Skip to main content
Inspiring
Nov 1, 2026 12:45 AM UTC
Open for Voting

PS needs the ability to properly convert a scanned color negative into a positive image taking into account the orange mask. Right now you can invert the scan but it has horrendous colour casts.

What is everyones favourite way of dealing with color negatives in Photoshop? 

    6 replies

    Per Berntsen
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Nov 1, 2026 12:35 PM UTC

    The Color Negative curves preset can produce good results, but doesn’t work well with this image.
    I use Negative Lab Pro (a plugin for Lightroom Classic) for all my color negative conversions, and it did a decent conversion of the image.

    They have a free trial that lets you do 24 conversions, with no time limit.
    There is also a standalone version coming soon.
     

     

    Translate
    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Nov 1, 2026 8:46 AM UTC

    ​@gunzelguy 

    Film stock varied. If you want an “Auto” setting, there is that too. 

    As one who did this quite a bit back in the day, I have to say that processing/inverting color negative film was a nightmare. There would always be these weird curves with endpoints all over the map, and “runaway colors” that went wherever they wanted. I could spend a week on a single negative, before I got it to where I wanted it.

    Transparencies were a walk in the park by comparison, even with the severe limitations in the dynamic range.

    I did discover that photographing them gave much better results than scanning, because the tone curves were easier to control with the higher dynamic range of a raw file. Plus, they ended up sharper with less artifacts.

    Translate
    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Nov 1, 2026 9:07 AM UTC

    Dag, I scanned all of my dad’s transparencies with a dedicated 35mm scanner with a SCSI interface.  It was a nightmare.  I recently did them again using a JJC Digitising adaptor using a Canon 5DS with 50MP sensor, and 100mm F2.8L macro.  The experience was night and day better both from getting the pictures to cleaning them up.  

    Translate
    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Nov 1, 2026 9:48 AM UTC

    Yeah. A macro lens made it a lot easier, but it was still a mess. At least we knew what we were getting, there was no AI adding little lizards and leprechauns without our noticing ;-) :-D

    Translate
    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Nov 1, 2026 5:53 AM UTC

    Do you know there is a Color Neg preset in Curves? It might not be perfect, but it will get you very close and fix the orange color issue. I’d probably combine the color neg and Curves layer as a Smart Object, and use Camera RAW to fine tune.  Give it a try.  It really works.

     

    Translate
    gunzelguyAuthor
    Inspiring
    Nov 1, 2026 7:26 AM UTC

    I’ve never had any luck with that, attached are a raw scan and the result after applying the color neg command in curves. The shadows are unrecoverable, maybe I’m doing something wrong?

     

    Translate