-to.jpg" alt="screenshot of lightroom's import feature" caption="Choose the Scans folder to import to" >}}

The import time can vary depending on Lightroom's settings for preview sizes. I like to use 1:1. While on the grid view in Lightroom I like to select all of the photos and flip horizontal. If you scanned your negatives with a digital camera with the emulsion side up (which you should) they will be flipped backwards, so you need to flip them the correct way.

Now, open one image by double clicking it and select the Develop tab. Select the Negative Lab Pro profile. This is necessary to help Negative Lab Pro properly convert the negatives. Especially color. Now, select the white balance dropper and use it on the film mask. This will perfectly white balance the negative. Next, crop the image in about 10% on all sides. We only want to use the film mask for correcting white balance, but we don't want it in the image while converting with Negative Lab Pro.

{{< figure src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dpmsynxig/video/upload/f_gif,q_auto:good,vc_auto/e_loop/v1629038515/2021%20Posts/Lightroom%20Workflow/profile-white-balance.gif" alt="gif of lightroom interface" caption="White balance from film mask and use NLP profile" >}}

After the profile, white balance and crop of the first image is set, select all of the imported images and sync them using Lightroom's Sync feature. Synchronize the crop, white balance and profile treatment. Keeping every photo selected, open Negative Lab Pro (ctrl+n or File >> Plugin Extras >> Negative Lab Pro.)

## Negative Lab Pro

The Negative Lab Pro dialog should open and here you have a choice of different color profiles; Noritsu, Frontier and Black and White. If converting color, the choice of Noritsu or Frontier is personal preference, but here's a {{< link href="https://www.richardphotolab.com/blog/post/its-back-noritsu-vs-frontier" text="blog post" >}} that goes over both in pretty good detail. Black and White is just black and white. Saturation I always keep at the default of 3, which doesn't matter for black and white. And, because the images were cropped before, the border buffer can be set to 0 (zero.) Click the _Convert Negative(s)_ button and let Negative Lab Pro do it's thing.

{{< figure src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dpmsynxig/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto:good/v1629040708/2021%20Posts/Lightroom%20Workflow/nlp-dialog.jpg" alt="negative lab pro dialog in lightroom" caption="Negative Lab Pro" >}}

After Negative Lab Pro finishes I like to set the tones to Linear Flat. This looks a little undesirable at first, but I'll go over why I do this in a bit. If I don't feel like spending the time editing, I'll choose LAB Standard to get close to what I want with little effort. I rarely mess with any of the sliders but you can get a lot done here. WB (white balance) I keep on Auto-Neutral, and LUT I set to Natural. Neither of these matter when converting black and white. Lastly I set sharpen to Lab and sync settings before applying these changes to all of the images.

{{< figure src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dpmsynxig/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto:good/v1629040951/2021%20Posts/Lightroom%20Workflow/nlp-settings.jpg" alt="negative lab pro dialog in lightroom" caption="Negative Lab Pro" >}}

Now that all of the negatives are converted I like to reset the crop on all of the images. This is as easy as uncropping one image and then syncing just the crop like we did earlier. Now I like to use Lightroom and batch rename all of the photos. I name them based on the folder, so `YYYY-MM-DD_FILMSTOCKISO-#`. I like to take the organization even further and use Negative Lab Pro's meta data editor. This allows me to tag each set of images by camera body, lens, focal length, scanning method, development method etc. This is also great for organizing all photos with Lightroom's Smart Collections. Makes it very easy to find what you're looking for later.

**_One note_** I will make when converting negatives is that if you are converting something that maybe had a _lot_ of light. Think of a photo at the beach, or somewhere where there's no shade in the photo at all, you may end up with some very saturated colors. Trust me, if it happens, you'll notice. Don't freak out. You just need to uncrop that specific image to allow for Negative Lab Pro to use some of the film mask for black, as your cropped image may be lacking any pure blacks. This is something you just kind of learn along the way. Also, the {{< link href="https://forums.negativelabpro.com/" text="Negative Lab Pro forums" >}} is a great resource if you run into any kind of weird issues like this. People will definitely help if they can.

## Editing

From this point on it's all personal preference, but here's what I do if I left the image at Linear Flat. With all of the images set to flat, you have a nice even starting point to edit from. When I find an image I want to edit, I will bring the Negative Lab Pro dialog back up, and make a TIF copy (down at the bottom.) This creates a "positive" copy of the image so that you can edit as your normally would in Lightroom. If you do not save as a positive copy, the sliders in Lightroom will not work as they normally would due to the RAW file still being a "negative." 

## Exporting

As mentioned in my post on Camera Scanning that I create an `Exports` folder on the same directory level as the `Scans`. This is, as you may have guessed, where exported images go. I will usually make a couple of other folders like `Web` or `For Print`. This just helps keep everything nice and organized in the same root imported folder. 

## Backup and Archiving

Ideally, backing up to a couple (always two!) external hard drives would happen at the end of each year, but my current MacBook will only hold about half a years worth of RAW files with converted TIFs and exported JPGs. It adds up after a while, especially when making 36MP "scans" with a digital camera. Storage is cheap and better safe than sorry. I also use {{< link href="https://www.backblaze.com/" text="Backblaze" >}} to keep my MacBook and any externals backed up to the cloud.

If you count external drives, current computer drive, Backblaze and your film negatives, you have your photos in 5 (five because two external drives) places. 

For archiving I use {{< link href="https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=print%20file&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma" text="Print File" >}} sleeves. For 135 I like the 7 row, 6 frame version in particular. I like to bulk roll film and can sometimes get 38 or more frames even on a standard roll. Archive sleeves go into {{< link href="https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=besfile&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma" text="Besfile" >}} binders.

And that's what I do with every roll. The process seems like it has a lot of steps but it's mostly batched. The real time is spent editing individual photos, which is entirely up to the photographer. I hope this is helpful to someone. Getting film scans organized in Lightroom can be approached in different ways, and it helped me by seeing what others were doing. I just made changes where I saw fit.
No, you're not a bad person, just misunderstood.
I'm very similar to you in many aspects. I always try my hardest, but I always end up failing. It's like I can never reach my full potential and that's what pisses me off the most. Nor do I have any friends that understand me.
I haven't gotten past this issue, but I do feel better by improving myself, and the negative aspects of my personality.
Working out, reading books, and trying to understand what I do wrong has really made me feel more informed, and i'm slowly becoming a better person.
Hope is what gave Andy Dufresne the power to crawl through all that sewage to freedom in the film The Shawshank Redemption.
Hang in there z0n321.
Hope is just a reason to get up in the morning. And you never know today might just turn out to be better than yesterday. For now focus on your studies, don't fret too much over a future no one can predict. When things feel bad I just focus on today. Tomorrow you might bump into your soulmate (not there is such a thing