Skip to main content
jeffk5545
Participant
Jan 27, 2012 4:42 AM UTC
Open for Voting

P: Ability to invert negative scans to positives (color and black-and-white)

I would dearly like to see the Lightroom 4 Beta team implement an additional feature in the final release. That feature would be the ability to take a camera+macro lens image of a B&W negative -- essentially a camera-based scan of a negative -- and invert the negative image to a positive image at the beginning of the development process in such a way that the resulting sliders in the LR4 Develop Module would not operate in reverse. As I understand it, this capability exists in Photoshop, but I don't own Photoshop. I do own Photoshop Elements 9, but that program only supports an 8-bit workflow, not 16-bits per channel, and round-tripping between LR & PSE9 requires the reimportation of a TIFF file that is more than twice the size of my NEF RAW files. Since this programming wizardry already exists in Photoshop, I would think that it would be a relatively simple matter to transfer and adapt that code for LR4 -- but then, I'm not a programmer, so what do I know...

I've been digitizing 40-year-old Kodachrome slides from my Peace Corps days in Africa, using a 55mm Micro-Nikkor (macro) lens, coupled to a Nikon ES-1 Slide Copy Attachment, and even on a D300s body, I can get truly excellent results. I can't wait to continue that work using the pending 36 megapixel Nikon D800 body with an upgraded f/2.8 macro lens (mine is the old 55mm f/3.5 design). I really, REALLY want to be able to camera-scan my many B&W negatives without having to generate huge intermediate TIFF files.

You can respond to this request by emailing me, Jeff Kennedy Thanks, in advance, for taking the time to review and consider my request. I LOVE Lightroom 3, and from what I've seen, I'm going to love LR4 even more. I REALLY appreciate the effort that Adobe takes to solicit input from the photographic user community.

BTW, if the feature I request *can't* be implemented right away, could the LR support team provide detailed, interim instructions as to how to use the "backwards" sliders, and in what sequence? That would be very much appreciated. I'm sure many older LR users have considerable analog image collections that they would like to digitize, and doing so in-camera is both 1) of surprisingly high quality, 2) MUCH faster than using flatbed scanners and 3) of much higher quality and resolution than flatbed scan and MUCH cheaper than professional drum scans.

    180 replies

    Show previous replies
    kbarre
    kbarre
    Inspiring
    Aug 25, 2017 2:39 PM UTC


    The only current solution for editing negatives is to invert the curves, export the images, and then re-import into Lightroom. But this isn't possible with RAW files. It would be awesome to be able to select an "Invert" button, and then have all other functions of Lightroom work exactly the same, so that high quality capture of negatives using a macro lens would be possible.
    Translate
    henriko72124252
    henriko72124252
    Inspiring
    Jul 7, 2017 2:24 PM UTC
    I too would love an invert feature when using my DSLR for scanning film negatives into raw files for later edits all within LR. As pointed out many places, inverting the tone curve is not that useful, as many other treatment controls are then inverted, and making contrast adjustments in tone curve is also still inverted.

    The solution to export and reimport tiffs with an invert curve preset is noted though as a workaround. But I like to have only my raw files if possible, nothing else - hence the wish for an invert switch in the develop module. Thanks.

    If anyone else could use this feature, remember to vote at the top of this page.
    Translate
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    Jun 29, 2017 8:59 PM UTC


    Can you please add a simple "Invert Colours" function to the develop module? I take a lot of Solargraph images which I then scan as a paper negative and its frustrating to load them into Photoshop only to invert colours - since LR develop module has much more intuitive funcionality for the remainder of my processing
    Translate
    ohnoezitasploded1
    Participating Frequently
    Dec 11, 2016 4:19 AM UTC
    Yup. This seems like a simple fix that would be hugely helpful for my workflow
    Translate
    Keith Reeder
    Keith Reeder
    Participating Frequently
    Feb 7, 2016 7:18 PM UTC
    "We" DON'T want an invert. Maybe YOU do...
    Translate
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    Feb 7, 2016 5:11 PM UTC
    we want an Invert! not have to do this "workaround"
    Translate
    jimvk222
    Participant
    Nov 5, 2015 10:17 PM UTC
    it would/will be great. the work rounds are arduous. thanks
    Translate
    mfraser3
    Participant
    Nov 5, 2015 7:55 PM UTC


    Two simple requests for Lightroom:

    1. An 'Invert' command. Many of us use Lightroom to manage our film scans, and currently have to go through Photoshop to invert (CMD-I) to process our negatives. Staying within LR for this would be hugely helpful (reversing the RGB curves works, but results in all of the sliders working backward).

    2. A per-channel 'Auto' button for RGB curves. One of the key parts of converting colour negative film scans to positive is to correct for the orange film mask, and this involves maximizing per-channel contrast (and snapping the neutral mid tones). This currently requires a roundtrip into Photoshop.

    Adding these two features would make Lightroom THE preeminent tool for processing film scans (other RAW processors do offer per channel contrast maximization, but not invert). Photoshop would still be used for other important tasks, but the primary workflow could be entirely within Lightroom.
    Translate
    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    Nov 1, 2015 3:45 PM UTC
    Thomas Geist wrote, "Gunter, just invert the curve and you're done."

    There are two serious issues with this:

    1. After inverting the tone curve, the other sliders work backwards, which is confusing if you also work with positives.

    2. Due to the non-linear nature of the Develop module's image-adaptive controls, inverting the tone curve gives much different results than doing the inversion in Photoshop. See this thread for more details: https://forums.adobe.com/message/8067...
    Translate
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    Oct 29, 2015 7:23 PM UTC
    Gunter, just invert the curve and you're done. You can even save an inverted curve as a Preset.
    Translate
    Show more replies
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices