It is possible to shoot negatives and reverse them in Photoshop but the negative must be lit by a very blue light (open shade or full sun or flash for example). My best colours are by setting the camera white balance through a piece of clear negative pointed at a white sheet of paper (even lit by tungsten works!). Then shoot the negatives in macro mode in front of the white sheet of paper. The sample in this post from an old 35mm negative then inverted using the Photoshop recipe below. It works! First try. Steve.
By the time the image is in Photoshop, it's difficult (though still possible) to remove the orange mask, but it requires such a substantial color correction that if the image is 8 bits per channel you may see noticeable posterization when you're done. Better to remove the orange mask when you make the scan; almost all scanner driver software has an option to do this.
How do I filter out the orange mask which I get when I make a duplicate of a color negative? I guess that it can be done either when shooting the duplicate or in Photoshop afterwards. Any ideas how to do it (both ways)?
To copy and invert color negatives using a digicam:
Use daylight or a relatively cool light to illuminate the negs, not tungsten, or your blue channel will be dark and noisy. Copy all your negs with the same exposure if possible, using any fixed white balance setting - indoor is good. Don't rely on the camera's autoexposure or auto white balance.
Copy one negative with known pure white and clear orange mask - the film leader has this - now you know why the processor has been returning this piece to you all these years:-).
Create a curves layer, and click the white eyedropper on an area of pure orange mask, and the black eyedropper on a maximum black section of negative. Invert the ends of the RGB curve.
Save the curve and use it to invert your other images to a positive. You will probably need to make slight adjustments to the first image's curves, then save the resulting curve and use it to process your remaining negatives.
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Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
Filter for orange mask?
