I am on a Mac 27″ desktop using Mojave 10.14.6. I have many 35mm black & white and Kodacolor negatives, but scanning is very slow. I have set up my Canon digital camera to photograph the negatives, but I come up with negative images, same as the originals.
I found an invert method in the Apple Systems Preferences pane. Click on the Keyboard icon, then the Shortcuts window, then on the left side of the screen, click Accessibility. In the box on the right, click the box next to Invert Colors. Back to the desktop or in Apple Photos and select an image, click and hold down the three keys Control + Option + Command together, then hit the numeral 8. It produces an instant invert of the image from negative to positive. Continue to hold down the three keys and hit the numeral 8 again and it will toggle back to the original. But the action inverts everything including the desktop. Is there way without going to a third party app like Photoshop, to invert negatives? Thanks.
—–
Don Iwerks
MacMost Q&A Forum • View All Forum Questions • Ask a Question
How Do I Invert B&W and Kodacolor Negatives To Positive Images?
Comments: 3 Responses to “How Do I Invert B&W and Kodacolor Negatives To Positive Images?”
Comments Closed.
That System Preferences control is for inverting your entire display and doesn't change the photos. It is for people that need that as an accessibility option, I assume for vision issues. That isn't what you want at all.
You want to use the Invert function inside of a graphics app. Many apps like Acorn and Pixelmator have a quick Invert Colors menu command. So you don't have to go all the way up to the pro level with Photoshop to get that.
If you want free, you can do it in Preview. Just open the image in Preview, use Tools, Adjust Color, then look at the color graph with the three triangles under it. Take the triangle on the left and move it to the right a bit, take the one on the right and move it all the way to the left, and the one previously on the left and move it all the way to the right. In other words, swap the left and right points on the color graph.
You can do something similar in Photos using Edit and then either Curves or Levels.
Thank you Gary for the quick response.
Don
Thank you for the explanation. I have a number of negatives and the shortcut works for me. Now I can make decisions on what to keep.
Enrique