Hi Ian -

Have you tried using the Adjustment module, rather than Edit?

I think this should work for you:

1. Select photo
2. Go to Adjustment > Global Adjustment & scroll down to Curve
3. Uncheck Tonal Region
4. Select the Adjust Tone Curve tool
5. Manually invert the curve by dragging the endpoints
6. Click Create (bottom) and create your own preset - save it
7. Select all the other photos you wish to invert
8. Go to Presets and select your saved preset
9. Export your inverted photos.

Cheers - Tony
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According to the Cyberlink PhotoDirector website, they recommend that you use # 8 on their list to do the batch conversion with one click: https://www.cyberlink.com/blog/photo-editing-best-software/1127/best-color-inverter-software .

ynotfish answered first. That may be all you need. Try it first.

I just tried the 9 step method posted by ynotfish except that I already had the middle steps from a previous DZ download from PIC. Exporting a batch of photos with a preset is as easy as a few mouse clicks and it’s done. It is that easy.

STOP THE PRESS!

I'm getting some weird results in PhD14 I'm still working through it, but the steps I posted above (manually inverting the tone curve) are producing odd effects on some photos... and definitely not the same as inverting colours under Edit.

I was reading through the link tomasc posted comparing different apps' capabilities with colour inversion & wondered how the writers would arrive at a "rating". So - I tested some photos in each (most) of the software listed. I won't bore you with my comparison results but it did show me the "ratings" were massively subjective.

When I was getting odd results in PhD, I started comparing the same images inverted in Adjustment & Edit. The differences are huge with some photos/images but more subtle with others. I should mention that using "Invert Image Colours" in Edit is consistent/comparable with other software.



A work in progress...

Cheers - Tony
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There's a PDF attached showing the results I got comparing the software listed in the CL blog (plus a few others). Sorry about image quality - resizing in MS Word is not a great idea. A link to download the images I used for testing is included in the PDF.

Back to Ian's original question... if I had to do bulk inversions (hundreds of photos) I'd be using Photopus or another app that does bulk processing.

If I only had a small number of inversions to do, I'd use PhD's Edit option (not Adjustment). Admittedly, there may be some step I'm missing that could correct the odd results I've seen with some photos.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote There's a PDF attached showing the results I got comparing the software listed in the CL blog (plus a few others). Sorry about image quality - resizing in MS Word is not a great idea. A link to download the images I used for testing is included in the PDF.

Back to Ian's original question... if I had to do bulk inversions (hundreds of photos) I'd be using Photopus or another app that does bulk processing.

If I only had a small number of inversions to do, I'd use PhD's Edit option (not Adjustment). Admittedly, there may be some step I'm missing that could correct the odd results I've seen with some photos.

Cheers - Tony

Thanks for the info, I am exploring it all

I can't find a setting in Photops to bulk inver the colours.


In Photodirector, I can't switch the line accross to the otherside, - right to lef toleft to bottom right only oneside which does not invert the colours

I must have something wrong

Regards

Ian

Hi Ian -

Here's a screen capture (unlisted) showing (a) the steps I listed above showing how to do it in PhD & (b) how to do it in Photopus.

Sorry - no captions - just pause if you need to. Hope it's enough to clarify things for you.

Don't worry too much about the PDF & other things I was saying... I go off down rabbit holes sometimes.

Cheers - Tony


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Quote Hi Ian -

Here's a screen capture (unlisted) showing (a) the steps I listed above showing how to do it in PhD & (b) how to do it in Photopus.

Sorry - no captions - just pause if you need to. Hope it's enough to clarify things for you.

Don't worry too much about the PDF & other things I was saying... I go off down rabbit holes sometimes.

Cheers - Tony

Thanks again for the info, my latest discovery for 'Bulk Inverting Images' is using this link where you can upload as many as you want and get virtually an instant conversion.

https://pinetools.com/bulk-batch-invert-image-colors

I still use Photodirector to capture the tethered images and have now completd the first 6 boxes (701 Slides), another 8 to go

Regards

Ian

All of my glass slides are 2" x 2" positive. They are cardboard slides mounted in anti-newton glass. Have yet to see a negative one.

Will try out this website after I set to photo effect to negative in my cell phone camera to try it out.

That was a good find, Ian.

I gave it a shot and the output files are visually equivalent to Photopus & other tested software. I was surprised to find the image compression was higher quality (i.e. less compressed) than many of the apps. Pretty good for an online tool.

Cheers - Tony
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