Cross Processing: Additional Thoughts and Craziness

I posted a couple of days ago about crossprocessing, including a link to some exploratory work of my own that indulges the excesses of the process (to put it kindly). I've since thought about it some more, and found a few more links to interesting stuff.

Though crossprocessing has a very distinct look (which elicits strong positive *and* negative reactions), in reality it doesn't have to call attention to itself that dramatically to make an impact. One of the reasons it's been popular in fashion (and still remains popular among some photographers and video people, despite the claim that it's out of vogue) is because some subtle changes in hue can produce genuinely interesting results. While most tutorials focus on the wackiness of the results, this thread on photo.net (scroll to the bottom to see the best examples) provides some more thoughtful discussion regarding how to get the most interesting effects (look at Craig Magee's stuff toward the bottom...very good).

Eric Milner uses cross processing currently to produce subtly striking motion picture stills...perhaps not as wild and wooly as what most people expect, but still very effective for commercial work and distinctive (look at the color images in the "Faces" section). The effects of cross processing can still be seen in numerous realms; the other day, I saw a Dr. Pepper commercial with Smokey Robinson which clearly employed a color palette that evoked cross processing...in particular, some odd but interesting greens, which provided an appropriately urban and contemporary mood.

One of my very first crossprocessed images.

From a technique standpoint, the experience of most people (and I'd agree with them) is that slide film intended for crossprocessing should be shot and exposed at its rated speed (as opposed to the recommendation by some that it should be overexposed), and that tungsten film produces the most interesting results (something I haven't explored much yet). Note that "best results", though, assumes you want skin tones and colors to vary controllably...I admit that in the past I've pursued more extreme results because of their unpredictability (and I'm admittedly weird in that I actually *like* the cyan cast produced, and have actually told labs *not* to color correct too much).

A more basic point, which should apply well to both extreme dabblers and more cautious types, is that for portraits, cross processing's tendency to blow highlights works really well with caucasian skin...somewhat similar to the recommendation in black and white to overexpose skin tones by 1 to 2 stops. (Of course, if you want a flatter, more documentary style look for your subjects, cross processing is the last thing you want)

Difficult scan, but the skin tones on the print reproduced nicely for this subject.

I alluded to the controversy over Photoshop filters/actions designed to mimic cross-processing, but the irony of any outrage over this approach is that, within the film world, cross processing itself has been looked down on by some for the same reasons...that it's a push-button approach that's too easy and unsubtle. You can make your own judgements, but here's a more thoughtful digital explanation of how to do things in Photoshop, with some excellent visual examples. And whether anyone likes it or not, more and more film is being discontinued, and ironically, the films that remain keep getting better, but as a result, it's been reported that it's harder to get the really desirably crazy effects one used to get from older emulsions.

Finally, I looked around the Web for some cool and random examples of cross processing from the more mischevious corners of the photography community, namely the Lomo/Holga/other random cameras crowd, but there was surprisingly little. Here are a couple of interesting Lomo shots, but in the case of the plastic cameras, it appears that the random distortion and light leaks they get from their cameras produce color tweaks with enough pizazz for them.

Finally, this all begs for a broader discussion of just what lengths people will go to to get crazy/distorted/"artistic" effects from their photography. One of the bigger laughs I got was from this thread on using expired film for distortion effects...lot of interesting tips worth exploring, but the showstopper post for me was this one:

"Think of all the things your not suposed to do with film and try them. I.e. leave it on the back window shelf of a car for a number of weeks, or put it on a radiator so it gets acelerated aging from the high temperature. Leave it in your pants pocket after exposure and wash the pants. This gave me great bubbled effects where the emulsion was atacked by the detergent. Leave it in a biscuit tin with an open container of hydrogen peroxide beside it posibly even at an elevated temperature. Finnaly get a gas hypering kit from luminos and over hyper the film. This should bring up the base fog level to the point where the images will only barely be seen if done long enough."