on.raw.photography

Hello,
I recently installed ColorPerfect version 3 and have been playing around with it a bit. While doing so, I noticed a significant difference between this version and version 2.25 when testing two negatives. Here is an example (film type: Kodak Advantix 200). What can I do to avoid this?

Manfred

Hi,
I tested your negative file with CP3, and this is the result.
I don't know how you scanned it, but it's true that when you open the file in ColorNeg, it appears very contrasty. To achieve this result, I reset the BP, but I didn't turn it off, I just reset it.

I've tested your file, what camera or scanner have you used?

Regarding CP2 and CP3: If you are sure that you have the same FilmType and G/L setup, I will look at this next week.

Regarding Roberto’s image:
There is basically film base in the shadow under the car. Look at this page: https://www.colorperfect.com/noise.html?lang=en It explains what we see noise-wise in the lower part of the car.

Reopen your processed Tiff image in ColorPos mode. Scroll Black down so that Highlight Clipping is 0.01 in this already processed frame. Then zoom in on the shadow under the car and use BP Tails to make that area more or less pitch black. Once BP Tails is set up that way, zoom back out and toggle the BP System on and off to see what this does to the overall color. Your version has a nasty color cast introduced by wrong BP Colors, as you will find.

I think the CP2/CP3 difference will come down to working spaces. This used to be the state of things:
https://www.colorperfect.com/working_sp ... ml?lang=en

However, folks insisted on assigning ProPhoto RGB, etc., to color negatives prior to conversion. Long story short: for narrow working spaces such as sRGB, Apple RGB, and ColorMatch RGB, the math in CP3's ColorNeg mode is what it was. For wider-gamut spaces, which include not only ProPhoto RGB but also Adobe RGB 1998, there is a new element compensating for that choice.

After sleeping on it my gut feeling is that we are seeing the interplay of your Adobe RGB 1998 choice, the specifically increased dynamic range of the scene, Black Point, BP Color, and that compensation logic.

It was, and will remain, my recommendation to assign narrow RGB working spaces to color negative scans, as the RGB primaries directly take on the role that the dyes in photographic paper would have had, and that pairing is a better match. There is also no color to be "lost" in this, but that is beyond the scope of what I wanted to write here now.

That would be one thing to do. Assign sRGB and revisit the comparison.

I'll be back with a device that can do imaging and development work on Tuesday

Hi,
Thanks for the tips. Setting the black point to 0 helped. It worked for other problematic negatives as well. However, CP 2.25 calculates the same black point value as CP 3, yet—as the example above shows—the results are very different. Perhaps this is a clue to the problem.
The negative was scanned on a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 using Nikon Scan 4.0.3. Only Digital-ICE. Film type: 'Konica Super XG 100, not Kodak,

The second thing to try is a two-phase process for Adobe RGB.

Set the image roughly as you like it in ColorNeg mode. Perhaps lower the overall FilmGamma for Advantix 200 by pressing the FilmType button and then scrolling Film Gamma. I would try something in the vicinity of 1.5 for the higher ones; there is a readout in the lower right of the UI when scrolling FilmGamma.

The built-in data is from Kodak's charts, but development factors in, and this sort of gang-scrolling adjustment can help.

Anyway, after that, make sure the highlights do not clip by scrolling Black to whatever degree achieves that. There is no harm in overdoing it. After that, turn off the Black Point System altogether and OK out.

Then, in a second step, in ColorPos mode, set up brightness, Black Point zones, and everything else, and see what that does for you.

The sequence of things is fickle.
I will need to look at it algorithmically; I am not sure yet what will come of it.

You can actually see the film in my shadows.
These are two new examples, both set to Kodak Advantix 200, because I made the first one, the one with BP OFF, yesterday. For the second example, I took the BP OFF and loaded it into ColorPOS for further adjustments.
Regardless of the FilmType/SubType/FilmGamma I didn't use, I might have loaded it into TouchUp instead of ColorPOS?
In any case, I eliminated the film effect in the first one, and the second one has a bit more volume.

[/quote]

C.Oldendorf wrote: Fri May 22, 2026 5:29 am I think the CP2/CP3 difference will come down to working spaces. This used to be the state of things:
https://www.colorperfect.com/working_sp ... ml?lang=en

....
It was, and will remain, my recommendation to assign narrow RGB working spaces to color negative scans, as the RGB primaries directly take on the role that the dyes in photographic paper would have had, and that pairing is a better match. There is also no color to be "lost" in this, but that is beyond the scope of what I wanted to write here now.

I assigned the sRGB color space to the negative scans. Unfortunately, the result didn't change at all. Here are a few more comparisons of the black points. I'd be happy to share the negative scans.
CP3 CP2.25
Bild_08: 0.0268 0,0179
Bild_24: 0.1524 0,0162 (uploaded negative)
Bild_27: 0.0267 0,0275
Bild_32: 0.2701 0,1746 (an airplane in the sky)


To this day, I still haven’t grasped the secrets of photography (color space, black points, highlights, shadows, etc.). I admire the people who created such great tools as ‘Colorperfect’ to make my life easier and helped me archive about 4,000 family photos.

I’ve also recently come across some scans behaving similarly, where CP 3 sets a completely incorrect black point. I don’t remember running into this issue before. I’ve mostly been using sRGB, so I don’t think that’s the root cause either. Following.