting the "back" and "white" extreme points also, but using the levels tool for green, red and blue. After that you will get more natural film colors. Finally it's just adjust a little the middle point of each RGB levels in case you want to remove any other cast. So in C1 my workflow is 1) apply lens correction and choose the film curve you prefer (linear, natural, extra shadow), 2) modify exposure level (but only exposure), 3) adjust the RGB level max and minimum 4) adjust WB (preferably depending of film: day for ultramax, tungsten for Cinestill, etc. And finally 5) creative and custom adjustments from there...
hi Martino, i wonder how you ivert the picture on C1 i see could be just in the mode of C1 witch its for a Museum method, i have C1.23 and didnt find it :( thabnks a lot
@@luiscalderon5526I have C1 and I think a similar method would be creating 3 full layers and using the levels window in each of them with each of the colors: Red - Green - Blue. To invert the negative from the curves window, we invert the curve taking the lower point of the blacks upwards and the upper point of the whites downwards. Correct me if I am wrong. Greetings.
Many thanks! iYes you rigth i try it allready! and the newest version of Capture one haves an option ( in base characteristics) ere you can make it positive and negative. @@franciscojoseramirez7434
I'm scanning using canon software and get automatically inverted color negs. But if I like a photo I usually use this way to process it in a more personal, more detailed, and way controllable form.
As you’ve demonstrated very well, there is no such thing as the “true film colors” with color negative film. The end result is always completely subjective, just as it was in the darkroom days.
@@dyani4755 it’s a common misconception. If you want a certain color palette “baked in”, shoot slide film. Although once that’s scanned, all bets are off again. Have fun.
thank you for your comment! i thought there was a “correct palette” to color film too. i’ve been shooting and scanning expired color film so i guess that’s even more subjective!
No batch processing... I've got zillions of color negs, I'll need a couple of extra lives to do the job...! or be very, very selective, thanks mate...!
The preset negative profiles in Silverfast are pretty good, or at least get you 95% of the way there. The method in this video is good for special cases where the presets don’t work good.
Great tips! I was reshooting large size films that wouldn't fit my 135 film scanner, ending up using my phone and a light box; colors came out weird until I came across this tutorial. : )))
Thanks for creating this guide Ant, it's really well explained and easy to follow! I've just gotten my first roll of film back so it's been nice to play around with the editing as you have shown instead of running it through a plugin.
This is the most accurate method I've tried so far. I've also added another curve adjustment layer on top to get the white balance right with the 50% grey pointer.
I have data lost from my red channel before i move any of the points on curve, what is the solution to this? I tried rescanning on my epson v370 but its the sae every time. Is this just how the photo was taken, was it something that happened during devoping or is there a way to fix it in ps? Thanks
@@migranthawker2952 you're double dumbass 😂 films can be digitalized since ever, but you are probably a baby kiddo who wasn't even born when film photography was in its golden era 🤷♂️
@Migrant Hawker I and many others like me, who have tons of negative film shot when digital photography did not exist, may want to digitize those negative films. With that being said, this method is far from ideal for people like me with a bulk of photographs to process. Therefore, as I mentioned in the comment directed to the owner of this channel, Negative Lab Pro remains the best solution, even at the cost of $99.
@@nicola.cammisa point the camera at the illuminated negative and set the white balance to this background. It largely fixes the colour cast etc and couldn't be simpler.
