Cross-processing digitally

Emulate a film technique much loved by fashion photographers

Photographers shooting film weren’t afraid to abuse their products in the pursuit of creativity through a different look. Popular techniques included using outdated film and cross-processing, where a colour film was developed in chemistry not designed for it. The resulting weird and wonderful colour palette was not to everyone’s taste but for fashion and creative people photographers, it was a popular technique.

You can still enjoy this technique if you have a film camera, so try putting colour print film (C-41 process) through slide film chemistry (E-6 process) or vice versa. Do some tests with different films, especially with exposure before an important shoot because there’s usually a significant speed loss. If you give this technique a try, it is important to make sure that you tell the processing lab what you want, otherwise the film will go through the chemistry that it was designed for. You might have to pay extra for the privilege too. Get it right, though, and you can enjoy vivid colours, burnt-out highlights and interesting shadows.

Cross-processing can be done in editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo and DxO PhotoLab quite easily and of course you can work non-destructively.

Get as adventurous as you want with colours, grain and contrast and if it all goes wrong just start again!

ADJUST CURVES FOR CREATIVE COLOURS

1 Prepare the image