Thank you Gene. The article you cited,
https://www.scantips.com/colornegs.html , was directly on point and directly referenced the problem of just digitally capturing negative and then color correcting in post. It recommended using a color corrected light source for digital capture by a camera. Specifically it said:

"With the camera, you conceivably could add similar color printing filters on the lens or flash head, and then do simple invert. Not exact same filters, because enlarger was incandescent light (already orange), but the flash is daylight (white). Also different brands of film may vary the orange mask a little. Or if you might have access to an old enlarger color head (like Omega) - a light source with the dichroic filters, and three CMY dials to set the color of the light output - using this as the background light source could be a proper analog correction, and would be similar to a scanners corrections, but could still allow camera speed rate."

My question is this, if I placed a filter that was the complementary color to the orange mask between my light source and the negative would I get a digital capture that could be properly exposed and then simply inverted. As with the capture of positives, I would assume there would by minor corrections for contrast and color in my image editor thereafter.

The ORANG appearance of colour negatives is explained here:

In the case of colour negatives, the colours are also reversed into their respective complementary colours. Typical colour negatives have an overall dull orange tint due to an automatic colour-masking feature that ultimately results in improved colour reproduction.

Of course, this applies to traditional analog printing of colour negative on an enlarger or automatic printer, in analog colour print papers.

If you have many colour negatives to digitize, a negative scanner or a negative scanning light source attachment, if your printer can accommodate that accessory, is your best bet. When you reverse the image and adjust for the correct colour in your editing software, the mask will factor in and you'll obtain accurate colour reproduction.

You can do this with your camera with a good macro lens and a lightbox but the process can be more tedious if you have many negatives to digitize. I've done that with 8x10 colour negatives that won't fit in my scanner and I was able to obtain good colour reproduction- no orange cast! I could have scanned 4- 4x5 sections and laced them together but that is even more tedious.

https://www.scantips.com/basic13c.html
Color Negatives
Color negatives are very different than scanning positive slides or prints. Color negatives have an overall orange mask, designed to aid photo printing of negatives onto regular photographic paper. The orange mask makes scanning color negatives difficult. Its presence seriously interferes with "automatic" correction of any real color casts. Color casts often remain, and must be manually removed. The photofinisher did this for us in prints, but it's our job now. Digital color balance is easier than darkroom work, but color balance is harder for negatives than for prints or slides.



"Negatives require the image be inverted, easy enough for B&W, but color negatives also require that the orange mask color be balanced out (it is a strong greenish blue when inverted to positive). The film scanner software has a Negative mode that does this, but the shade of orange varies among film brands, and even in different films from one manufacturer. Most film scanners offer a few film types to aid this.

Negatives can capture perhaps 3 more f/stops of scenic range than can slides, so there is less loss of shadow or highlight detail. This greater range is compressed to fit "in the film" so to speak. Slides have dramatic contrast, but not very good shadow or highlight detail. Negatives capture greater scenic range, but store it compressed in less range on the film. Negative film itself actually has lower overall dynamic range scanning requirements than slides, which makes life easier for inexpensive scanners.

Images from both slides and negatives can only span tone values 0 to 255 in the 24 bit image. But because this greater range of scenic detail is compressed into that span on the negative, it offers more possibilities to expand selected regions, to favor the shadows or favor the highlights, to show maximum detail. We cannot favor both ends, but we can do either, by various brightness adjustments, and negative film offers more opportunities for photo manipulation".

Thanks for the heads up!

I thought I copied and pasted the link and a quote with the most pertinent paragraph- see above''.

My apologies!

I have had good success shooting high quality digital copies of slides using a high resolution camera on a copy stand with light table in a dark room. Because of the orange cast of color negatives, I have been hesitant to convert them into digital images. In thinking the problem through, it would seem that if I shot a single digital image and then white balanced the negative image, I would have an underexposure, once I eliminated the cast. The method I came up with to get a properly exposed digital negative image is to compute the correction I would need to neutralize the orange mask, print the correction on transparent media and use it as a filter when I take the image. I would place it on the light table under the negative. After taking the image, I could invert colors and make any necessary adjustments. Before I started to buy supplies such as transparent media, I was wondering if anyone had tried a similar process.

I have had good success shooting high quality digital copies of slides using a high resolution camera on a copy stand with light table in a dark room. Because of the orange cast of color negatives, I have been hesitant to convert them into digital images. In thinking the problem through, it would seem that if I shot a single digital image and then white balanced the negative image, I would have an underexposure, once I eliminated the cast. The method I came up with to get a properly exposed digital negative image is to compute the correction I would need to neutralize the orange mask, print the correction on transparent media and use it as a filter when I take the image. I would place it on the light table under the negative. After taking the image, I could invert colors and make any necessary adjustments. Before I started to buy supplies such as transparent media, I was wondering if anyone had tried a similar process.

I have had good success shooting high quality digital copies of slides using a high resolution camera on a copy stand with light table in a dark room. Because of the orange cast of color negatives, I have been hesitant to convert them into digital images. In thinking the problem through, it would seem that if I shot a single digital image and then white balanced the negative image, I would have an underexposure, once I eliminated the cast. The method I came up with to get a properly exposed digital negative image is to compute the correction I would need to neutralize the orange mask, print the correction on transparent media and use it as a filter when I take the image. I would place it on the light table under the negative. After taking the image, I could invert colors and make any necessary adjustments. Before I started to buy supplies such as transparent media, I was wondering if anyone had tried a similar process.