In the previous post on this subject, I mentioned that scanning B&W negatives as positives could be a useful technique for high contrast negatives. Take a look at this example scanned as negative:
Yuck. Nasty, too bright highlights. I could work with it in PS, but I’d be struggling to bring those highlights down in any way that would look natural. Scanning as a negative positive gives me this, which at first glance, is worse:
A quick dose of levels and some wide radius USM, gives me this:
The highlights have been taken down from the painful range, but there’s still some detail in the skin tones. Looks better to me.
