Evaluating the Negative Lab Pro plugin

Kodak Ektar 100 | Mamiya RZ67 | negative processed at home and photographed with my Sony A7R-iii

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This is a quick summary of my observations using Negative Film Lab to perform the surprisingly non-trivial conversion from color negative to finished image.

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1. TLDR; I was impressed enough after playing with Negative Lab Pro this morning I purchased a license. That says it all.

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2. The film was processed by me back in May 2018. I had not yet thrown those twirling stick agitators into the recycle bin yet, so the film is unevenly developed. There was more activity at the edges of the strip than the middle because the edges got exposure to fresher chemistry. TLDR? Inversion is the only way to agitate. YMMV. This is what works for me. Inversion agitation totally stopped the uneven development problem.

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3. Compared to my prior workflow using Silverfast, this plugin is a breeze. I can stay in one program all the way from camera raw file to print ready image file. I’ll compare workflows in the comment area so you can decide for yourself.

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4. Digitizing the image consists of carefully doing a macro photo of the negative on a light table. Any modern DSLR or mirrorless camera will work, but if you plan to print big, the 40+ megapixel cameras are ideal. A quality macro lens is also vital, as is a means of securely mounting everything. I use heavy duty woodworking clamps from Lowes to mount a Kirk ballhead to a sturdy workbench; thinking hardware store rather than camera store saves you a lot of cash! A scanning mask is strongly advised as stray light can enter the edges of the film. Reflections can also be an issue, as can lens flare. A mask helps with all of these. Stray light will wreck your results.

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5. Follow the instructions that come with the Negative Lab plugin. If you do it right, the end result will be an image which requires only minor corrections and spotting in Photoshop/Lightroom to finish it off.

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I’ll let the image speak for itself. Because of the ridiculous amount of compression Instagram uses, I will be posting these images to my Flickr account as well. The link is in my bio. More info in the comments area.

 

I want it to be known that I am not trying to sell anybody anything. One of the biggest problems for a film shooter in 2019 is how to actually do something useful with the film once you’ve shot it and developed it. Quality scanners are expensive and slow. Hiring a company to handle the job is also expensive and slow, plus it takes the photographer out of the loop as far as the overall look of the resultant images. Color negative scanning offers a massive amount of latitude for one’s artistic vision, you don’t really want to leave that in the hands of someone else.

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After studying every affordable option for scanning medium format film, I concluded that scanning with a high megapixel digital camera was the best option. Once everything is set up, it’s undeniably fast, much faster than high-quality medium format scanners. As for results, if you carefully scan a 6 x 9 negative (or positive for that matter), you end up with a 42 megapixel image in the case of the Sony A7R-iii that I use. That’s more than enough information to create high-quality 24” x 36“ prints.

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Honestly, the resolution isn’t the problem. The problem has always been converting a color negative into a color positive.

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Last winter when I began seriously looking into this problem, I tried everything that was on the market at that time. I quickly settled on Silverfast as the best of a not so perfect lot. It wasn’t perfect because the software is expensive, the user interface is downright hostile, and the whole thing feels like a Windows 98 era program ready to crash and burn at any given moment.

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Even with the issues it has, Silverfast undeniably does produce quality output. At a license cost of $250 for a basic version and $400 for one that actually doesn’t go out of its way to slow you down at every opportunity, it had damned well better at least deliver good output. So why am I so excited about this new Lightroom plugin? Take a look at the workflow for the two solutions:

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Silverfast HDR 8.8

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1. Copy raw files from memory card into temp directory on computer

2. Install the Adobe DNG converter

3. Install MakeTiff from color perfect

4. Convert your camera raw files into linear tiff files

5. Import linear tiff files into Silverfast

6. Perform the necessary adjustments to each photograph inside of Silverfast to get optimal output

7. Kick off Silverfast batch job to create positive tiff files

8. Import tiff files into Lightroom (jumping into Photoshop as needed for heavy lifting) for cataloging, dust spotting, cropping, and creation of final output files

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Negative Lab Pro

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1. Import raw files from memory card into Lightroom

2. Crop images and perform a white balance with the eyedropper on orange mask as instructed in the Negative Lab Pro video

3. Start the plug-in and again follow the directions in the instructional video

4. Perform final edits such as dust spotting, color tweaking, cropping and so on. Edit in Photoshop for heavy lifting tasks like content aware fill. Export final output files from Lightroom as needed.

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It’s up to you, both methods work just fine. I am keeping Silverfast around because there are a few tasks it excels at, such as getting optimum results from seriously expired film. That said, with excellent image quality plus the speed and simplicity advantages, the Negative Lab Pro plug-in will be taking over my medium format camera scanned work.

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I hope this information helps you enjoy the art of analog photography as much as I do.

Done