Skip to main content
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

stevel24076854
Participating Frequently
Apr 24, 2020 9:56 PM UTC
You know what Linwood?  I don't really care if I need to click 10 times as long as it works.  I can understand that red eye does not work, and facial stuff does not work, but if the invert works then it works.  Nobody likes to click so many times, but I am a software engineer, used to clicking many times for everything I achieve and I do not complain about a few clicks as long as it works.  We code, and when we do it takes somewhat 3 to 7 characters to make one thing work.  So I don't complain about how many times I need to hit my keys.  We hit our keys so much, we use gaming keys which are heavy duty and we type 110.  Extra hits don't mean anything to me.  
Translate
Known Participant
Apr 24, 2020 9:37 PM UTC
Steve, what people are asking for is for Lightroom to invert the tone curve early enough in the develop process that the sliders work correctly afterwards.  I think we all realize we can drop out of ACR/LR and invert and save as a TIFF -- but it's SO nice to have a non-destructive workflow with efficiently sized files.  

The mechanics are mostly there -- you can do this with manual inversion, but because it is late in the process the sliders are then all strange, and features like facial recognition, red-eye fix simply do not work.
Translate
stevel24076854
Participating Frequently
Apr 24, 2020 9:32 PM UTC
Eric, Romualdas, Anthony, 

I gave you this solution, above:  Get Photoshop Elements (PSE) which works with Light Room. 

In Elements, go to Filters > Adjustments > invert.  That will invert your negatives to positives.  And, yes, Adobe is reading and learning from you.  

Steve Lehman, mcse   


Translate
Participating Frequently
Apr 24, 2020 5:31 PM UTC
There is obviously a need for this function.  A third party has developed a plug-in - Negative Lab Pro - to convert negatives to positives. https://www.negativelabpro.com/  
Translate
Inspiring
Jan 1, 2020 10:36 PM UTC
Please, please support working with negatives! All the workarounds for working with negatives (inverted curves, LUT profiles, plugins like NegativeLabPro) break some essential functions of Lightroom Classic, for example, face detection doesn't work on such images.
 

Translate
Antoine HLMN
Inspiring
Aug 15, 2019 7:14 AM UTC
They do not take photographers feedback very seriously, you know 😕😕
Translate
stevel24076854
Participating Frequently
Aug 15, 2019 6:11 AM UTC
To get a Negative to a Positive in PSE, click Filters>   Adjustment>   Invert.  
Translate
Legend
Aug 15, 2019 12:42 AM UTC
So very disappointed that another update (Lr Classic 8.4) comes along with no sign of any implementation of a negative/invert setting that will allow users to process DSLR scanned negatives with ALL controls functioning normally.

Translate
Inspiring
Aug 14, 2019 2:48 PM UTC


Options de développement de négatifs
Translate
Todd Shaner
Legend
Jun 21, 2019 2:35 PM UTC
Anthony, anyone at Adobe trying to read (top-down) through the numerous conflicting and redundant comments in the replies here will more than likely ignore the request. It's unfortunate and I plead guilty to getting into the fray myself!

Towards correcting this I have just sent an email directly to Adobe staff providing specific details why an LR/ACR raw data invert function is needed and the benefits. Hopefully it will make it up the Adobe totem pole and we will at least get a reply here. Stay tuned!
Translate