Kodak Portra Profiles

[Ton]

To my amazement the color profiles of the Kodak Portra Family in Negafix is already for some years absurdly bad! When I try to use for instance Portra 400 NC, I get some surrealistic results, to say, very very hard. This has nothing to do with the film itself. Other profiles are as strange, which I really cant believe. First of all, Kodak made one family of films that would have the same profile for scanning. So why is there a different profile for 35mm and 6x6? (In practice there is hardly any difference if nothing). Then, if you need different profiles, why nothing for 4x5 inch? This whole thing rests upon non-logic and finally totally unbelievable profiles. I cant believe a lab as Lasersoft never has come up with better profiles.
When I mailed the support once, they just anwsered, that i could make my onw profile, which i have done, but 1. it is no answer to a question, 2. to make a profile is very difficult. The software is very complicated, and even with a lot of trial, the curves go and walk on their own. Why not make a better way to make a profile? But first: Why is Lasersoft not able to make appropriate profiles for all Portra films, including 400 UC????

[President_LSI]

NegaFix Profiles for Kodak Portra

Dear User,

we are wondering why some users have excellent results, while other users have problems with NegaFix. Whenever you report a problem, please mention your OS, scanner and version of SilverFast, please!

Please list the NegaFix profiles you have problems with and also the profiles that seem to be missing! We will do our best to duplicate and solve the problem!

best regards

Karl-Heinz Zahorsky
President
LaserSoft Imaging

[Ton]

Hello there,
I use a Umax Powerlook 3000, with MAC OS 9.2.
I thought that negative profiles were universal and not dependable on the scanner?
Thanks for investigating into the problem.
Ton Hendriks
www.tonhendriks.nl

[President_LSI]

NegaFix Problems ? Complete Information missing

Once again: We need complete information:

1. Exact Version of SilverFast ?

2. Photoshop Plug-in or TWAIN?

3. Version of Photoshop?

4. Exact Film types ?

[Ton]

DearKarl-Heinz Zahorsky

My version is SFE-6.0.2r08 (UMAX)
Plug in version
Photoshop 7.0
all for Mac OS 9.2
Film type Kodak Portra 400 NC for all formats (35mm,120, 4x5)

Ton.

[ianders1]

Ton,

I can tell you that of all the films I've used Portra has given me the most difficulty when it comes to scanning. There's just something about the mask that seems to throw off at least one color no matter how I tweak it. Using the selective color correction I'm able to get good results, but I try to stay away from Portra as much as possible because of the difficulty in scanning it.

Negafix is really great and can deliver really excellent results, but I would strongly recommend shooting transparency (slide) film such as Fuji Provia if that's practical for you. The results are spectacular with no film grain, and incredible color and shadow detail, especially if you use IT-8 calibration.

Otherwise, try playing with Global color correction to eliminate any casts (as described in Ian Lyon's tutorial on Negafix) then use selective color correction to fix the rest.

[Ton]

Hello Ianders,
Thanks for your advice, but it is not problem solving, but problem avoiding. I want the problem solved. It is a pity that you dont use Portra film, because of a scanning program! The film is very good. I need it because Portra 400 NC is the only film at 400 ASA for 4x5 inch. And I know that transparancies are also beautiful.
Strange that I have given all my scanning details and that since then I havent heared anything from Lasersoft. And now I see I am not the only one having problems with Portra films. Lasersoft should do something about it!
Ton.

[President_LSI]

Corrected NegaFix Profiles

Dear Users,

we are doing our best to correct and enhance NegFix profiles. Today we will upload a corrected set for the Umax Powerlook 3000.

You can expect we will optimize all NegaFix profiles where users indicate or we can find a problem with! The uploaded profiles can be imported into your version of SilverFast.

best regards

Karl-Heinz Zahorsky
President
LaserSoft Imaging

[Bob Martin]

I am using SilverFast SFE-6.0.1r44(Epson) Photoshop plugin with Photoshop 6 and an Epson 3200 scanner, and Windows XP Professional. I was told that you could not import negative profiles into SilverFast. Your response on this forum indicates that is not correct. Where do I find the latest negafix database and how do I import it into the release of SilverFast that I am using?

