🌐 🇩🇪 🇬🇧

photoinfos.com

Grain2Pixel - Inverting Negatives

2022 © Thomas Gade

Index: Negative to Positive

Grain2Pixel is a free Adobe Photoshop script that converts photographed film negatives and scanned negatives into positive images. It can be downloaded and used at no cost.

Website: https://grain2pixel.com/

Installation

For Windows, extract the downloaded ZIP file. This creates a folder containing several subfolders and files. The folder name includes the version number, for example: Grain2Pixel_SE_v5.3.8.1.

Rename the folder by removing the version number so that it is simply called Grain2Pixel.
This makes future updates much easier.

Copy the folder to your Adobe directory.

C -> Program Files -> Adobe

You can also choose a different location, such as C:\Plugins.

In Photoshop, open the Actions panel and create a new Action Set.
Window -> Actions

A good name for the Action Set is "Invert Negatives" so that its purpose is easy to recognize later.

Next, record a new action and name it "Grain2Pixel." Assign a function key to the action for quick access. F10 was available on my computer, but you should check which function key is available on yours. Photoshop will display a warning if the selected key is already assigned.

While recording the action, choose the file "Grain2Pixel.jsxbin" from the Grain2Pixel folder in your Adobe directory using the following menu:
File -> Scripts -> Browse

The Grain2Pixel window will open. Simply close it again to finish recording the action.

From now on, pressing F10 will launch Grain2Pixel with a single keystroke.

Converting a Negative



Grain2Pixel running in Photoshop. At the top of the window, select the type of negative you want to process. The remaining options are straightforward and should be easy to understand for anyone with intermediate Photoshop skills. Since the interface is in English, some familiarity with the terminology is helpful.



The script first appears to convert the image into a linear TIFF file. The process then pauses so you can define a crop area. Only the selected image area will be processed.



In this example, the initial conversion still shows a noticeable color cast because color cast removal was not enabled.



For a better result, open the "Conversion" tab and set the "Color Cast Remove" option to "Smart."



The final result looks excellent.

Evaluation

Grain2Pixel (G2P) performs very well and offers many features beyond those covered here. It is particularly impressive that the developer continues to improve the script while making it available free of charge. A commercial Pro version is planned for the future. The developer, Bogdan Nicolescu from Romania, is also known as "Bogdan - TheDude." If you find the script useful, you can support his work with a PayPal donation. It is well deserved.