Skip to main content
H
Haacko
Participant
September 12, 2013
Question

How to convert a colour negative to a colour positive

  • September 12, 2013
  • 1 reply
  • 17629 views

I have photographed some colour negatives in RAW.  I would appreciate an outline of a process as to how to convert these to positives using Lightroom v5.  I have tried and failed!

Hope some one can assist - Tony (New Zealand)

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Todd Shaner
    Todd Shaner
    Legend
    September 12, 2013

    Film scanner software with negative film color profiles will give the best results, but you can get good results using just LR. Do a Google search using the two keywords Lightroom and negative.

    A
    Anonymous
    September 13, 2013

    Seriously? Why bother writing a reply and not just telling him how to do it? This is another form of “It depends.”

    Here's how to do it:

    • Go to the Tone Curve and make sure that the curve is flat (linear).

    • Drag the bottom left point of the curve to the top left. (Hold down the Shift key to make dragging easier.)

    • Drag the top right point of the curve to the bottom right.

    Done.

    Side effect: After doing this, adjustments such as Exposure will have the opposite effect of what you expect.

      MadManChan2000
      Adobe Employee
      MadManChan2000
      Adobe Employee
      September 13, 2013

      A workaround to the "side effect" is that you can round-trip the file.  That is, apply the "inverse" tone curve described above and then export the file as a TIFF.  Then, re-import that TIFF and do further work on that TIFF.  Basically the first step does the conversion from negative to positive.  Then after that you have a positive to work with, and the Develop controls behave normally.

        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices