Exposure #
Brighter or darker as a whole, in stops, up to five either way — like giving the print more or less time under the enlarger.
NegaKit
Every option, before and after.
65 of NegaKit’s tools, each with what it does. Drag across a picture to compare: every one was rendered by NegaKit from the same simulated Portra 400 negatives, with only that option changed.
Light and tone
How bright, how deep and how much contrast — worked out on the negative’s own range, like a print.
Contrast #
Spreads the tones apart or draws them together around the middle grey, keeping the ends from clipping.
Highlights #
Brings back detail in the brightest parts — snow, sky, white walls — without dimming the rest.
Shadows #
Opens up the dark parts to show what is in them, with an edge-aware reach so there are no halos.
Whites #
Sets where the brightest tones end: lift for sparkle, lower for a softer, paper-like white.
Blacks #
Sets how deep the darkest tones go: deeper for weight, lifted for a matte, faded print.
Midtones #
Lightens or darkens the middle of the scale — faces, foliage, stone — leaving black and white where they are.
Tone curve #
The full curve: points, region sliders, per-channel curves and a lightness-only mode that keeps colour. Here a gentle S for more depth.
Vignette #
Darkens or lightens the corners, as an old lens or a printer’s burning-in would.
Colour
Colour from the film base up: the orange mask removed by measurement, then shaped the way you want.
Temperature #
Warmer or cooler light. Auto white balance and a picker set it from the picture; it can follow across the roll.
Tint #
Towards magenta or green, for fluorescent light, shade under leaves, or a lab’s cast.
Saturation #
More or less colour everywhere, evenly.
Vibrance #
More colour where there is little, less where there is a lot — and skin is protected.
Hue, saturation and lightness #
Eight colour bands on their own: here the sky’s blue deeper and the rock’s orange richer, nothing else moved.
Split toning #
A colour for the shadows and another for the highlights — cool shadows and warm light here.
Colour grading wheels #
Shadows, midtones, highlights and global wheels with balance and blending, as in film grading. Here teal shadows and amber highlights.
CC filtration #
Yellow, magenta and cyan filter values, the way a colour printer corrects at the enlarger.
Detail and grain
Sharp where it should be, and grain that looks like grain.
Clarity #
Local contrast in the middle tones: texture in stone and bark without touching the overall contrast.
Sharpening #
Capture sharpening with a radius, tuned not to sharpen the grain into noise. The scanner’s own blur can be undone too.
Grain #
Adds film grain where a scan shows too little, or for a look. Grain reduction and noise reduction work the other way.
Film, look and style
Tell NegaKit the film and it converts the way that stock prints; the look is the lab, the style is your taste.
Film profile: Ektar 100 #
The same negative converted as Kodak Ektar 100: its contrast and saturation. Profiles cover current and classic stocks, and you can make your own.
Film profile: Gold 200 #
As Kodak Gold 200: warmer, the consumer-film glow.
Look: Frontier-style #
Like a Fuji Frontier lab scan: cooler greens, crisp.
Look: Noritsu-style #
Like a Noritsu lab scan: warm, soft, open shadows.
Look: Flat #
Everything kept, low contrast: a starting point for your own grading.
Style: Soft #
Low contrast, open shadows, gentle highlights. Styles also come as Natural, Neutral and Auto.
Style: Hard contrast #
Deep blacks, punch and bite.
Style: Vivid #
Richer colour for colour film.
Style: Faded #
Lifted blacks and muted colour, like an old print.
Black and white
Fifteen ways to turn colour into grey — film sensitivities, filters and looks — then tone it like a darkroom print.
Neutral #
Each colour as bright as its luminance: the plain conversion.
Classic pan (Tri-X, HP5) #
Panchromatic film’s sensitivity: skies a little lighter, reds a little brighter than the eye sees.
Red filter (#25) #
Dramatic: blue skies go dark, red rock and clouds go light.
Orthochromatic #
Film blind to red: red goes dark, skies go white — the old-plate look.
Infrared look #
Foliage white and skies black, as with R72 infrared film.
Selenium toner #
Cool purple-brown blacks, a little deeper, highlights untouched.
Sepia toner #
Warm brown throughout, strongest in the midtones.
Platinum / palladium #
Warm neutral blacks, creamy paper, long soft highlights.
Cyanotype #
Prussian blue on white paper.
Split toning (cool and warm) #
Cool shadows and warm highlights, as selenium then sepia.
Lith #
Peach-pink highlights and warm brown shadows of lith developer.
Presets
Nearly eighty built-in looks on shelves by purpose: film stocks, camera looks, darkroom prints. Each previews on your frame before you apply it, and can be applied at any strength.
Ektar 100 · Vivid landscape #
Saturated skies and foliage, crisp.
Teal & orange #
The cinematic split: teal shadows, orange highlights.
Classic Chrome #
Fujifilm’s documentary look: muted colour, firm shadows.
Leica Eternal #
Cinematic, quiet colour, teal shadows and warm light.
Faded matte #
Lifted blacks, muted colour, soft highlights.
GR Positive Film #
Ricoh GR’s bright, contrasty slide-film look.
CineStill 800T · Night #
Neon nights: teal shadows, warm lights.
Tri-X · Gritty street #
Deep blacks, bite and grain.
The Presets tab #
Shelves, favourites, recent looks and looks made for this film; search, apply to a frame, the selection or the whole roll; save your own. Looks shared on 35mm appear here too.
Framing and retouching
Straight, clean and framed — automatically where it can be, by hand where you want.
Crop and straighten #
Turn by dragging, draw a level line, guides from thirds to the golden spiral, print sizes and ratios, and suggested crops around the subject.
Auto crop #
Finds the picture’s edges past the holder and the film rebate, and levels the horizon — for a frame or the whole roll.
Dust, scratches and hairs #
Dust removed automatically (from the infrared channel when the scan has one), scratches traced along a rough stroke, hairs and specks healed; a review shows what was taken.
Local adjustments #
Brushes, gradients and ellipses with their own sliders; masks found for you — subject, people, sky, near and far — and click to select anything.
Versions and multiple exposures #
Keep several versions of a frame, or layer frames into a multiple exposure with blend modes, position and strength.
AI on your Mac
Every model runs on your own Mac. Settings shows each model’s size and licence, and whether your Mac suits it.
The assistant #
Suggests edits you can apply, judges the roll (stars, closed eyes, blur, near-duplicates), writes titles, captions, keywords and alt text — with a model on your Mac or your own Claude key.
Colourise and revive colour #
Colour for black-and-white frames, and faded colour brought back — kept natural, never blotchy.
Remove and fill #
Paint over anything and it is taken out and filled from its surroundings; the corners of a straightened frame filled the same way.
Enlarge #
Small frames enlarged two or four times for print, keeping the film’s own grain.
Repair #
Tears, stains and soft focus repaired by an image model, on an area or the whole frame.
Culling #
Apple Vision scores each frame and finds similar shots, so the best of a roll come first.
The roll and the darkroom
A roll is more than its frames: the film, the speed, the developer and how it came out.
Whole-roll view #
The roll as a grid: sync settings, copy groups of settings from one frame to others, rate and pick.
Roll card #
Film, speed, camera, lens and developer — with the film’s development times, datasheet, rated speeds and reciprocity data from 35mm.org.
Developing timer #
Baths in order with the developer time from the card, corrections for temperature and reused chemistry, and agitation cues by sound and voice.
Expired, pushed and pulled film #
Years expired, storage and the speed you shot at give starting corrections for every frame.
Print and export #
Export recipes that write several files per frame, print layouts with soft proofing, and contact sheets.
And it knows your film.
Every roll card carries the film’s development times, datasheet and reciprocity data from 35mm.org.
Example photographs: U.S. National Park Service (Arches and Olympic National Parks), public domain.