Manual Inversion of Color Negative Film

[@Nairaq-e7i]

I still come back to this years later! Thank you!!

[@elr8691]

This is a great tutorial that is clear and concise while also explaining the reasoning behind the choices well, much better than other ones that are like "Well it worked for me" or "Just buy Negative Lab Pro!"

[@AlexBurke]

Glad you enjoyed the video! Tried to keep it simple yet intuitive. It's a lot of fun cracking the secrets of negative film.

[@sebastiandisend3818]

Excellent tutorial. I'm so grateful KZbin still pushes this video 4 years later. In just one go I was able to correct my photo for free (albeit with Photo Shop owned). Extremely useful information with no annoying sponsorships, amazingly straightforward, and easy to follow in a much more modern version of the software.

[@briankelly2456]

I have just begun to digitize my negatives and ran into the blue/cyan colorcast in them. It was helpful to hear you say that is a common problem and not something going wrong in my conversion. Thanks for this very helpful video.

[@rodrigoquirante]

Hands down one of the best tutorials for scanning film at home! Love from Spain. 🤍

[@AlexBurke]

I'm glad to hear that! Have fun inverting negatives 👍

[@felix6142]

the best tutorial on youtube hands down

[@vmisev]

Great tutorial, thanks! I was using a very similar technique some 25 years ago while working on a project which had a zillion negs for a scan (usually, 6x6 positives were the most common job for our drum). It was an enormous time saver to scan them as RGB negs on Screen 1045AI and convert them in PhotoShop, then to scan them as CMYK positives.

[@efimsoldatov4113]

Thank you toooo much. I’ve just jumped from dslr to slr to dive into the magic of film colours...but twisted with how to add the negatives. You helped me a lot. Thank you again...for the excellent job and for sharing experience.

[@AlexBurke]

Awesome! Glad to hear this method works well for you. Always great to get all the colors out of negatives.

[@frankdiluzio8690]

Best results compared to any other method I've tried so far.

[@AlexBurke]

Glad to hear it!

[@mariomelillo3770]

Wow. Thank you for sharing this! This method is a game-changer for sure. Night and day from using a negative scanning workflow.

[@AlexBurke]

Glad you found the method useful!

[@Flying4Film]

Great video. For the most part, this is how I edit my images from my color negative film, but I've never tried that first step. I'm looking forward to giving it a shot.

[@AlexBurke]

Yeah it's a fun little tip, hope you enjoy putting it to use. Thanks for watching!

[@MrJimGarf]

Spot on. Have tried a few different techniques and this produces the best results. Alex, thank you

[@velocelens]

wow! i think this is the best tutorial i've seen yet. fantastic guide

[@AlexBurke]

Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching 👍

[@ohjajohh]

I'm about to scan some negatives and will use this video as a guide!

[@AlexBurke]

Awesome! Hope it works well for you.

[@hzubovi1]

Stumbled upon Your blog. Beautiful color work on your images. Thanks for sharing this tutorial

[@felx4222]

Very good Tutorial! Getting my Scanner today and cant wait experimenting.

[@AlexBurke]

Glad you enjoyed it! Hope it helps with some negative scanning!

[@BradleyC16]

Thank you. I thought I had to buy a program and this made it pretty simple to get a result.

[@AlexBurke]

Glad to help! Saves some money on software and provides some hands on experience.

[@larryg7126]

Thanks, I worked with a Linhof Technica from 1974 till the mid 90's. I also have alot of 35mm film from before then. This will come in handy as I've always put off converting this work & am now retired with time to spend.

[@AlexBurke]

Happy to help, enjoy your scanning!

[@HansBaier]

I really have been looking for this information! Thanks!

[@christianholmstedt8770]

Same here.

[@AlexBurke]

Glad the video helped!

[@riyazg4654]

Great thing I learned is about film border color subtracting layer for white balance.

[@AlexBurke]

Glad that tip helped! It's pretty handy and makes a good starting point.

[@ronallen2458]

Wow. I just learned so much in five minutes!

[@AlexBurke]

Glad you enjoyed the video! Tried to keep it short and sweet.

[@dylanbaker456]

This is so great! Thank you so much! Really well done! Would love to see a slide film tutorial!

