Negadoctor Help - I can't beat my EpsomV600 with my DSLR set up.

[Kali]

I made a post on reddit for help and was pointed to this website.

The issue I’m having is that the colors on my epsom V600 and waaaaaay better than what I can do with my DSLR set up + negadoctor. The colors are just way too washed out.

See attached - my image is the one with the washed out colors (no yellow on the construction excavator).

Here is my reddit post also → https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkTable/comments/1fqfr31/me_negadoctor_vs_epsom_v600/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

DSCF0134.RAF (54.3 MB)

[age]

Negadoctor and RGB curves

DSCF0134.RAF.xmp (10.9 KB)

[paperdigits (Mica)]

This looks like you have a color cast problem, both look quite yellow, with the Epson Scan result being blue in the shadows too.

[123sg (Steven)]

DSCF0134.RAF.xmp (11.7 KB)

[TonyBarrett]

If you haven’t already, try searching pixls for previous threads on negadoctor. There are few already offering advice. There’s also an old video in this thread demonstrating it.

Autumn scene - Inversion of a negative scan by mirrorless camera

I found this old video from Aurelien useful as a tutorial [darktable experimental module : negadoctor, film negatives inversion] Also, this suggestion from @Claes was very useful: “In darktable, also invoke the rgb levels module. Click the auto button. That will bring up your whites” Personally, I also moved any modules where I am adjusting the edit after (above) negadoctor in the pipeline so that the sliders don’t operate in the opposite direction to a normal (positive) file

[Terry (Terry Pinfold)]

I gave it a shot in DT. What is important is to reposition modules when working with an inverted image. The default module positions are just not going to work with negadoctor.
DSCF0134.RAF.xmp (16.8 KB)

[Bordwall]

Here’s my take. I tried to do as much as possible just using negadoctor, and applying fairly significant offsets in the “corrections” tab. As Mica noted, the color cast is pretty strong, and was hard to deal with.

One technique I used was to select a neutral area (like the pavement) in the color picker, so I could see the RGB values in the histogram. I’d use the RGB offset values in the corrections tab to try to align the peaks in the histogram, which worked well.

Ultimately, I wasn’t able to correct as much of the cast as I wanted with just negadoctor, so I used a ‘color balance rgb’ instance to offset the shadow cast a bit more, and push saturation a small amount.

DSCF0134.RAF.xmp (17.3 KB) - DT 4.8.1 Thanks for sharing!

[Kali]

Thank you! I’ve been trying to replicate this just using those two modules like you said, and I some how can’t do it. I’m in awe that you kept the bike black and the sky blue.

I tried downloading your file, but it’s not at all showing up how you uploaded? It’s really blue just looking at it, but I’m trying to decipher it.

[Kali]

Amazing. I will be studying this for a while. Thank you

[Markus_b (Markus)]

For playing with the XMP’s you can rename them DSCF0134_01.RAF.xmp, DSCF0134_02.RAF.xmp, etc. Then you import again and they show up as duplicates of the original image.

[age]

Solved? Maybe because I use the old white balance method

[Donatzsky (Nis Donatzsky)]

@Kali

I tried downloading your file, but it’s not at all showing up how you uploaded? It’s really blue just looking at it, but I’m trying to decipher it.

Did you use overwrite history or append?

[kofa (István Kovács)]

When your load a sidecar, the history is always overwritten.

[Popanz (Uli)]

DSCF0134.RAF.xmp (13,9 KB)

or a tiny bit warmer:

DSCF0134.RAF.xmp (14,4 KB)

I tried to keep a little bit of the sky.

[priort (Todd Prior)]

DSCF0134.RAF.xmp (14.2 KB)

[jjbraun (Joachim Braun)]

If you still need help i have writen down allmost the whole process i get good results when scaning my negatives with a dslr.
Negadoctor neewbie asking for Help