Posts Tagged ‘cross processing’
Photoblog – A Bird's Eye View
This is one of those great moments-in-time shots. I turned round and notied a Seagull sat on a CCTV camera. They both appeared to be looking down at us.
Birds Eye View – Matt Preston
From the angle both the Seagull and camera seem quite powerful. I think most would agree the Seagull wins when it comes to who has the greatest view.
I added a cross-processing effect to increase the gritty urban theme and a very heavy vignetting effect around the edges to make it feel as though we too were watching them. An almost telescope like appeal to it.
As ever your thoughts and comments are welcome. Have your say.
Photoblog – Shadow Play
I was walking along the promenade overlooking the public basketball court when i noticed the long shadows. They were mesmerising. Darting from one place to the next, forming new shapes as they cross each other.
Shadow Play – Matt Preston
I’m not really into Basketball, I have nothing against it. But my indifference to the sport led me to those shadows. It’s a rather unusual composition for me. The original had much more of the players in it but i cropped it to bring the emphasis on the shadows. They really draw your eyes in to them.
You thoughts and comments are always welcome.
Cross Processing Digital Photographs
Back in the days before Digital photography there were two methods of processing your photographs. Negatives and Transparencies. These two formats were created using different developing and fixing chemicals. Both had their merits but photographers soon discovered that if you processed a negative film in the chemicals made for transparencies you ended up with a rather eye catching effect on your images.
Day Dreaming – Matt Preston
Skin tones are more pale, dark areas have a strong blue tint and the image has a higher contrast. It gives the image more punch, often a more surreal look. Compare the above to the version below without cross-processing and you’ll see what i mean.
Cross processing – Digital style!
You can of course replicate this effect digitally so you too can apply it to some of your digital photographs. It’s pretty simple. You can do it in Aperture 2, Lightroom, Photoshop and any other photo editing software where you can modify the “Levels”. If in doubt look it up in the help section of your software.
The premise is simple. You are either increasing or decreasing amounts of red, green and blue from your image. The range of each of those colours, from dark to light can be fine tuned so that you’re adding blue to dark tones and green to light tones, etc. There are a few ways to do this. I personally use the Levels tool to set 5 points to the following settings on each colour.
You can then set these levels as a preset so you can apply them to images in the future. If you’re using Adobe Lightroom then someone has already created these presets for you! You can download it here.
Curves
If you’re using Photoshop or another editing tool or maybe you can’t set the Levels at 5 positions (some only allow 3) then you can always create the cross-processing effect with Curves. They work in much the same way as levels but connect your entire range from highs to lows with a line. You can bend the line to increase and decrease contrast, brightness and tones.
Select just the red from the drop down and drag the top right of the curve to the left. Create two points on the curve so that it forms an S. This will darken the shadows and brighten the highlights.
Select the green channel and create a shallow S curve. This will increas the contrast in the highlights.
Now Select the Blue channel and drag the curve’s top-right point down a little, just enough to remove some blue from highlights. Drag the curve’s bottom-right point up a little, this will add more blue to the shadows.
Save your settings
Be sure to save your settings if your software gives you that option. Then in future you can quickly apply them to any images you have.
Experiment
These settings are the be all and end all of cross processing. You can adjust the greens and the blues especially, have a play around and see what works best on your photo. You can also add a yellow tint to your images for a more authentic cross-processing effect but personally I find it a little too much.
While it really compliments some photos, especially portraits, it doesn’t work on every photo.
For more examples of cross-processing visit my Flickr Photostream.
As ever your thoughts and comments are welcome. If you’ve tried cross processing I’d love to see your work so post a link. If you have any advice or experiences with cross processing be sure to let us know.
Shooting the Brunette
I recently had the pleasure of a photoshoot with a local model. Thanks to websites like modelmayhem.com it’s now possible for wannabe photographers and wannabe models to contact each other and work together, often for free.
The shoot took place on Brighton Beach and surrounding areas. Always a great backdrop and it’s nice to finally be taking photos on the beach that aren’t all about the piers and other pebbly beach paraphernalia.
This was one of the first real chances to get to grips with my new DSLR, the Canon 5D Mark ii. An amazing camera. I’ll do a full review of it in a few weeks time.
Gentle Breeze – Matt Preston
My Beach – Matt Preston
Lifting Me Up – Matt Preston
In The Blue Corner – Matt Preston
I’m loving the Cross-Processing look at the moment. A technique usually applied to film but can be simulated quite easily in software. I’ll let you know how in another blog soon!
There’s loads more from this shoot in my Flickr Account. Check out the full day’s shoot here.
I’d love to hear your comments, good or bad so feel free to have your say!