Classical Cross Process

Jul 1, 2009 by d0rr    3 Comments    Posted under: Photography

I have written up this short tutorial to show how to achieve classical cross-processed look on a JPEG photo, using Adobe Photoshop. The main objective is to turn a normal daily life photo into vintage-feel in a few steps, without the need to work with RAW files.

For your information, cross-processing is the name given to the practice of developing films in the wrong type of chemistry, resulting in strange color casts but at the same time adding impact onto photo. This can be easily done on digital photographs, especially when you get to see the result immediately.

Take any JPEG photo you have in your photo library to start with.

Select Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Curves

Select Red from the Channel drop-down list and move the curve into the “S” shape shown below.

Select Green from the Channel drop-down list and move the curve into the “S” shape (similar to previous step) shown below.

Select Blue from the Channel drop-down list. This time, move the curve into the “S” shape in the reversed way, as shown below.

The following steps are optional, depending on the original photo and what you would want to achieve in the result photo.

You may want to cast further more blue on the shadows and midtones to increase the impact of the photo.

Select Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color

Select your choice of color as “Blue”, and Opacity around “20%”, with mode changed to “Color”.

Click OK and choose the precise tone you want to add on the color picker that appears next.

On the other hand, you may also decrease the brightness and contrast of the photo, depending on your taste and instinct.

Select Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast

Remember that this tutorial only serve as a guideline on how to achieve the final effect. Depending on your personal preference and judgment, varies the settings and test with different levels of changes to see the effect yourself.

The following was what I achieved, and that I thought it suited what I had in mind at the first place.

In fact, there are no right or wrong in photography art.

Have fun!

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