[@AlexBurke]

Thanks for watching! Slides are pretty awesome because you have the actual film as a reference.

[@XxmattitudexX]

thanks man i used what you showed and adapted it over to davinchi resolve

[@johnscellphones]

Very helpful video. I haven't seen that trick to remove the emulsion colour before, I will try that!

[@jackyleecs]

Impressive. Thank you very much!

[@my2004rt]

Great tutorial!

[@AlexBurke]

Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching.

[@quinnimages4812]

Thank you sir, this is very timely. I will be trying this out shortly.

[@AlexBurke]

Welcome! It'll definitely work very well for any negatives that you've had drum scanned as well.

[@KeviKawaii]

This is amazing, thank you for the video!!

[@ilfaraone91]

Oh my god this video is so useful,i think i can make it work even in a program that is not Ps

[@AlexBurke]

Glad to hear it! Yeah I think a lot of photo software has similar adjustment layers so it should work

[@jaytayag810]

I have got to try this out soon! Thanks so much for this video!

[@AlexBurke]

You're welcome! Hope it helps!

[@karl1137]

Thanks for the tutorial. Works with Gimp as well!

[@dimbaida]

Super helpful! Thank you so much!

[@walterbulyga2588]

For anyone who wants to save time . Take your scan then Ctrl+I, then Autocolour - Voila!

[@aerovision257]

great! waiting for more tech video on field using and processing large format camera and film.

[@juliombarrosjr]

Great tutorial. I will be looking forward to using these tips when I finish my first roll of Ektar 100. If you have any tips on how to edit scans from color slides, especially the new Ektachrome E100 that would be super helpful. I’m struggling on a good workflow that I’m happy with.

[@AnthonyHVids]

This is a great tutorial but I’d like to be able to do the same thing in Lightroom. Do you know if there’s a keyboard shortcut to check clipping with the individual channels in Lightroom?

[@Being_Joe]

Alex this looks great. I have given up on doing my own color scanning a while back but recently decided to pull out my old Epson 4490 and have been playing with a few different methods. I tried this method on a RAW scan and the color looks great except that I am getting some serious banding. Is there something I should watch out for or do you think this may be because of the scanner? I'll have to try out a few different methods.

[@billj5645]

When you said color negative film is too blue- well the film base is orange and orange is the inverse of blue. Is this a question of not compensating enough for the film base? Or is this just a coincidence? Also I've always wondered why when you photograph a negative you have a histogram that covers the entire tonal range but when you invert it you have a new histogram that only covers about half of the tonal range. Is this the way it will always work or is this a quirk of the software?

[@babarrao5474]

It's really great ..

[@hajmanek]

I love your way

[@craigfouche]

Thank you Alex!

[@Ohyehah]

Great video, I really love the methodical nature of your approach! One question though: Why do you subtract the film border before raising the levels of each separate color channel? Won't the act of treating them differently after the white balance undermine some of the objectivity of the balance?

[@AlexBurke]

Thanks for watching! That's a good question. Mostly it's because the subtraction of the film base works mostly to help with the shadow point and shadow color cast, while also giving a better starting point for the image as a whole. It also significantly darkens the entire image so it's necessary to bring the white points over individually afterwards, and doing the color channels separately gives us better control over the general color of the image.

[@AutumnsGrief]

Kind of a follow-up question to this one, do you always use the same base color to be subtracted or does it vary per film stock or even from a photo to the other from the same roll based on how it was shot?

[@notalizardperson]

If there is one thing I have learned recently it's that I have no idea how to actually use photoshop for handling actual photos.

[@jmcguckin]

What if tou took a pickture of a Macbeth chart? Whould that make it easier?

[@EddoPanamenyo]

Thank you so much for making this video. Is the final version showed here the same you posted on Instagram?

[@AlexBurke]

You're welcome!

[@AlexBurke]

The one I posted on Instagram is a drum scan, which had a little bit more rich colors once inverted. The idea is the same though.

[@EddoPanamenyo]

@@AlexBurke ohhh damn, the difference is very noticeable. Anyway your photos are amazing, thank you for your response.

[@AlexBurke]

@@EddoPanamenyo thanks! Yeah this video was to get you the 90% there file. From there luminosity masks and minor tweaks could get you to nearly match the drum scan. Maybe I'll make more videos like this in the future

[@GrainyByNature]

Thanks Alex!

