Negative image to positive (color) ????

SB
Posted By
Sterling Brooks
Sep 12, 2003
Views
415
Replies
11
Status
Closed
I’ve scanned a color negative. On page 186 of the manual, it explains the INVERT feature, but states it only works for B&W negatives.

Is it not possible to invert a color negative?

I’ve looked in FAQs, the manual and it doesn’t seem this is possible with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

S.B.

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PL
Paul L UK
Sep 12, 2003
Try CTRL+I, should do the trick. Whether it is an exact reproduction, I can’t tell you.

Paul
P
Phosphor
Sep 12, 2003
Sterling,

What that page was talking about was that color negatives have an orange masking layer in them and using the invert command will not correct for the orange mask.

If you’ve scanned the negative and the scanned image has the orange cast to it, the invert command will inverse the colors but you will have a blue cast to the image.

Can you correct for the color cast? Of course, however, most modern scanners that can scan negatives have a built in color negative mode that will do the correction for you at scan time. It’s better to let the scanner do the correction as the bit depth is greater in the scanner. Check the manual for your scanner and see if it has this capability.

The one problem with the scanner approach is that not all films have the same orange mask and some scanners will produce off color results. You may need to do some tweaking of the color anyway, regardless of how well the scanner did it’s job.

Try using the auto levels adjustment. That seems to do a pretty fair job of getting you in the ballpark and you can go from there in fine tuning the adjustments. You might also try the remove color cast command.
LK
Leen Koper
Sep 12, 2003
Sorry, a little OT, but not being a native speaker, what’s the exact meaning of the expression: "getting you in the ballpark"?

I know what’s a ballpark, a long time ago in the history of baseball outside the hall of fame, I was a very promising curve ball pitcher but never fullfilled this promise. ;-(

As far as I understand, it should mean you know where to start and how to go on. I’m right?

Leen
RC
Richard Coencas
Sep 12, 2003
Leen,

That is an americanism that means to get you into the general area. Your explanation is pretty accurate. In dutch I think the closest expression might be, "in de buurt".

Rich
JK
JP Kabala
Sep 12, 2003
"in the ballpark" means "reasonably close"

See
http://www.takeourword.com/Issue054.html
(page down about half way) for the origin of the phrase.

"Leen Koper" wrote in message
Sorry, a little OT, but not being a native speaker, what’s the exact
meaning of the expression: "getting you in the ballpark"?
I know what’s a ballpark, a long time ago in the history of baseball
outside the hall of fame, I was a very promising curve ball pitcher but never fullfilled this promise. ;-(
As far as I understand, it should mean you know where to start and how to
go on. I’m right?
Leen
RL
Richard Lynch
Sep 12, 2003
"Getting in the ballpark" would mean getting close to the result you want. Color correction is not often an exacting science, unless you want to make exacting changes in your images (e.g., change RGB 221,245,234 to RGB 231, 231, 231). When you are "in the ballpark" things are starting to get better — say 90-95% plus the way you think they should. You then need to do fine-tuning, perhaps selctive changes, etc.

The orange cast should be a linear one, and while I think you really do want to use the scanner to make the most of sampling (using scanner software to determine/select white/black points before you scan … some will have an auto-select), you could possibly adjust the neg using levels (or Auto, as was suggested). Posting the image somewhere would allow us to take a better look at what you are working with.

Richard Lynch
LK
Leen Koper
Sep 12, 2003
Richard, where did you learn Dutch?
Your name "Coencas" doesnot sound very "Dutch"……

As far as I can see this translation is exactly right!
Knowing an expression like this means your ability to speak Dutch should be very good!

Leen
P
Phosphor
Sep 12, 2003
Hey, our guy Rich is very talented! 🙂
RC
Richard Coencas
Sep 12, 2003
Leen,

I don’t have a Dutch bone in my body, but my first wife was from Holland and I lived there from 1987 to 1998. So, after a long time, I got to be fairly fluent. A skill that I rarely get a chance to use back here.
Rich
P.S. I even know how to pronounce Leen corretly <G>
LK
Leen Koper
Sep 12, 2003
Richard, I do know how to pronounce your name too! 😉
Where did you live in the Netherlands?

Funny how things suddenly can turn from OT (off topic) to OT (on topic)… As you are familiar with the Dutch language and a Photoshop expert, you might be able to answer my question about the Dutch version of PE2.
Is it true I cannot apply plug ins like the Shipley curves because it is not supported by the Dutch version? Or is it my fault and lack of knowledge?
I usually think the latter. 😉
But I might be wrong.

Leen
RC
Richard Coencas
Sep 12, 2003
Hi Leen,

I lived for several years in Den Haag and then we spent a number of years in my ex’s birthplace, Vlaardingen.

As to the plug-ins. I’ve never tried any of these things on a localized version, but my best guess is that he is pointing inside of his actions to specific file locations that are different in the Dutch version. If you look in your application folder you will see that some folder names are translated. That might be what is breaking the actions he is depending on.

Maybe you could write to Mr. Shipley or Richard Lynch and see if they might be interested in creating a localized version of the add-ons.

Rich

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