[President_LSI]

NegaFix Profiles for Epson

When you download the latest SilverFast version for Epson, you will automatically have the latest NegaFix within the version!

https://www.silverfast.com/product/Epson ... target=ai6

For Kodak Portra for Umax Powerlook 3000, there will be a corrected set for import later today:

https://www.silverfast.com/show/negafixprofiles/en.html

Corrected Portra Profiles for Poerlook 3000: https://www.silverfast.com/download/misc ... PL3000.sit

[Ton]

Hello President from the Lasersoft,
Thank you very much for the effort to put updates on the web. Now I see that apparently you have different profiles alone for Umax Powerlook.
I updated the Negafix with the last profiles and see the following.
The profile for Portra 400 NC 6x6 looks very good as you yourself can see in the image of my preview screen I put hereby.
But the profile of 400 NC (without 6x6, so for 35mm I suppose??) shows very hard results, the same as the profles I had before, and mentioned before by me as "absurd", sorry for the criticism. But you can see for yourself how the curves go: very steep! And you see the image: very hard.
My problem is: this profile is much too hard, the curve is too steep! Not usable! There is a tremendous difference with the 6x6 films, while the emulsion is practically the same.
1. So could Lasersoft take a good look at the Portra 400 NC curve and repair it into a good curve?
2. Can Lasersoft not make a profile for Portra 400 NC 4x5 inch?
Here you see the 400NC profile + curve:TOO HARD

Here you see the Portra 400 NC 6x6 profile + curve:LOOKS GOOD

[ianders1]

Ton,

Very good way to illustrate your problem. I must say though that the problem you're having, at least in this case is with the image. This image appears to have no true white point (255,255,255) so Silverfast has applied it's automatic histogram adjustment making the lightest color (the rug, tulips, or books) pure white and lightening all the other color and pushing the dark colors into the shadows, in effect solarizing the image.

With an image like this, what you'll want to do is to adjust the sliders in the histogram, bringing the left (white point) slider further left, and the midpoint slider left until the contrast is reduced and the image looks better. You may also need to go to the gradation adjustment tab and adjust the highlight slider. Here's a before and after of a much less solarized but similar image:

<img src="http://www.webdextrous.com/forums/sf_solarized.jpg" width="403" height="663" />

If you notice the histogram sliders, you'll see what I'm talking about. Obviously the image still needs some work, but this should give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Certain images don't fall within the ordinary pure black to pure white range, and you have to adjust for it.

NegaFix is there to help optimize the color conversion and to a lesser extent the brightness and contrast of the particular film. It does not replace the basic tools supplied with Silverfast however, and images like this still need to be tweaked. Silverfast takes a short time to use, a little while to understand, and a long time to master.

My suggestion is to find an image of a landscape or something with a pure white and pure black that has near-perfect exposure and lots of colors. Scan that and see if negafix is still giving you problems.

-Ian A.

[President_LSI]

NegaFix Editing Mode ? Correcting NegaFix Profiles

In case you encounter a NegaFix profile that has a problem, there is a very powerful editing mode (in NegaFix Expert-dialog), that can be used. Please follow the short instruction:



Also the SilverFast NegaFix Guide explains how to work with the NegaFix Expert mode to fix curves:
https://www.silverfast.com/downloads/doc ... xAi-en.pdf

[Ton]

Thank you very much for the explanation. Now I understand better how to adjust the curves for my own use, but still remaines my question. The profile 400 NC that Lasersoft ships to all customers is too sharp, gives too hard results. Is it not the task of Lasersoft to bring a better profile, instead of asking the customers to do so? (And why is there not a 4x5 inch profile?)
Thanks again for the answer.
Ton.

[President_LSI]

Enhanced (corrected) NegaFix Profiles

You are right! It is our concern to have better profiles coming with our software. The ability to correct profiles is very important because "negative film" can have many deviations, so a manual correction might be needed here and there!
You can be sure, that we will spend more time in the future working specifically on this problem to supply more and better profiles!