CineStill’s New Film Scan Conversion Software

credits: Cine Still

CineStill has released CS Negative+ Convert Tools, a new and completely free set of tools that integrates directly into Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps like Lightroom (including mobile), Camera RAW, and Photoshop. The tools are designed to make film negative conversion easier, faster, and more accurate by bringing digital scans closer to how actual film looks when printed or projected. At the core of this system is a technology CineStill calls SpectraCOLOR, which has been in development for the past three years.

According to CineStill, SpectraCOLOR is built around the spectral response curves of traditional RA-4 darkroom prints and motion picture projection prints. In practical terms, it means the tool accounts for how both color film and digital sensors interpret light across the spectrum, improving color separation and tonal fidelity. The result is a conversion that matches film more closely, with less need for manual tweaks in color correction. CineStill points out that typical home scanning workflows often struggle with clipped highlights, muddy tones, and unwanted color shifts, and says this tool is designed specifically to fix those common issues.

What sets CS Negative+ Convert apart from many existing solutions is its integration with Adobe tools and its accessibility, especially since most Lightroom-based film scanning plugins are paid. The company says it’s just the beginning, too: new hardware designed to work natively with the software is already on the horizon.

You can download the Software from CineStill’s website for free here