Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers

168 Digital Darkroom

Cross Processing

Cross Processing

Back in the days of film, cross processing meant to pro-

cess film (or photo paper) using chemistry intended

for another type of film or paper. For example, a typi-

c

al cross-processing gambit was to process Ektachrome

using Kodacolor’s C41 chemistry rather than the E6

chemical process intended for Ektachrome. This could

be done backwards as well, processing Kodacolor in

Ektachrome’s intended E6 bath.

Part of the point (and pleasure) of analog cross pro-

ces

sing was that you never really knew what you were

going to get.

Digital cross processing is not really cross processing

at all in any logically rigorous sense. Rather, the idea is

to come up with color and light variations that you can

layer onto your original photo and apply using blend

-

in

g modes (see sidebar, page 164). So the key elements

of an effective approach to digital cross processing are:

n

Experiment a great deal. The point of cross process-

ing is to come up with versions that are both differ-

en

t and unexpected.

n

Use mechanisms that produce a great deal of variety.

You don’t have to use everything you come up with,

but if you have enough versions to choose from,

something may in fact make an interesting enhance

-

m

ent to your photo.

Within Photoshop, the Variations command opens a

window that shows thumbnails, each thumbnail rep

-

r

esenting an exp ...