Convert
color negatives.

The film base is the clear, unexposed film around the picture. EmulLab measures it in each frame and balances color off it, so the orange mask goes and the border turns neutral. Scan with a little border showing, and don’t let it clip to white. A note at the bottom of the photo says when something is off:

• No film border found: Analyze Roll lends the frame the roll’s base. See Analyze and sync a roll.
• Film border is near clipping: scan with a little less exposure next time.
• Bare light around the film may throw off the film base: mask the light, or Analyze Roll.

It resets the conversion, tone, color, Look and other adjustments, then sets the Tone sliders automatically. It keeps the film type, film base, crop, straighten, rotation, lens corrections and dust spots.

• White Balance says Film border until you pick a neutral with the eyedropper; Reset goes back.
• Cyan – Red, Magenta – Green and Yellow – Blue shift the color; Saturation sets its strength.
• Auto Color (25% to start): how far each frame moves toward a neutral balance on its own. Low keeps the light’s color, so a tungsten scene stays warm. The eyedropper replaces it.

Under Advanced in Conversion. Most frames never need them; a Changed badge shows when any differs from the default, and Reset puts them back.

• Method: Modern (Balanced), the only one for now.
• Balance: Film border (the default), or Auto levels, which sets each color channel’s end points on its own.
• Auto Exposure: how far the frame’s brightness moves toward a middle gray. 0 keeps the negative’s own exposure.
• Shadow Clip and Highlight Clip: how much of the frame may go fully black or white. Too much loses detail.
• Border Buffer: how much of the frame’s edge is left out when measuring.

When the conversion improves, frames converted earlier keep looking exactly as they did. Conversion shows an Update button for such a frame, and a roll’s right-click menu in the sidebar has Update Roll to Current Conversion. Updating may change the look; ⌘Z undoes it.