[@DAPSGDP]

Diamond!

[@leniehulse1621]

Where does the blue color come from at 1:32? When I try this the color is purple.

[@adamstreetboyzz]

You should record clicks in photoshop so it automatically does this for you

[@mayclark3659]

funny thing.. "substract" is not an option on my Pshop.....

[@josednn]

awesome

[@perplex1454]

Merci beaucoup !

[@simonecastrovillari7112]

super video Alex!!! what about B&W film? is there some good way to do this by photoshop? thank you

[@AlexBurke]

Thanks! B&W is much easier since you're not worrying about color. All you need is to invert the image and then add contrast to taste with a single curves layer. If the film has a bit of a color to it (which it often does) then desaturate it with a hue/sat layer.

[@christophscholz7484]

1:50 does it make sense to make the same thing also for the shadows? 🤔 thanks!!

[@AlexBurke]

You certainly could. I generally find that by deleting the film base the shadows have a pretty good color set, so I just mess with the general contrast curve instead. Either method is acceptable.

[@kiddeq]

Alex, when “scanning” 4x5 with digital camera, do you take a single shot or take multiple shots and stitch them together?

[@alexrobertson4026]

Have you imported the images in as TIFF or as Raw/DNG?

[@bendehibakherris1182]

Merci beaucoup pour cette vidéo.

[@jimmyjamesluciano]

dude awesome

[@MrJcasilva]

Show de bola! excelente!

[@petergeerts8895]

Hi perhaps I missed it but do you list somewhere what software you are using for this. ?

[@AlexBurke]

This is an old version of photoshop, cs5. The gray background throws some people off, but you can do all this in the newer versions. Similar adjustments should be possible in other software too as curves are quite common.

[@ForestKid31]

Somehow my negatives just turn into a 80s horrormovie-type of red and black when I set the layer to subtract... Do you know what could be wrong?

[@AlexBurke]

It's possible that you have the layers in the incorrect order, it needs to be above the inversion if that makes sense.

[@ForestKid31]

@@AlexBurke Yes everythings in the right order, but I tried it completely without that layer and made a correction of the shadows and highlights in every colorlayer and it seems to work alright. Im just confused why the orange-mask-removal wont work properly with the subtraction...

[@alexanderlackmann7961]

Hey Alex, what can I do if I do not have the borders? I am scanning with a flex tight 4x5 and there are no borders.

[@AlexBurke]

You will have to manually set the black point by going into each channel in a curves layer the same way I did with highlights. Moving forward, you may want to consider modifying one of your holders so that a small bit of border appears to use as reference. For example, a notch could be cut into the holder to expose some border.

[@alexanderlackmann7961]

@@AlexBurke thank you for answering:) I can not modify the holders. the scanner is property of my university (Folkwang university of arts). Each holder costs more than 200€ :/

[@talhabhatti6628]

which software are u using in this video

[@AlexBurke]

This is photoshop CS5, an old version. It's essentially the same as the newest Photoshop.

[@talhabhatti6628]

@@AlexBurke thanks mate

[@andreas_resch]

Hey, Alex. Just tried your technique but I don't really know what to make of the picking of the blue color. In your shot here you are basically picking the blue somewhere in the white parts of the clouds. But what if there are no clouds in your shot? Which part of the negative should be sampled?

[@jamessab5528]

I think the eye dropper was confusing - he seemed to pick from the "blank" space of the negative, where it wasn't exposed. To get the actual colour of the film itself - and then he cancels it out with the subtract blending mode :)

[@eltinjones4542]

Too many steps. I got lost a third of the way in and gave up

[@VicerFx]

Try again until you understand or buy negative lab pro

[@Make_Boxing_Great_Again]

You you could just shoot it straight on positive film, just saying

[@fangxusun1723]

just use nlp, quick and simple

[@MishaG9]

What is "nlp"? pardon my ignorance, thanks in advance

[@fangxusun1723]

@@MishaG9 negative lab pro

[@MishaG9]

@@fangxusun1723 Thank you

[@MishaG9]

Just found out that in Photoshop CC 2018, in Adjustments, Curves in Preset you choose Color Negative and voilà you get a positive. Guess other versions of PS have this too. Problem solved!