De-pinking in Lightroom?

[jaredangle]

Hello everyone,

I have a bit of an issue with some recent shots on expired Fuji Astra 100, which turned very pink/purple due to its age and storage.

For those who have scanned film with strong color casts before, have you had any luck with color correction in post? I am using Lightroom and am curious what I can do in terms of color grading and curves to get more natural colors.

I will be rescanning these with a better light source (should arrive this week) but in the meantime, any general advice for correcting strong color casts is helpful.

Original Scan (Fuji Astia)


First attempt at color correction (too warm in mid-tones and highlights, still somewhat pink in shadows)


Reference photo with of same subject and same lighting with correct color (Kodak Vision3 250D)

 

[jaredangle]

Another roll of Astia in the same batch had the same problem - incredibly purple. I was able to balance it out pretty well without getting it too far on the green side for the most part.

Land Rover Discovery and Fishing Poles
Point Pleasant, NJ, USA
2024

Voigtlander Bessa R3A
Nokton 50mm f/1.1
Fuji Astia 100

 

[JeffS7444]

I'd rescan using a better light source! R, G and B channels are almost completely shifted, and contrast is much too low. The regions that I've highlighted are basically empty data in the shadow and highlight regions: It's okay to clip shadow detail from the film rebate area, because it's supposed to be pure black, and why bother capturing highlights which exceed what the film's capable of? As scanned, this is kind of a beast to correct in LR.

 

[Dan]

Your corrected efforts are pretty close. I'd try using the white balance tool on a neutral tone first, then go to the toning panel, making sure the highlights, midtones, and shadow adjustments are showing individually. From there, you can tweak the particular color issues in each tonal range and hopefully get something you're satisfied with.

 

[plummerl]

I saved off your two images, imported them into Lightroom Classic and used the latest Negative Lab Pro (NLP) to convert them with the only mod being using Auto AVG for White Balance. They look pretty good to me. A couple of minor tweaks would probably improve them further.

 

[plummerl]

PS: I've scanned and processed almost 28,000 images (all formats, slides and negatives), going back to the 70's. Back in the early days (70's & 80's) I used a lot of Agfachrome, which has not aged well. Using NLP, I've been able to recover almost the entire batch with great color restoration. Can't recommend it enough!

 

[jaredangle]

PS: I've scanned and processed almost 28,000 images (all formats, slides and negatives), going back to the 70's. Back in the early days (70's & 80's) I used a lot of Agfachrome, which has not aged well. Using NLP, I've been able to recover almost the entire batch with great color restoration. Can't recommend it enough!

Good idea on NLP! I hadn’t thought to use its color tools for slides.