Excellent points. Yes, Digitaliza+ uses a mask that can block out the rebate part of the film. Fortunately, I can remove the mask and scan the entire frame, including the sprockets. Does the Film Negative tool allow for clicking/sampling that area? If so, I’m not seeing it.
Correct. It’s actually Kodak ProImage 100. RawTherapee does not have a profile for common color stocks, of course, so the best one can do is know the characteristics of a given film and go from there.
I agree with you that it’s much easier to get a good result using “Auto-matched camera profile”, and in fact i have a question: why the custom DCP profile you were trying to use is called “Fujifilm X-Pro3 …”, when the image has been taken with a Fuji X-T20 ? Isn’t that a profile for a different camera?
Also, since the DCP file name ends with “Provia”, i suspect it’s doing some hue mapping to convey a specific “look” to the pictures, which could throw off the inversion process.
So, here’s my procedure:
open the raw file in RT
in Color Management, select “Auto-matched camera profile” and check all three flags: Tone Curve, Base table, Look table
turn on Film Negative module
click the “Pick neutral spots” button, and pick:
the over-exposed reflection on the back of the headlamp (see below): this is a lucky spot, as it’s the most dense spot in the entire neg
the shadow area under said headlamp (see below). The shadow area on the steering wheel could also do.
click the “Pick white balance spot” button, and pick the whitest spot in the cloud (see below)
adjust the “Output level” slider to brighten the picture
adjust the “Reference exponent” slider to boost the contrast
use “Tone curve 1” just to stretch the histogram (just quickly set the min and max input values, no actual “curve”)
finally, in L*a*b* Adjustments, raise the Chromaticity slider to boost the colors just a bit.
I assume these are John Deere tractors; here’s a random picture i googled for comparison:
… the color seems pretty similar
Regarding your question:
You can do that with the usual “Pick neutral spots” button, choosing a spot of unexposed negative as one of the two spots (the other one should be a dense spot, which was white or light grey in the original scene)
Yes. While it works great for regular RAW images, it doesn’t do so well on RAW film scans. You might see that I’ve corrected my procedure in the next comment.
Yes, and there’s also an assumption that the green in your found photo is accurate. It looks pretty close to me. I’ve also since made a few adjustments that I didn’t post here. Specifically, I cooled town the overall WB significantly. Thanks for the rest of your commentary, I’m pretty happy with the workflow that I’ve acquired in this process.
Hello, I have also achieved good results following your method, but there are a few parameter settings that I don’t quite understand and would like to ask you about:
In the white balance module: I read in another article about the film negative module that I should use the selection of the light source (where the film doesn’t cover) as the neutral point. Is that correct?
Regarding the strategy for selecting neutral points in the film negative module: one should choose a point with the highest density (such as overexposed areas or spots in the image). What about the other point? I see in the images, it’s selected from black objects in the shadows (now totally underexposed black , right?).
Yes, it is correct. Please keep in mind that the white area where you pick your WB spot should not be near clipping. So, it could be a good idea to take a separate shot of the backlight only (without the negative), with a lower exposure.
You can then use the same WB values for all negatives “scanned” with the same backlight and digital camera.
Ideally, you would not pick a spot with the highest density, but rather a spot that was white in the original scene. And another spot that was black.
Or, more generally, two spots that were two different levels of gray, as neutral as possible.
It can be difficult sometimes, because you may not have two neutral spots in the same picture. But if you have another picture in the same roll that has them, you can convert that one first, and then copy/paste the processing profile to the others.
Thank you for your explanation. I want to ask if there is a recommended approach for adjusting contrast?
Currently, I have noticed that the built-in bundled profiles “film negative” uses an “S” curve in the exposure module’s tone curve (I have been emulating this method).
However, in your recent example, you utilized tone curve in color management camera profile( maintaining a linear tone curve in the exposure module), along with the reference exponent in the film negative module. So, I am wondering, do you currently recommend the latter method more?
The “Tone curve” flag in the Color Management module is specific to each input profile, as are the Base Table and Look Table flags. I would suggest to try and find what settings give the best results for your input profile. The goal is to get the most faithful representation of the negative as the starting point for the conversion.
Then, after applying the conversion, you can play with the tone curves in the Exposure module to adjust contrast to taste, as you would do with a nomal digital image.
I don’t have a “scientific” method for adusting contrast: since the tone curves are such a wonderful tool, giving an immediate feedback, i usually just go ahead and “feel it”
Regarding my recent example, where i only used a linear segment, that was just because of sheer laziness, sorry for that
It looks pretty close to me. I’ve also since made a few adjustments that I didn’t post here. Specifically, I cooled town the overall WB significantly. Thanks for the rest of your commentary, I’m pretty happy with the workflow that I’ve acquired in this process.
